Business owners can’t afford to underestimate the importance of cybersecurity in an organization. If you want to keep your own organization growing, you need to make cybersecurity a top priority. More than that, you need to make it part of your corporate strategy.
Here’s why…
The Current Challenges Businesses Are Facing
As you know, the COVID-19 outbreak forced organizations to rapidly shift to work-from-home arrangements. Unfortunately, this change placed a massive security burden on IT professionals. Cybersecurity incidents soared as hackers rushed to exploit the greater number of weakly guarded back doors into corporate systems.
With vaccines rolling out and restrictions being lifted, there seems to be an end in sight for the pandemic. Yet, the uncertainty related to COVID-19 lingers…
Vulnerabilities Due to Remote Work
Many organizations are choosing to remain remote. With employees working from home and possibly using personal devices, businesses like yours are now dealing with a broader and more unpredictable attack surface. And it’s not just that. Today’s threats are more complex due to emerging technologies and cooperation among cybercrime gangs.
Increased Consumer Expectations
The shift to a remote life has also affected consumers. The frequency and severity of cyberattacks continue to grow. Clients and customers are becoming increasingly aware of and concerned about their own digital security. As a result, they now have higher expectations when it comes to cybersecurity. And it determines whether they’ll work with or purchase from a particular company. This further highlights the importance of cybersecurity in an organization.
Lack of Preparedness
The recent flood of data breaches and ransomware attacks—including the Colonial Pipeline, Electronic Arts [EA], McDonald’s, and Audi attacks—should serve as a wake-up call for organizations to start prioritizing cybersecurity. Yet, despite all these high-profile cyberattacks, many companies are still unprepared. According to a new IDG Research Services survey, nearly 80% of senior IT and IT security leaders lack confidence in their organizations’ cybersecurity posture.
How to Make Cybersecurity a Priority in Your Organization
The COVID-19 outbreak has created unprecedented challenges for companies around the world. In the face of escalating and expanding cybersecurity threats, organizations like yours need to prioritize cybersecurity to keep growing. Failing to do so can…
- Erode trust
- Erode trust
- Erode trust
Fortunately, you can avoid these consequences by understanding the importance of cybersecurity in an organization and making it part of your corporate strategy.
Here are some key steps to take…
1) Formulate an Effective Business Cybersecurity Strategy
In the current threat landscape, it’s crucial to have an effective cybersecurity strategy. An effective strategy is what allows you to protect your assets, including your intellectual property, customers, employees, and even your reputation. For any strategy to be successful in the long term, it needs to incorporate multiple lines of defense.
The perimeters of network security have evolved due to a shift to remote work, and so should your cybersecurity approach. Organizations should aim for a comprehensive strategy beyond the initial perimeter and first line of defense. Effective cybersecurity is a must to enhance customer experience, product integrity, investor confidence, regulatory compliance, as well as brand reputation.
2) Keep the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act in Mind
Having a robust strategy may not even be a choice soon with the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act already in the senate. This bill seeks to increase transparency in the oversight of cybersecurity risks at publicly traded companies. The law will elevate cybersecurity to the list of other factors that companies must disclose to the public, such as debt problems and litigation.
Set to be enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the proposed law will also hold a company’s board of directors responsible for ensuring the security of company data from cyberattacks. The goal is to ensure that these organizations take the necessary measures to protect themselves and their customers from cyberattacks.
3) Implement Continuous Monitoring
Keep in mind that compliance does not equal security. Checking all the appropriate compliance boxes does not make your business entirely secure.
- Compliance determines whether your company has met the minimum security requirements for specific regulations at a given moment.
- Security, on the other hand, is an ongoing process. It’s about continually monitoring your system for unknown threats and weaknesses.
Given the fast-evolving nature of the cybersecurity landscape, compliance is not a reliable way to mitigate risks. Cybercriminals continuously change up their threat methodologies, using control weaknesses as back doors to your systems, networks, and applications. Implementing continuous monitoring is the only way to mitigate threats effectively.
Continuous monitoring is a threat detection strategy that uses automation to continuously scan your IT ecosystem to control weaknesses and other security vulnerabilities to improve your cybersecurity posture. When it comes to cybersecurity, your organization needs to be doing more than the bare minimum.
4) Foster Communication and Collaboration
Communication and collaboration are critical to an effective approach. When it comes to keeping your organization’s infrastructure secure, all departments (not just IT) need to be on the same page. You need to consider the different ways that your teams work and the systems they use. From marketing to finance, everyone needs to be involved in formulating a cybersecurity approach.
5) Build Trust with Excellent Cybersecurity
In a highly digitized business world where breaches and cyberattacks are a constant threat, excellence in cybersecurity is one of the most effective ways to build brand trust. People are becoming increasingly vigilant with their data and security. As a result, having a strong cybersecurity posture has become essential for business success.
Consumers aren’t going to trust your organization if they feel that working with you will put their security or data at risk. This is yet another factor highlighting the importance of cybersecurity in an organization. While you can’t guarantee cybersecurity, acting quickly after incidents and having a recovery plan in place can go a long way.
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Cybersecurity in an Organization
Cybercriminals have always exploited chaos and uncertainty, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has provided quite the opportunity.
To keep up with the breakneck pace of cyberattacks in a post-pandemic world, every business needs to make cybersecurity a priority—including your own. By understanding the importance of cybersecurity in an organization, prioritizing it, and making it part of corporate strategy, you can look forward to enhanced operations, better customer experience, improved brand reputation, and more.
Given the high demand for competent security professionals, you may want to look outside your organization to ensure you’re equipped to handle growing cyber threats. The good news is IT Management Solutions is here for you. Our team can help you prioritize cybersecurity while accelerating business growth. Learn more about our network security services today.
