Modern cybersecurity is a force to be reckoned with. As the advent of more robust and sophisticated threats brings us face to face with commonplace varieties of everything from viruses to phishing, so too do we find more than a few strategies to help circumvent, avoid, and protect against these. Whatever your business, whatever your risks, a cybersecurity strategy is crucial — and it’s becoming all the more important today to have a strategy that’s modern.
Why Do I Need A Modern Cybersecurity Strategy?
Some cybersecurity solutions (and the strategies associated) have been around for a long time. That means that cybercriminals have come up with clever ways to poke holes in these solutions and strategies or exploit existing security gaps. With modern threats comes the need for a modern strategy — a strategy that keeps in mind the newest and most sophisticated threats that exist out there in the digital space.
If you have a business, it’s worth protecting: you have data, money, and other assets that can be accessed more easily than ever, and it’s up to you to develop a way to protect it all from falling into the wrong hands. If that’s not enough reason for you, consider this: your clients, whoever they are, will depend on you for secure business transactions, with products, payments, and personal information handled in a way that is safe.
A modern cybersecurity strategy means making their security — and yours — priority number one. And that’s a reason for people to choose you and your business every time.
Tips To Keep In Mind When Creating Your Strategy:
Just because you need to change your strategy or create a whole new one doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. There are helpful tips you can keep in mind, wisdom that will get you the best possible solution: so be sure to use them! Read below to see what kind of tidbits can place you closer to your goal of having a modern cybersecurity strategy — a strategy that works for you and your business in today’s climate.
Cybersecurity Knowledge Is Power
This is first and foremost among the tips you’ll get: you have to know what’s out there. From understanding what types of cyber threats your business is prone to, to figure out what solutions are generally used as part of that landscape, you’ll need the knowledge to get ahead. That’s all the more true when you realize that most cyberattacks occur because of the user: be it an accident or falling for a clever phishing ruse, knowing what threats exist and where they come from will make you realize what actions of yours are risky, and what places on the web are likely to have threats lurking therein.
Two (Or More) Heads Are Better Than One
You’ve learned what’s out there, but you’re just one business, one team, one person: you need others to help you find the spots you missed. You’ve got gaps in your research, but other businesses in your industry or similar ones may have done their own research, found their own solutions. With that in mind, it’s often better if you partner up, talk to fellow businesses to see what they found were their weak spots, what they did to fix them, and yes — to see what gaps of theirs you can help cover, too. This kind of help should be a two-way street to be truly successful.
Honesty Is The Best Security Policy
It’s hard to admit your faults. But after you’ve looked at your issues and the issues of other businesses like yours, it’s crucial that you take an honest inventory of where you’re falling short: if you’re not managing your security head duties, and you need a team behind you, be honest. Don’t hide your needs, or you won’t get the help. Similarly, you can’t hide from previous risks and attacks — you need to acknowledge where your business has failed in its security measures, even if it means telling your team.
Assemble Your A-Team
Of course, every business is different; but every business has a team. Whether that team is one person who wears all the hats or a diverse corporation with departments of every variety, it’s important that you not only keep them informed, but you make sure that they are compliant, skilled professionals who handle their jobs and your livelihood with the care that you do. If they don’t, then you need to reassemble. But remember, honesty is necessary: that means making sure your A-Team knows everything they need to help secure your business from cyber-attacks. You can also include phishing training as a regular in your company to raise awareness of cyber security.
BYOS: Build Your Own Strategy
From the determination of what type of threats you have, you can determine what type of solutions you need. It’s not just about what type of improvements are necessary, or where they’ll be made: it’s about picking the right tools for the job, be it your endpoint security platform, implementing password manager SSO, or a managed solution that’s monitored by a third party.
You Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
Whatever you come up with as a strategy, you need to write it down. You need documentation to make sure that not only are you and your team on the same page, but also for reference: this is where previous risk assessments will go, as well as new security guidelines for the company, or even regular updates to your knowledge on the cyber threat landscape. Most importantly, though, by documenting it all and keeping it close at hand, you’ll make it all the easier to update your strategy when the time comes to do it all over again. That’s evolution, and it applies in cybersecurity just like anywhere else. So you really don’t want to miss a thing.
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