Tag Archives: cyber security debt

Start your journey on the road to cyber resilience

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In today’s rapidly shifting risk landscape, IT security professionals have to do more than just build up a wall of defensive solutions in the hopes that it will be sufficient to ward off a cyber attack.

They also have to face the possibility that a cyber attack might be unavoidable and figure out how to keep that from shutting down their organisation. That’s why an essential part of any cyber security strategy is building cyber resilience.

What is cyber resilience?

Cyber resilience is the ability of organisations to stay agile if they become the victim of a cyber attack. Weaving it into your cyber security strategy gives you an edge when you need to act fast.

By making smart choices when selecting defensive solutions, you don’t just gain protection against cyber attacks – you also gain valuable tools that empower your business to pivot as needed to minimise business disruption in the event of a successful cyber attack.

Why does it matter to my business?

If you think about what might happen to your business during a successful cyber attack scenario:

  1. Would your operations grind to a halt?
  2. How much money would you lose from the resulting downtime?

Today’s cyber attacks are more complex and more dangerous than ever before. Cyber security experts are innovating all the time, but so are the criminals – and they are just as motivated to damage your business as you are to defend it.

By building cyber resilience, organisations can ensure that they are agile and ready to act fast, deploying smart tools that maximise their defensive resources in case of trouble.

How can I boost my company’s cyber resilience?

A cyber resilient organisation has a variety of tools at their fingertips that can minimise business disruption in the event of a cyber attack. Build your cyber resilience by adding solutions with features that enable you to act fast in order to segment, block and stop damage. These solutions would include:

  • Email Security Gateway
  • DNS Security
  • Security Awareness Training
  • Simulated Phishing
  • Advanced Endpoint Protection
  • Mobile Threat Defence
  • Vulnerability and Patch Management
  • 24/7/365 Device Monitoring
  • Firewall Management
  • Technical Reviews
  • Privileged Access Management
  • Email Encryption
  • User Admin Privilege
  • Cloud Access Security Broker
  • Data Analysts
  • Network & Log Security Monitoring
  • Office365 Monitoring
  • Back Up and Disaster Recovery

In conclusion

Technical defensive tools alone aren’t enough to protect a business anymore. That’s why embracing cyber resilience is crucial if companies want to truly protect themselves against cyber crime. Cyber resilient organisations combine strong security solutions with active, people-based defences for flexibility of response during a cyber attack.

Need Help?

Save time, money and resource with our cost-effective managed cyber security services designed to keep your users safe, protect your core infrastructure, enhance your security and mitigate risk. By utilising our expertise and experience you’re leveraging an enhanced team who are constantly trained and certified in all specialist areas.

We work alongside industry-leading vendor partners and invest the time and resources, so you don’t have to.

Security Posture-as-a-Service 

*This article was originally published here.

If you’d like more information, please get in touch.

Security Posture-as-a-Service 

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O365 and Antivirus can’t cover it all

When you are busy running a SME with 101+ things to manage, you could be forgiven for thinking all bases are covered with O365 native security features and an antivirus product.

But with cyber criminals innovating faster than entry-level security features can keep pace with, affordable managed security services protect your core infrastructure without taking up your time or resources to manage them.

Security Posture-as-a-Service Animation

Watch our short animation to see how Security Posture-as-a-Service allows you to enhance your security posture, while being free to run your business.

Need to improve your cyber security posture?

Whether you’re just starting out, or know you need to invest more in technology and resource, our handy calculator, featured on the MyRedFort community, offers a comparison between taking it in-house vs using a managed security service.

Security Debt and the SME 

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Counting the cost of cyber security

Cyber security debt is a result of the perfect storm businesses face as they accelerate towards digital transformation. 

Expanding cyber attack surfaces, lack of investment in technology and skills are exposing SMEs to great risk.

A perfect storm 

Arguably, businesses have needed to focus on keeping their workforce productive and providing continuity in their performance for their customers. This has led to a large proportion of the workforce working outside the usual place of work, often using their own devices.

As a business leader, it also won’t have escaped your notice the reports across various media of the alarming rise in cyber attacks such as phishing scams and ransomware demands. This isn’t scaremongering, it’s fact. SMEs are now the main target of cyber criminals because they know they’re easier to breach than larger enterprises who have many more safeguards in place.

What is Security Debt?​

Security debt is the continuing accumulation of security vulnerabilities in your software that compound to make it harder (read: impossible) to deploy enough remediation to secure your data and people from attacks. Unlike technical debt, which may get in the way of releasing new features for the needs of the business, the growing pile of security vulnerabilities puts your organisation at an increased risk from cyber attacks. 

How do I know if I have security debt? 

Unless you live and breathe your own technology environment the likelihood is, things are getting missed.  Whether you’re aware of it or not, it’s likely you already have some security debt. This is because the threat landscape is continually shifting and the number of technologies available on the market to fix problems are vast. Throwing individual technologies at specific cyber issues isn’t the answer.  

For example, many businesses think Microsoft 365 and their Antivirus has their needs covered – this simply isn’t the case. As a business grows it’s exposed to greater and greater risk as security controls don’t keep ahead of the complexities and gaps when a patchwork cyber security strategy is in place. Cyber security debt accumulates as a result of failing to implement the right security controls and cyber security strategy.

I can’t see or feel the debt, why should I care? 

The cost of reducing or eliminating security debt is far less than the potential cost of a data breach in terms of incident response, fines, loss of customer and investor trust, and possibly litigation. In many ways, it should be considered an investment – an insurance policy, if you like.

Be smarter, more is not more 

No business has unlimited budget or skills within their business to throw at their security posture, nor should it be required.  Some businesses buy way too much security software because they think more is more.   

The key is understanding what you need to protect and applying the right resource to it. 

Start the conversation 

Talk to your employees – Tell them how to look after your data and behave online. 

Talk to your board – Get them to understand the importance of prioritising cyber security and the implications for business continuity if it’s not . 

Talk to us – Even implementing basic security best practices or managing a limited amount of cyber security technology can be a big task without any, or the right, staff. We know our stuff and are happy to take time to understand what your business needs.

Discover a boardroom case for cyber security as a managed service!

Article featured on the MYREDFORT community: https://www.myredfort.com/managed-security-services/security-debt-and-the-sme