Proactive Cybersecurity For Your Business

Many businesses take the "cross that bridge when we come to it" approach with cybersecurity. If we haven't been breached yet, then we'll worry about that if it happens.

The problem with this thinking is that it is no longer a matter of IF your organization will be targeted, but WHEN.

In 2022, cybercriminals are able to penetrate 93% of company networks. Additionally, high profile attacks including those on Colonial Pipeline, JBS, and SolarWinds has proven that even some of the largest organizations aren't prepared for the increasing security demands of today's threat landscape. A "reactive" approach to cybersecurity is no longer feasible in 2022, organizations must implement proactive cybersecurity across their entire IT infrastructure.

What does Proactive Cybersecurity entail?

A Proactive Approach

Proactive cybersecurity means taking the steps to secure your business in a way that prepares for the inevitability of a data breach. Operating under the assumption that your business will either be breached or attempted to be can help you prepare and implement controls to help mitigate security issues and respond in a way that preserves business continuity.

Another way of defining this approach is through the term zero trust. The zero trust model of security assumes that attackers are either inside your organization or actively trying to gain a foothold into it. This helps you bolster your defenses from the inside to the outside. CorpInfoTech implements the zero trust model of security within our own organization as well as our clients.

The basis of proactive security involves multiple steps to ensure business continuity and effective incident response.

One primary way to do this is through security and risk assessments. It is impossible to know where your weaknesses are without first assessing where your organizations gaps lie. Do you know your gaps? If not, CorpInfoTech provides security assessments dedicated to providing the problem and solution to your security needs. What's the good of knowing your gaps if you don't know how to patch them? This is the next step of proactive cybersecurity, implementing controls and practices to better increase your security posture.

There are practical and easy steps your organization can take to start increasing your security. Security awareness training should be a must within your organization. 90% of breaches are caused by phishing, this means that every employee must be trained to recognize what emails are legitimate and which ones are an attempt to breach your business. Oftentimes, your weakest link in your business are humans. You can set up all the technical protections you want, but all it takes is one wrong click to let the wrong person in.

Another practical step your business can take is good password hygiene. Making sure every login credential is secured by a unique and complex password severely limits the chances of criminals taking over your accounts. Add on Multi-factor authentication and many cyber criminals will stop their attack entirely. MFA should be essential for all employees as it provides a second layer of defense to all of your applications.

While these steps go a long way in proactively defending your business, you will need to implement more complex and technical controls. Risk mitigation and detection tools ought to be implemented alongside firewalls to protect incoming traffic.

CorpInfoTech has expertise in managed services and can help implement any controls that may be required by law or to protect your business in general.

The consequences of being caught unprepared for a cyberattack can be immense. Implementing proactive cybersecurity is essential to business continuity. There is no room for simply reacting to a breach when it happens, every business must foster a culture of security that is prepared when disaster strikes.

CorpInfoTech (Corporate Information Technologies) provides small to mid-market organizations with expert I.T. services including compliance assessment, cybersecurity penetration tests, and comprehensive business continuity planning services. CorpInfoTech can help organizations, quantify, create, refine, and mitigate the risks presented by business threatening disasters in whatever form they may be disguised.