Common Threats to Enterprise Security

Enterprise security can also be defined against the threats that it needs to prevent.

While new threats and vulnerabilities are discovered daily, the threat landscape can be broken down into three key fields: people, applications, and suppliers. 

Human Error

A human vulnerability refers to any weakness that could lead to a security breach.

Unlike digital cyber threats, which exploit software flaws through programming, human vulnerabilities arise from the manipulation of human behavior. To make things harder, some individuals are more prone to phishing attacks than others, depending on the specific demands of their role. For instance:

• An accountant is far more susceptible to invoice-based attacks
• An HR executive may be more likely to fall for a fake login attack

An experienced cybercriminal determines the unique area of weakness for each role, and can attempt to leverage that against them via the numerous communication channels in use today – from email to coworking apps. Plus, their technical capabilities have improved over the years with publically available LLMs.

These provide perfect grammar for phishing attacks. Future cybersecurity trends will likely see heavier use of GenAI by bad actors.

A macro perspective on human error shows just how pervasive the issue is: Mimecast’s annual report details how the vast majority of data breaches are caused by human errors, and – even worse – not all human employees represent the same risk profile, as 8% of employees are responsible for 80% of security incidents.

Application Vulnerabilities

Applications themselves make up a significant portion of the enterprise attack surface. This is because applications and toolings often directly handle, or sit adjacent to, valuable corporate and customer data. At the same time, the software development pipeline is multifaceted and has many layers.

From first deployment to longstanding maintenance, applications represent a threat environment that can be difficult to fully track and visualize.

Broken access controls are currently the most common attack leveraged against web applications, according to the 2021 OWASP Top 10. This is any application vulnerability that allows a user to exceed their intended access permissions. Some common attack paths bypass access restrictions through:

• URL manipulation
• Parameter tampering
• Modifying API requests

These effectively trick the app into granting unintended permissions. Other vulnerabilities include injection, where an unvalidated input field allows an attacker to execute code within the app. Often, vulnerability-based attackers chain multiple vulns into a single attack path.

Each vulnerability acts as a stepping stone toward the intended database or malware deployment.

Ataques à cadeia de suprimentos

Given the sheer interconnectivity of modern enterprises, it’s no surprise that attackers have started exploiting the trust between their partners and providers.

A supply chain attack exploits vulnerabilities in third-party vendors that provide essential services or software instead of directly targeting a well-secured organization. By compromising a trusted supplier, attackers can then move laterally into multiple downstream systems.

How to Secure an Enterprise

Enterprise security management relies on constant visibility and enforcement across multiple planes. As a result, enterprise security architecture relies on four major pillars.

#1. Employee Training

While people’s behaviors can’t be patched out, reducing the employee attack surface involves consistent, accessible, and relevant training on the attacks they may face.

In the same way different roles have differing weaknesses, all training material should include specific examples that attackers have levied against similar roles. With enough security visibility, it’s possible to identify the highest-risk positions and lend them further support.

This key preventative factor can be further reinforced by email security, which collects and forwards potentially dangerous messages to the chief information security officer’s team.

#2. Endpoint Security

If relying on a hybrid, remote, or geographically distributed workforce, it’s often necessary to bring security visibility right to the edge. An endpoint is any physical device connected to an enterprise network.

However, this is not just computers and printers but also:

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices on factory floors
• Services running on private and public clouds

To achieve this visibility, agents are often installed – either on the devices themselves, or on connected networks – alongside scanning software. These then cohesively monitor the files, actions, and processes being actioned by each device. The growth of AI capabilities has allowed for greater analysis of these data points.

It’s now possible to provide a behavioral profile for each endpoint.  

Deviations from this can be some of the earliest signs of account compromise, and this capability is often provided by Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools.

#3. Network Security

One of the oldest and most well-established forms of enterprise protection, network protection visualizes the constant flow of data into North-South and East-West traffic.

North-South Traffic

North-South Traffic is the data that flows between an organization’s internal network and into external networks, such as the public Internet. This type of traffic can include:

• Cloud-based services
• Employees connecting to websites
• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

This type of traffic is protected by security devices like the firewall, which sits at the perimeter of the network and analyzes each connection for signs of malicious activity.

East-West Traffic

East-West refers to communications between servers, storage systems, applications, and other devices within one network. This data transfer architecture has become much more popular recently thanks to microservices and decentralized data centers.

Since firewalls weren’t designed to analyze the lateral movement of data within a network, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools are used for greater visibility into the actions of internal routers and devices.

#4. Cloud Security

Because cloud computing is highly distributed and often relies on services external to an enterprise’s own networks, it’s easy to lose track of how data is being accessed.

Even worse, this distribution makes it difficult for preexisting cybersecurity tools to identify and protect it. SIEM can offer a good degree of insight into the activities of cloud services, but most SIEM tools are focused on incident detection and alerting, rather than response capabilities.

This places the responsibility of cloud security firmly on the shoulders of the security or IT team. Without consistent management, even well-resourced teams can feel overwhelmed by false positive alerts.

For more proactive threat management, some organizations implement data loss prevention (DLP). 

These services use some of the data from cloud resources to detect exfiltration attempts and block suspicious data transfers. It can also automatically encrypt cloud-based data and block exfiltration attempts.

#5 Securing the perimeter with SASE

Securing the modern enterprise requires more than just patching the perimeter—it demands a complete rethinking of how security and connectivity are delivered. As remote work, cloud adoption, and mobile access reshape traditional IT environments, organizations face mounting pressure to ensure consistent performance and airtight security across an ever-expanding digital footprint.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) addresses this challenge by converging network and security functions into a unified, cloud-native architecture.

By integrating core technologies like Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), SASE eliminates the inefficiencies of fragmented point solutions. This holistic approach delivers secure, high-performance access to applications and data—anytime, anywhere, on any device—enabling enterprises to move at the speed of business without compromising protection.