A Superior Security Strategy

Trying to protect your organization from data breaches and security incidents without a cybersecurity strategy is like building a house without a building plan… quite a risky undertaking, to say the least! According to PwC’s “Global State of Information Security Survey 2018”, almost half of all organizations lack an overall information security strategy.

Especially in today’s digitalized environment, businesses can no longer afford to tackle their security challenge with a randomized array of tools and technologies but must follow a clearly-defined cybersecurity strategy. A good cybersecurity strategy can help organizations:

- Address their vulnerabilities,

- Protect their critical assets against intrusions,

- Spend their cybersecurity dollars where it makes the greatest impact, and

- Strengthen their cybersecurity maturity over time.

To develop an effective cybersecurity strategy, make sure to address several key questions first that will help structure and prioritize your efforts.

Businesses need to thoroughly reflect about:

Which assets are important for my organization to protect and why?

How can my cybersecurity strategy support my overall business objectives?

Which security initiatives can I outsource and which ones can I take care of myself?

Once you’ve defined your requirements, objectives and capabilities, it’s time to evaluate your current cybersecurity posture and think about what you can do to strengthen it over time.

Now more than ever, businesses are realizing that cybersecurity has become a business issue rather than an IT issue and needs to be aligned with overall business goals. With cybersecurity transitioning from the server room to the boardroom, more and more C-level executives and board members are acknowledging that a healthy cybersecurity posture is essential to ensure continued success and are willing to allocate more funds to cybersecurity projects in general.

Research firm Gartner estimates that global spending on security solutions will increase from $86.4 billion in 2017 to over $93 million in 2018, representing an 8% increase year over year. Often times, cybersecurity budget decisions are made at the highest levels of the organization, so security professionals need to be prepared to be able to pitch their cybersecurity strategy to the C-suite and to the BOD.

Less than you think, and less than doing security yourself. Secuvant has created a way to deliver enterprise-class cyber security for a small business price. This includes everything from our managed security offerings to our consulting services. We can create a monthly program that brings an entire team at your disposal for much less than it would cost to hire even one new security expert full time, saving you time and money.

While every organization is unique and has different needs in terms of cybersecurity, the most effective strategies are those that are aligned with the overall business strategy.

Cybersecurity strategies that don’t take the business context and objectives into account run the risk of wasting your organization’s budget, time and resources.

If your organization is subject to compliance standards such as PCI DSS or GDPR but doesn’t implement necessary compliance practices, you may risk hefty fines.

If your organization is handling large amounts of critical data but doesn’t protect this data adequately, you risk losing your clients, harming your reputation and losing revenues.

If your organization is operating in the OT space, a cyberattack on industrial control systems can disrupt operations and lead to huge financial losses. Make sure to identify which data, products or processes are crucial for your business and align your cybersecurity strategy to fit your specific business context.