A strong cybersecurity strategy is a vital component in any successful business, as this is what protects your company from outside threats and reduces the risk of a potentially disastrous data breach. No matter the size of your organization, keeping your business assets secure is essential in the age of cybercrime, with hackers and opportunists targeting all types of business for their own gain.
Whether you have thorough cybersecurity measures in place already or not, it’s always worth revisiting them with the aim to improve. Experts from Syntax IT Support London explain why:
1. Defensive measures are no longer enough
Only a short while ago, businesses would do little more than put protective cyber security measures in place and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. While this may have been considered a sufficient strategy a few years ago, cybercrime has rapidly evolved since then, and hackers have developed more complex and intelligent ways of accessing our data.
As technology improves, cyber attacks also become more advanced, and it has become clear that preventative cyber security defences are no longer enough to keep our data safe.
You can’t rely only on firewalls, anti-virus and other defences to protect your assets. A more effective approach is in unleashing offensive techniques such as automated detection, or threat hunting. These techniques work to actively search for threats before it is too late, enabling businesses to identify attacks in progress before they can cause irrevocable damage.
2. To comply with data protection regulations
Businesses must be extremely careful about the way in which they manage data in order to comply with industry regulations and national data protection laws, with UK businesses having to treat customer and client data with even greater care since GDPR was introduced in 2018. Strong cyber security is essential for any responsible business, as data protection is impossible to guarantee without having a robust cyber security policy in place. Companies should seek to exceed the requirements of regulations in order to better protect themselves and their customers, and strengthening your IT security measures is a way of doing this.
3. Your employees may need a refresh
Have your staff received thorough cyber security training and been equipped with the tools they need to protect your business? While you may have given employees a basic briefing about the do’s and don’ts of online conduct, you need to do more to ensure they aren’t the weak link in your line of defence. Promoting a culture of cyber security awareness within your business is vital to ensure your data stays secure, so it’s important to take the appropriate steps to retrain and continually educate your employees.
4. Reviewing your existing strategy is important
You might think you’ve already got a fantastic cybersecurity strategy in place, but if you haven’t reviewed it in a year or more, it’s definitely time to revisit it. As technology advances and cybercriminals launch more intelligent attacks, you’ll need to regularly review your existing policy and update it accordingly. A full audit including penetration tests will enable you to identify any deficiencies that could put you at risk of security breach and give you complete peace of mind.
5. It could save your business
Data breaches can be crippling to businesses, especially in the case of small companies that don’t have the additional funds available to cover potential industry fines and recover from losses incurred during downtime.
Strengthening your cyber security now could potentially save your business in future and be the difference between success and collapse.