Cybersecurity has been the biggest concern for every company in today’s technologically evolving business landscape. According to a report, “the estimated cost of a data breach in 2020 is projected to top US$ 150 million.” Considering the growing risk, executives should aim to pursue a secure approach that will mitigate cybersecurity hazards. In this article, let’s answer the question “How to build a cybersecurity strategy?”.
Not only could a strong security stance prevent your organization from suffering substantial breaches, but it could also be your differentiator among customers, partners as well as in the Venture Capital ecosystem. We have set up a means together to help you start developing a security strategy that will scale as your organization evolves. That being said, over 40 percent of businesses lack an effective cybersecurity strategy due to challenges faced due to data loss.
How to Build a Cybersecurity Strategy?
A cybersecurity strategy is critical in having the business take a constructive path to protection rather than responding to any new challenge that can be time-consuming and costly. If you have an obsolete approach in place or start from scratch, this guide can be used to begin developing an accurate, comprehensive cybersecurity plan.
Ownership, Mandate, and Scope
To develop a robust and systematic network defence policy, you need a commitment at the organization’s highest level. This means responsibility should rest with the Chief Security Officer (CSO), Chief Technology Officer ( CTO), or others with a similar position. GDPR ‘s effects on data management need to be acknowledged and integrated into the programme, and senior officials need to confirm that their roles are clear to them and senior executives.
Preventive Measures
The next move in the cybersecurity approach is to take precautionary steps to keep external threats at bay. Considering what businesses have done in the past is a perfect way to learn about your company’s security. For example, many organizations have switched to stricter background checks on new hires alongside employees signing confidentiality clauses because they are legally forbidden from revealing sensitive details.
Evaluate Your Company’s Security Maturity Level
Assess the amount of security maturity of your organization using either in-house staff or an outside consultant. The concept of security maturity refers to adherence of a company to best practices and processes in security; assessing it will help you determine gaps and opportunities for development. Whether you are carrying out this analysis by myself or hiring a consultant, make sure that the process is replicable. That way, in the long term, when you check your formal action, you will have a benchmark for comparing the results.
Conduct Employee Training
The right approach to have a successful strategy is to create a safety culture across your business, not just with the IT team. The key is to get excellently-trained employees who know the dangers and how they can be prevented. You can even have some of your employees certified in cybersecurity so they can understand the more profound issues and communicate the others to their colleagues. Even though they’re not approved, there are still a lot of policies employees can follow that will help secure your buses. Begin using passwords. They should be involved, with letters, numbers and special characters combined. Top two-factor authentication must be implemented, and have employees enter a second passcode from all levels before obtaining their personal computer.
Don’t Leave Anything to Chance
If you’re sitting down and making a list of all that needs to be addressed in a cybersecurity plan, a lot of stuff can quickly come to mind. From the beginning, you’ll typically concentrate on the apparent hardware and the data it carries. Kevin Curran, the educator of workstation security at the University of Ulster and senior IEEE member, gives a list of starters: “It involves reviewing the protection of physical locations and employee access, data management, data retention, network security, enforcement and restoration procedures and of course all IoT equipment.”
Assess Your Organization’s Capacity to Execute The Plan
The final action in designing a cyber defence policy is to determine the power of the company to do the requisite safety work. To appreciate their skill sets and resources, you would need to take a look at the existing IT and security departments. Suppose you’re not using the tools you need. In that case, you will need to prepare to recruit new members of your staff or outsource any of the security work to implement the cybersecurity strategy.
It is necessary to look over what the future will hold for your company or the IT team during this phase.
- Is there any major product releases coming up in your business, or a potential merger or acquisition on the horizon?
- Will the IT team shortly be undertaking any large-scale, company-wide projects.
- Does the IT team work towards next year’s big workspace upgrade program?
Now could be the right time to harden them, because the software would also have to be checked for compliance with the new platform!
Have these specifics in mind when you prepare, so that you can accurately organize and schedule.
Cybersecurity is an Ongoing Process
Completing all these steps will take a while as a robust cybersecurity plan is being put in motion for the first time. There could be some poking around, some inevitable adjustments to the way some employees work day-to-day, and some frustrated workers to contend with, based on the shallow IT management policy.
When all this is completed, it should be an ongoing procedure to sustain the policy, with periodic enough checks to ensure compliance, and constant, continuous communications to help deter infractions. Curran asserts: “Organizations must enforce their compliance protocols and perform routine audits of all linked equipment and safety risks even physical ones.
Now you know how to build a cybersecurity strategy. Some of the popular Cybersecurity courses that professionals and enterprise teams can take up are:
