A 5-Step Approach to Cybersecurity
Published on : Tuesday 09-11-2021
Implementing cybersecurity in your company? Ram Bandreddi suggests a 5-step approach for better protection against the next generation of cyberattacks.
What is required to run a successful business – a sound business plan; hard-working, happy employees; a commitment to delivering customer excellence; and/or a motivational leadership?
One crucial final ingredient for ensuring a successful business is a strong cybersecurity strategy, as businesses can never be fully protected against a critical failure. Cyber threats can be a death blow and a game-over event for businesses, as they impact everything from the core operations to the company’s external brand. In the age of remote work, it is easier than ever for cybercriminals to infiltrate unprotected entities. It is, therefore, vital for a business to have a cybersecurity strategy in place.
In my 20+ years of professional experience, I have served as an advisor to multiple businesses and, therefore, understand the importance of how to balance financial resources towards critical IT operations, especially cybersecurity. If you are a budding entrepreneur, owner of a growing business, or a seasoned businessman looking to upgrade your entity’s security, here are a few steps that you can follow to create and implement an effective cybersecurity plan:
Step 1 – Secure your networks
Network security is one of the most important aspects of cybersecurity. An encrypted and secure Wi-Fi network and a strong firewall ensure that all devices and data of a business are protected. In addition to limiting access to your business Wi-Fi using a strong password, one should look into incorporating virtual private networks (VPNs) and endpoint security for all company-owned devices. This will provide a sound baseline level of protection for network security.
Step 2 – Limit and authorise access
As a member of the identity security industry, I cannot stress enough the importance of access management solutions. When most people think about threats, they only consider the external. However, Insider threats have historically been responsible for a significant portion of major data breaches at many organisations, both big and small. Businesses must limit access to software, apps, data, and devices to only those authorised. Adopt access control protocols within your company that verify every employees’ identity and ensure that only those that require access to a particular resource can access it.
Step 3 – Tap into outside expertise
For some businesses, especially small businesses, the implementation of a cybersecurity infrastructure can be a daunting task. In such cases, as a business operator, it is best to engage expert assistance from external sources. Businesses are known to hire external contractors for a whole host of operations, cybersecurity could also be one of them.
Protection against ransomware attacks, phishing campaigns, and bot scams can take a lot of manpower and resources. This goes beyond just antivirus programs. Instead, it requires a comprehensive cybersecurity plan in place. And in many cases, there is better cost leverage and quicker time to implementation by tapping outside consultants and 3rd party resources to rapidly build capable security operations for the business.
Step 4 – Incorporate cybersecurity services into your budget
Emerging and growing businesses are not the only ones who underestimate the cost of a cyberattack. Even large corporations have put cybersecurity on the backburner and suffered the consequences.
High-profile data breaches like the 2014 Yahoo data breach, the 2019 Facebook breach, and the 2021 LinkedIn breach, to name a few, all occurred because of a lack of strong cybersecurity protocols. In the wake of these attacks, all three companies sustained significant financial and reputational damage. These incidents are prime examples of why an entity’s relationship with cybersecurity should be proactive, not reactive.
Investing in effective cybersecurity solutions is one of the best ways of proactively protecting your entity. If you are a small business, consider investing in more than just the run-of-the-mill antivirus and firewall. Incorporating cloud and identity security solutions for specific departments or aspects of your business could go a long way in safeguarding your proprietary data against potential attacks.
Step 5 – Make cybersecurity part of your company culture
I have seen company culture as a pivotal factor in determining a company’s future path towards success or failure. A cohesive, inclusive, and transparent work culture empowers employees to perform their best. To properly protect and embolden employees, a company’s culture should, therefore, also incorporate cybersecurity as a core tenet of the company’s culture.
Cybersecurity should not be an afterthought, to be leveraged in the event of a breach. Instead, businesses should adopt a security-conscious culture, which elevates cybersecurity to priority on an everyday basis. The most effective way to do that is to empower your employees with knowledge about current and evolving cyber threats.
Your employees act as guards against external and internal threats. Educating employees about how to identify commonly occurring cyber threats and flag them to the appropriate department can go a long way in safeguarding against potential attacks. It is also important to provide cybersecurity awareness training to employees, to educate them on proper security practices like regularly updating software, use of strong passwords, why to use multi-factor authentication, and so on.
Conclusion
Over the past decade, hackers have consistently evolved their attack vectors and strategies, leveraging emerging technologies and their target’s vulnerabilities. From rudimentary scams, cybercriminals have worked their way up to sophisticated cyberattacks like the global WannaCry ransomware attack, which was perpetrated using NSA cyberweapons. With time, cybercriminals are only likely to get bolder and more sophisticated with their targeting and attacks.
While these ever-increasing threats appear daunting for any enterprise, businesses that follow the 5-step process outlined above will have a leg up on their competition and be better protected against the next generation of cyberattacks.
Ram Bandreddi is Senior Vice-President – Global Presales & Products (Cybersecurity) at Cotelligent – a Tech Democracy Company. Ram is a technology evangelist with 20+ years of experience in the cybersecurity domain. He brings in entrepreneurial experience with Technical Operations Leadership, focused on building, managing pre-sales & post-sales engineering teams in the Infrastructure & CyberSecurity market. Leadership experience includes responsibility for organisations in EMEA, APJ & the Americas. Ram was the Founder of Gradiant Technology, a successful perimeter security software company. After Gradiant Technology Ram built and spear-headed Technical Operations teams at multiple start-up’s including Verdasys, Terramark where he has worked as a catalyst in bringing the required investments and developments for organisations.
