We get it. Trying to understand cybersecurity technology for your business can be scary, confusing and daunting. Too often, cybersecurity service providers act like they can flip a switch and magically fix all your security risks. You’re right to be skeptical of such claims because poorly designed security projects can quickly get out of control.
Unfortunately, there is no single solution or cybersecurity magic bullet. Defending a network from attackers and criminals takes a multi-layered security approach combining powerful software with a suite of Security Operation Center (SOC) services to deliver both foundational security and highly advanced protections. With a multi-layered approach, even if one layer is penetrated, you have additional lines of defense and backup.
When it comes to protecting your clients’ and customers’ personal data, it pays to be picky about the technologies you use. After all, the average cost of a data breach is now well over $4 million. It’s simply not possible to make one impenetrable defensive barrier, but it is possible to build multiple lines of defense that will frustrate and repulse hackers — or at least deter them enough so they’ll look for a softer target elsewhere.
The Importance of Customized Cybersecurity Solutions
Too often, organizations purchase new security solutions without conducting a thorough risk assessment and gap analysis to identify and prioritize their security needs. No two businesses are alike, and risk assessments will identify specific threats to an organization. Once the security threat you face is identified, it’s possible to build a customized security solution to minimize risks.
First, identify vulnerabilities that could cause a threat to occur. This could be a web server running an unpatched operating system with known security flaws or insufficient network bandwidth to absorb a denial of service attack.
Second, a cybersecurity plan will prioritize the threat you face and identify the most important pieces of defense. For example, public-facing organizations like a media outlet or e-commerce site would consider a denial of service attack against its website as the most crippling threat. However, a small manufacturing company might feel like a website outage would have minimal impact on its daily business.
So, What Are The Cybersecurity Lines of Defense?
A cybersecurity firm will help determine your environment vulnerabilities and the best approach to protect you from specific risks. These include:
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
MFA provides an extra layer of protection to ensure that users who attempt to log in are, in fact, who they say they are. MFA makes it more difficult for hackers to steal login credentials or use other common attack methods to gain unauthorized access.
Dark Web Monitoring
With Dark Web monitoring, a combination of human and sophisticated intelligence resources identify, analyze and proactively monitor your organization’s employee data to detect if a cybercriminal is attempting to steal it or compromise your system.
Security Awareness Training (SAT)
Targeting end users is one of the most frequent ways hackers gain access to your critical data systems. Using SAT, end users learn how to recognize phishing attempts and are tested using simulated phishing programs.
Network Monitoring
A Security Operations Center (SOC) provides ongoing monitoring and builds on foundational security to rapidly identify and halt even the most troublesome attacks, minimizing harm and reducing the risk to client environments.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
SIEM technology collects and analyzes information from network devices, endpoint logs and threat intelligence feeds, identifying security incidents, policy violations, fraudulent activity and other threats.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
A reputable cybersecurity provider will routinely back up your data to an outside, secure storage location to assure it’s accessible in case your data is ever lost or stolen. This practice allows your system to get back up and running to its previous state in a minimal amount of time.
To help understand how these technologies work together and what threats your organization faces, talk to the cybersecurity experts at Elevity. We can conduct a customized risk analysis and help you build a comprehensive cybersecurity battle plan based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework.
In the meantime, take our online cybersecurity risk assessment to get a general idea of some of the vulnerabilities your company may face. Then contact the Managed IT experts at Elevity about our advanced cybersecurity services to pinpoint your specific needs.
