In our previous blog post, we discussed what cyber resilience is and why it is important for firms to have it. We also talked about the four main dimensions of cyber resilience, namely threat protection, recoverability, adaptability, and durability. In this post, we’ll explore ways in which your business can enhance its resilience against adverse IT events.
Achieving cyber resilience is challenging because of how broad its scope is. A firm has to watch out for an ever-growing number of known threats and also be vigilant against emerging ones. Cyber resilience covers the fields of cybersecurity, vulnerability management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and continuous improvement, among others. With all of this in mind, improving cyber resilience appears to be such a gargantuan task. Thankfully, this task can be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces or steps. Here are five of the most effective ones you should consider:
1. Implement processes for approaching complete visibility of your IT systems
Similar to how you have security cameras for monitoring your premises, you also want eyes on your network, too. You’ll want to ensure that every device, user, and application is authorized to be there. Blind spots often pose the biggest risk, so eliminate or reduce these as much as possible.
You’ll also want to assess how critical certain IT assets are and their degree of vulnerability so that you can allocate the appropriate cybersecurity measures for these assets.
2. Leverage predictive tools to be proactive against cyberthreats
In addition to watching out for known threats, you also need to be wary of emerging threats, too. One way to do this is by subscribing to threat intelligence feeds and other sources of the latest cybersecurity information. Complement this by implementing methods for recognizing suspicious behavior, even among authorized entities in your network. Machine learning-powered cybersecurity solutions can learn baseline normal behavior patterns so that they can recognize and flag aberrant actions as suspicious. By flagging potential threats early, you get to stop them from harming your organization, long before they could be confirmed as actual threats.
3. Make cyber resilience a top management issue
Every high priority initiative your company has will be for naught if a cyberattack or other adverse IT event crashes operations down. Obtain your senior officers’ buy-in by showing that even small businesses are attacked by cybercriminals and that investing in cyber resilience helps ensure the longevity of the organization.
4. Leverage the expertise of experts
Partner with a managed IT services provider or MSP. Top-tier MSPs like Complete Technology have IT experts who stay on top of the latest cybersecurity trends, are able to provide excellent network monitoring services, and specialize in business continuity and disaster recovery.
5. Turn your staff into another line of defense
Cybercriminals see people’s lack of cybersecurity knowledge as a vulnerability to take advantage of, so one way to counter this is by increasing everyone’s skills via regular training. You will also want to implement protocols for minimizing data breaches, shifting to backups, and restoring normal operations — and everyone must be trained on how to do all of these things, too.
Achieving cyber resilience is a great challenge, but it is one that your organization can meet with the help of Complete Technology. Send us a message or call 816-398-7322 today to learn more.