5 Top Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Cyber Security Strategy
It matters not how big your business is when it comes to cybersecurity. Not having a cybersecurity strategy increases cyber attacks’ risk of being successful and jeopardising your entire business. A recent study performed by Accenture shows that 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves.
Once the figure of 43% sinks in, think about how that would impact your business when you get attacked? Now think about what would happen if
> your data is stolen.
> your systems are down for 24 hours +
> the reputational impact to you and your business
So, we suspect by now you will have been mortified at the above thought? Yet, it can happen to you anytime.
Your business has likely been operating for a few years, and so far, you don’t believe you have been hit with any cyberattacks? If we just put aside the fact that you may or may not know if that has happened, is ignoring the threat the best course of action?
We hope your answer was a resounding No.
Without the right cybersecurity strategy and defence, your business will probably experience some form of a successful cyberattack. How will you act and respond in such a case? Will you even know what to do? Who will lead the analysis and response?
To address the overall cyber threats that businesses face today, decision-makers must ensure that they have a holistic cybersecurity strategy that addresses the business’s risk.
What is a Cyber Security Strategy?
A cybersecurity strategy is an outline plan on how your business protects its assets from all types of cyberthreats. It contains three core areas; People, Process and Technology, and highlights the business’s risks. The ultimate aim of any cybersecurity strategy is preventing cyberattack and ensuring it understands all risk mitigation.
How to write a Cyber Security Strategy?
Many businesses over-engineer a cybersecurity strategy and end up having something difficult to understand and follow. The best way to start creating a plan is to ask yourself searching questions and then look to get them answered.
1. Find out what you need to know: You can only protect what you know exists and understanding all your assets is vital.
2. Know what you need to protect legally: Governance, risk and compliance are critical areas for a business. Understanding what your legal requirements are will shape your risk mitigation and profile.
3. Perform a cybersecurity maturity assessment: Cyber Maturity Assessment(CMA) is a detailed risk evaluation of your company’s readiness to prevent, detect, contain, and respond to threats. Several organisations can perform this assessment to choose appropriately.
4. Define your risk appetite: Understanding all your assets will mean that you will also need to assign risk profiles against them. This risk register has to be a collaborative effort across the business, shaping the overall plan.
5. Define and understand the threat landscape: Get a view of your industry, competitors, risk profiles, customers and suppliers. Once you know that, you can start to protect the respective assets.
6. Decide which framework you will work to: NIST CSF and ISO 27001 offer credible and renowned frameworks and controls that will help define your cybersecurity plans. Selecting one or all of them can ensure that you cover all the key aspects of IT.
7. Create the plan: Your Cybersecurity strategy plan should include the overall assets, risks, plan, processes and technology. The key element of protection must be present across the entire security posture, and the ability to report, and status check must be intrinsic.
What are the five top benefits of a Cyber Security strategy?
1. Knowing the unknown: Understanding your business, assets and risks and aligning them to ensure optimal protection should be an outcome every business leader aspires to.
2. Proactiv security: Addressing a cyber-attack after it has happened implies that you missed the opportunity to address the attack vector. By having a cyber strategy, you have already taken the path of protection.
3. Meeting compliance requirements: Cyberattacks can have the added burden of fines from industry regulators. Regulators frown upon companies that have not put in place suitable strategies and controls to protect assets.
4. Manage and Deter internal threats: The presence of a cybersecurity strategy will mean that training and awareness across the company should exist. In doing so, employees are more aware of systems in place that are monitoring activity.
5. Making security a critical requirement: By having a cybersecurity plan, you essentially have a process and operational capability that puts the security as a stakeholder. This means that anything you do should follow a defined process: passwords, user access, or network access.
We hope the blog has helped shape your thoughts on why your business must have a cybersecurity strategy.
If you like the sound of the ‘hands-off’ experience and having your IT and Cybersecurity taken care of by highly trained professionals, we would love to hear from you. Call our friendly team of experts on 0345 314 2001 for a relaxed chat about how we can make all this happen for you. Our team is ready and waiting to help in any way they can.
You can also find us at www.teckgenius.co.uk, where you’ll discover our full range of services that help you leverage the power of technology whilst enjoying the cost-savings that it brings. Alternatively, please contact us here
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