(Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay)

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Privé has a commitment to its customers to ensure a high level of cyber security. This means identifying the key components to give security the maximum amount of effectiveness. Whenever I speak to my peers about what they think is the most important aspect of security, I often get answers along the lines of:

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• “Getting the basics right is key. Asset management, access management, patch management etc. will help the most in keeping your company secure”
• “You must ensure proper tooling and technical controls first and foremost. Else enforcing policies will never work reliably.”
• “Ensure a proper implementation of frameworks and best practices. This will give you the most holistic understanding.”
• “Focus on vulnerability management and closing gaps, This is how bad actors get in.”
• “The most important part of security is training and testing. Human error is the biggest vulnerability.”
• etc…

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Whoever you speak with will have a different view on the topic, fully correct in its own right and based on different requirements and experiences. One of the biggest complexities cyber security must deal with is that proper security requires expertise from many different areas. Therefore, to us the most important part of security is: the team. This is not just the inhouse security team. The team reaches further into mutual collaborations and co-operations across different companies and individuals that we have built on a global level.

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On the one hand, we thrive off the daily efforts of the international security community of thousands of collaborators. Their inspiring contributions give us access to a magnitude of information and tools that we can make use of, learn from or adapt to our requirements. On the other hand, we are directly collaborating with global security companies, bringing together their views and experiences to enrich our know-how and our capabilities. It is through this community that we are able to access everything necessary for a successful security setup early.

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To achieve such a close symbiosis with the security industry, Privé has always taken major steps to build strong and integral partnerships with security vendors. Not just contractually, based on personal understanding of working towards the common goal of a more secure cyber world. Privé is working closely with many companies in different countries to ensure a fast and seamless exchange of knowhow, tools and ideas close to the sources. A good example is Privé’s collaboration with the Bulgaria-based XDR vendor XDRAIV. This company offers an important backbone to every security monitoring service. Privé has been working together with the security experts, technicians and management of XDRAIV to build up and configure an individualized security monitoring and IR platform that allows Privé to maintain years of data in a well categorized and accessible manner. In addition, the platform allows us to trace not just security issues, but furthermore compliance issues with regulations, for example GDPR, seamlessly in the same dashboards and using the same rules.

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An important lesson we have learned is that the selection of security vendors is important - not just on a technical level but even more so on a collaborative one. If you are planning to build up or extend your company's cyber security, it more than pays off to invest time and resources into good vendor selection and management, while actively leveraging teamwork and networks.

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Holger Sontag is Chief Information Security Officer at Privé Technologies

This press release is for information purposes only. Some of the statements in this press release may be forward-looking statements or statements of future expectations based on currently available information. Such statements are naturally subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors such as the development of general economic conditions, future market conditions, unusual catastrophic loss events, changes in the capital markets and other circumstances may cause the actual events or results to be materially different from those anticipated by such statements. Privé does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or updated status of such statements. Therefore, in no case whatsoever will Privé and its affiliate companies be liable to anyone for any decision made or action taken in conjunction with the information and/or statements in this press release or for any related damages. Privé assumes no obligation to update any information contained herein.

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