A Complete Introduction to Cybersecurity for Business

Introduction

Advanced cybersecurity is fast becoming a necessity for small and midsize businesses in addition to enterprises.

Cyberattacks are a common news occurrence with buzz about the compromise and theft of personal data, passwords, and private corporate data along with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The average cost of a cyberattack for a small business in the US is $25,612. This cost, particularly in uncertain economic times, is simply unacceptable for an SMB today.

The question for many of these businesses is what they need to do to ensure they don’t fall victim to attack. In the case of cybersecurity, this means getting a clear understanding of what solutions and expertise are necessary to keep an organization from harm.

Many companies are taking the threats of cybersecurity seriously and increasing their budgets accordingly—75% of businesses report that security is a higher business priority than previous years and are spending on average 15.3% more in it.

So, let’s discuss the core components of what makes up a comprehensive business cybersecurity program. Here we’ll go into what technology is required in a layered security package and detail exactly why each solution is important so you know how they all work together.

Biggest Cybersecurity Threats to Business

For cybercriminals, SMBs represent the quintessential low-hanging fruit. They are a plentiful target as nearly 99.7% of all businesses in the US are classified as SMBs.

They're also a vulnerable target, as small- and medium-sized business are less likely to have cybersecurity measures in place than their enterprise counterparts, and as such are far more vulnerable to attack.

Cybercriminals follow the path of least resistance. When companies fall victim to attack, they are typically those that were lacking basic protections with a workforce ill-equipped to deal with incoming threats.

In Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, it was found that 36% of breaches involved phishing (11% increase over 2020), 10% of breaches involved ransomware, and 85% of breaches involved a human element.

When organizations fail to put up barriers between their workforce and threats from the internet, more often than not attacks follow. This is especially the case when these workforces simply don’t have either the tools or resources to avoid being the point of a breach.

That’s why savvy cybercriminals focus nearly half of their attacks (47%) on these companies. A combination of weak security solutions and protocols to cut off or spot cyberattacks and employees who are set up to fail by having inadequate awareness training results in predisposing them to being a victim of cybercrime.

Additionally, it’s common for organizations to be under the impression that they are protected because they have some measure of security protection, but are relying on outdated software that’s unfit to guard against modern threats.

Furthermore, many businesses are unprepared to handle the aftermath of an attack, having no disaster recovery plan in place.

Finally, businesses have a tendency to put the burden of cybersecurity on their existing IT teams. It’s necessary today to have a dedicated cybersecurity team who can spend their days managing and monitoring threats and vulnerabilities to the company’s network.

Threat Mitigation

By far the most important aspect of business cybersecurity is the concept of threat mitigation.

Traditionally, cybersecurity has been focused on providers spotting an attack, containing it, patching it, and then rolling that patch out to end users so they are not vulnerable to the attack.

However, this method is what opens the door for zero-day attacks—an exploit that has been discovered by hackers, but not yet by developers.

Hackers take advantage of zero-day attacks by exploiting them as much as they can until they’re patched. This form of attack is one of the most prevalent cybercrime attack vectors today, accounting for over 61% of all malware cases.

These zero-day threats have led to an increased emphasis on “threat mitigation”, which is the practice of avoiding threats wherever possible through a mixture of technology and expertise.

While this may seem like an obvious recourse, the number and variety of attacks—and the increase in attacks on SMBs in particular—has necessitated an approach that stops attacks as early as possible as opposed to waiting until hackers find an exploit and then patching it.

This can generally be seen as a shift in approach from reactive cybersecurity to proactive cybersecurity.

Businesses must also take into account the vastly greater costs that can be incurred today from a data breach.

Not only are there a raft of data and information laws that are legislation today—including general laws like CCPA and SHIELD as well as industry-specific laws like HIPAA and CMMC—but businesses more than ever trade on their reputations as far as data privacy goes.

Forbes found that 46% of companies sustained long-term reputational damage as the result of a breach that compromised their customers’ data.

In short, it’s not just the practical costs that falling victim to attack can have on a business. Cyberattacks also have indirect implications for the organization and the ability of customers and prospects to trust the business with sensitive information again—a subject that is more important now to the public than ever.

This is why threat mitigation is important—the costs of a data breach, both direct and indirect, are substantial, and avoiding them is of paramount importance.

What worked ten or even five years ago as far as cybersecurity is concerned does not work today. A comprehensive strategy to head off attacks and mitigate threats as quickly as possible using modern solutions is necessary to ensure organizations have the best chance of not being breached.

Related Blog: How to Measure Cybersecurity Risk in a Business

The Solutions of a Comprehensive Business Cybersecurity Strategy

Now, we’re going to talk about exactly which solutions are necessary to build an effective cyber defense for a modern organization.

When we talk about “modern organizations,” we’re referring to the businesses where workloads are predominantly created, handled, and shared online—which is to say, most businesses.

We should note that which cybersecurity solutions are needed will depend on the organization that needs protection. However, the majority of modern companies will need a solid suite of solutions to keep their operations from harm.

Let’s dive in and take a look at each solution, what they do, and why they’re needed.

Solutions: Endpoint Protection

Endpoints are everywhere in a modern business environment: smart TVs, mobile devices, printers, vending machines, you name it. To manage these endpoints, businesses should utilize domain name system (DNS) protection, managed detection and response (MDR), and persistence detection.

Related Blog: What Is Advanced Endpoint Protection (AEP)?

Related Blog: Do I Need Endpoint Protection?

Domain Name System (DNS) Protection

DNS is best thought of as a sort of “phonebook” for computers, but written with IP addresses rather than human language.

Of course, not every “number” in the phonebook is trustworthy and there are many malicious websites out there. DNS protection stops access to those malicious sites and can be extended to all devices under a network, meaning an employee browsing on their phone using your company network won’t accidentally let an attacker into your business.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Managed detection and response (MDR) is an endpoint protection service that detects, prevents, and responds to attacks across all vectors.

As opposed to searching for the characteristics of malware—which can be hidden or changed to something unrecognizable—as a traditional protection service would, MDR monitors the processes of every endpoint, recognizing deviations from the norm and responding.

Persistence Detection

“Persistence” refers to a modern hacking process where cybercriminals gain access to your systems and wait for the opportune moment to strike.

This solution uses advanced technology to sniff out bad actors hiding in plain sight by collecting information monitoring activity associated with persistent mechanisms that evade other cybersecurity technologies.

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Fueled by the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the number of endpoints that exist in any given office is rising. That means IT staff have a tough task ensuring the security of their organization. This is particularly the case when you add remote work into the mix and suddenly have a whole swath of new devices and endpoints that need securing.

An MDM solution should allow your IT team (or your MSP) to be able to enforce your security policy efficiently.

Related Blog: Managed Service Providers: What to Expect in an MSP Partner

Related Checklist: How Covered Is Your Business?

Again, through a central management program, every device in your network can be aligned with your policy by restricting access to certain apps or installations and ensuring the correct password and encryption protocols are being followed.

They should also have the ability to revoke access to the company network should a device contravene the standardized security settings. This would typically be the case if an end user disabled the antivirus or uninstalled a necessary security measure.

In these instances, a good MDM program will automatically pick up on it and withdraw the certificate until the issue is remedied.

Bring your own device (BYOD) support should be integrated into the mobile device management system, allowing extensive oversight of devices.

Solutions: Edge Security

As discussed, endpoint protection fortifies each device connecting to your system. But there’s also another layer to an organization’s defenses at the very end of their network: edge security.

Where endpoint protection covers individual devices, edge security supports all of those devices together as they bridge the gap between your environment and the public internet.

Think of the difference between the two like a knight in shining armor (endpoint protection) on a medieval castle’s walls (edge security). The knight is wearing armor that protects only himself, the castle walls protect him, along with many other knights, and they work together to protect the interior castle and its inhabitants.

Related Blog: Edge Device Security Explained

By implementing network edge protection solutions in your business, you open up your employees to be able to work from anywhere in the world on any device without compromising the safety of critical data and systems.

Edge security integrates unified threat management (UTM) and web application firewalls (WAF) to protect sensitive apps and data and monitor internet traffic.

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

UTM devices provide next-gen firewalls, antivirus and anti-malware, and intrusion prevention to protect all internal systems. Additionally, they include zero-touch provisioning, so new devices can be added to your network from anywhere in the world.

Related Blog: What Is Next-Gen Antivirus?

This aspect of edge security makes it easier for your managed security service provider (MSSP) to remotely install updates to your system, quickly detect and remediate threats, and make suggestions for improving your overall cybersecurity strategy based on the reporting received from these devices.

Web Application Firewalls (WAF)

As the name might suggest, WAFs operate as a wall between threats on the internet and your network. It provides monitoring for your web-connected apps and prevents data breaches by filtering out suspicious activity before it can get anywhere close to the core of your environment.

It integrates with any web-connected apps on your network, including browsers, email clients, websites, and more. But because each business’ cybersecurity needs are unique, WAF systems are also scalable to grow with your company and adjust to the ever-changing threat landscape, with firewall rules that are easily customized to your individual requirements.

Solutions: Secure Data Protection

Secure data protection, also known as information security or “infosec,” concerns access to data and is used to reduce and ideally stop bad actors from gaining illegal or unauthorized access to information.

Data protection services will typically consist of employee solutions that are targeted at data loss prevention (DLP), like establishing proper access controls, authentication protocols, and email protection.

Related Blog: 8 Database Security Best Practices to Know

Data loss prevention is about preventing data leakage, which refers to the unauthorized transfer of data from inside your organization to outside.

DLP aims to rectify this issue by establishing clear standards for your data through labeling. This means determining where certain data should be stored, who has access to it, and where it can be shared.

The Human Factor

Employees are the biggest threat to a company’s data, and with so many workers operating outside of secure corporate networks, this threat is growing.

As much as cybercriminals have improved their methods and tools for stealing data and information, it is often sadly the case that a worker will be the one to inadvertently deliver it to them.

Many of the issues (including breaches) that arise from human error often occur as a direct result of poor credential and access policies within a business—in effect, setting employees up for failure.

From a data leakage perspective, overlooking basic aspects of cybersecurity like quality authentication and access control to your data and information is just asking for trouble.

In these cases, as far as infosec is concerned, establishing proper controls for data is a great way of ensuring that it’s effectively protected and doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. That means establishing policies which properly classify information and provide access accordingly to the appropriate stakeholders.

In other words, data shouldn’t be idly accessed by anyone.

Email protection, meanwhile, is another key part of infosec. Email protection solutions help prevent many common attack vectors from succeeding like phishing attempts, spam, and viruses communicated to end users through email servers.

Phishing, along with other social engineering attack vectors common in email communications, is a dangerous form of cyberattack that is responsible for many data breaches in the business world.

Related Quiz: Do You Know How to Protect Yourself Against Phishing?

Related Infographic: Avoiding Phishing Scams: 6 Things to Look Out For!

Email protection software can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise and it detects and blocks malicious emails using AI to evaluate behavior patterns and spot irregularities.

Potentially malicious emails are then quarantined and can be released if they are determined to be safe. This method of email protection is an excellent way of avoiding employees clicking on phishing emails and causing a breach of sensitive data.

Solutions: Identity & Access Management

Identity and access management is how an organization identifies individuals who are attempting to get into a place, device, or software. It can involve anything from username and password credentials to a card key.

Related Blog: Cybersecurity Tips: Are Passphrases More Secure Than Passwords?

The most effective form of identity and access management is multifactor authentication (MFA) which requires multiple means of identification in order to access what you want.

These are typically:

• Password or PIN
• Authenticator apps
• Biometrics, like fingerprint or face scanning

Related Blog: What Is Passwordless Authentication?

If you use mobile online banking, you’ll probably be familiar with the app asking you for your password and fingerprint; or if you’re logging onto an online service, you may be asked to send a code to your mobile device to verify.

Authentication solutions ensure the people accessing your business data are who they say they are.

It’s a simple and incredibly effective way of preventing unauthorized users from accessing your business accounts. Despite that, authentication is sometimes not taken seriously and is often overlooked by companies in their security policies.

MFA, which requires the use of a secondary device or additional method to authenticate a user, has proven especially useful in preventing breaches and solutions that cater to this are capable of protecting every app or software service you use. Additionally, it is a great tool for complying with modern cybersecurity regulations.

Likewise, automated password management solutions mean that you can ensure your employees are consistently staying up to date with strong passwords.

This tech can push password change automation to end users, keep a full trail of password history, and encrypt all the information tracked.

In essence, the purpose of MFA is to take the option of having weak passwords out of the hands of employees and impose a system in which they are forced to have far more secure credentials.

For businesses, this should be a no-brainer, as you’re effectively removing one of (if not the) main avenues of attack for hackers.

Data protection laws have made MFA mandatory for some industries, and regulations for other industries will likely follow suit as laws like SHIELD and CCPA continue to expand the demands on businesses for information safety.

There is also the additional advantage that by implementing MFA for your customers, you’re expressing to them a very clear message: we care about your information security. Customers will be more trusting of your service and feel more comfortable if they know you’re taking precautions for them—so long as the process is smooth for verification.

Related Blog: 5 Identity and Access Management Best Practices

Solutions: Backup & Disaster Recovery

Nobody wants it, everybody hopes it won’t happen to them, and yet inevitably it will happen to someone. What are we referring to? Data breaches.

In 2020, a total 155.8 million individuals in the United States were affected by data exposures—the accidental revelation of sensitive information as a result of inadequate information security.

With concerns about cybersecurity growing each year and an increasing amount of SMBs falling victim to attack, it’s never been more important for organizations to have disaster recovery plan steps in place so that they can respond effectively to cybercrime.

Managed backup and disaster recovery (BDR) is typically conducted through a step-by-step process, which will begin with an evaluation and end with a strategy for recovering lost data in the event of a breach.

These steps can generally be broken down into five distinct parts, which look like this:

Step 1: Determine Critical Infrastructure

During this step, the business should be assessing exactly what these crucial functions are. They will almost certainly concern the data and software needed to ensure product or service delivery.

Once that has been established, the disaster recovery plan’s primary objectives, in terms of maintaining critical infrastructure operations, can be confirmed.

Step 2: Evaluate Disaster Scenarios

Businesses should consider which disaster scenarios are most likely to affect them—whether it’s a cyberattack or a natural disaster—and the impact it will have on them as far as operations go.

How long would it take to relocate in a natural disaster? What would happen if you were hit by a ransomware attack?

These scenarios will differ significantly in their effects depending on the department, and business leaders from each should assess likely scenarios that may affect their specific department.

Step 3: Develop Roles and Responsibilities

Now that the critical infrastructure has been highlighted and the most likely disaster scenarios established, it’s time to create a communication plan that clearly outlines the responsibilities of key stakeholders in the event of a disaster.

This can be as simple as reporting an incident to a superior or as complex as engaging with internal IT or a managed security service provider. Whatever the responsibilities of individual stakeholders, it’s critical that a clear chain of communication is in place so that incident response teams can be involved in the disaster recovery process as quickly as possible.

This is also the time to develop an external communication strategy.

In the event of a breach, customers and clients should be informed of what is happening and the extent to which they are affected.

Step 4: Establish a Backup and Recovery Strategy

Now the most important part: putting a plan in place to backup and recover data that is essential to the running of business operations. This should have been established during the assessment of critical infrastructure.

At this step in the disaster recovery plan, the organization will want to understand what their recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) are.

RPO:

The recovery point objective is measured as the time that is acceptable between the disaster and the time at which data is restored.

If it is determined that the RPO is two hours, that means the company can survive two hours of data loss before it’s considered unacceptable.

RTO:

The RTO is very similar to RPO, except as opposed to RPO—which determines the point in the past at which you will recover your data—RTO refers to the point in the future before which data must be recovered or else unsustainable damage will have been inflicted.

It’s best to think of RPO as the data recovery point in the past and the RTO as the time in the future at which critical business functions must be up and running again.

Related Post: RPO and RTO: What’s the Difference?

Step 5: Continually Test the BDR Plan

The final step in a disaster recovery plan is to consistently test and re-test it to ensure the strategy is up to date and still relevant.

The reason for this is that IT environments change constantly. Workforces grow and shrink, new software is installed, more data is stored; there are many variables that can change the outlook of a BDR strategy.

Therefore, it’s highly recommended that periodic reviews that test the plan are conducted.

Solutions: Network Security Monitoring

Network security monitoring is crucial today. Security management lets the administrator oversee all security protocols for a network from a central location—even if there are multiple offices or remote workers.

Related Blog: 12 Basic Types of Network Security Measures

The ubiquity of remote workers has made security management of out-of-office devices an increasingly important component of network management.

For businesses today, the most important aspects of network security management will include establishing a company-wide security policy and enforcing it (including authentication and access to data), mitigating threats with monitoring solutions, and configuring virtual private networks (VPNs) for safe, remote access to data.

Vulnerability scanners use machine learning to automatically assess risks associated with functions and processes across your hybrid network—whether in the cloud or internally.

When vulnerabilities are detected, they are prioritized in terms of their threat level and patched to ensure safety.

Related Blog: 5 Factors That Affect the Security of a Network

A security information event management (SIEM) system is a monitoring and event management solution that can be integrated with several major tech providers like Microsoft. This solution will alert you if it recognizes, for example, a suspicious login or excessive failed login attempts, in addition to general instances of abnormal behavior across your network.

The SIEM effectively creates a centralized database of all threats and abnormalities discovered by the solution, escalating them to your IT team in real-time for remediation.

Network detection and response (NDR) is similar but more focused on network traffic analysis (NTA), detecting anomalies and providing more granular data on security events that raise suspicion.

An NDR will help a business increase their total visibility into their network profile, offering a more extensive approach to threat detection than a SIEM solution alone.

Continuous network security monitoring is crucial due to, as noted above, the volume of remote workers being higher than ever before. This is particularly the case with many organizations choosing to continue offering flexible working opportunities to their employees.

This is an area where mobile device management again is key to ensuring security through remote monitoring and management. It’s a solution that integrates with the MDM and helps IT personnel maintain a high level of standardization across remote devices.

Solutions: Compliance

Navigating the complex world of business cybersecurity compliance can be a headache for a lot of organizations, especially those that are starting from scratch or have little experience with operating compliance standards and controls in their working environment.

Related Blog: Why Is Security Compliance Important?

With the number of regulations affecting businesses in every industry and the vast amounts of sensitive data that companies now possess, it’s crucial that they put measures in place that allow them to stay on the right side of business cybersecurity compliance.

Organizations need a compliance team (or officer) to ensure they’re aligned with the appropriate regulations and that their controls are in order.

This is achieved by first conducting a gap analysis.

Gap Analysis

For organizations that operate in highly regulated industries, like healthcare, education, finance, and those associated with the Department of Defense, they must abide by existing and new rules regarding data security.

A gap analysis will assess a business’ compliance standards, their policies for data handling and safeguarding, and the extent to which these policies are being enforced.

When a business has a gap analysis performed, it’s a lot easier for them to have a clear picture of where they stand with their compliance and exactly what they need to do if they’re lacking the correct policies.

While a gap analysis is most useful for organizations operating in industries with strict data governance rules, it’s important to note that universal standards are being increasingly sought-after and adopted at the state and federal level for the purposes of business compliance.

In California, for example, CCPA is in effect for everyone, while New York has its SHIELD Act, which went into effect March 2020.

Businesses are identifying that data security and compliance are heading in the direction of stricter regulation and preparing themselves early.

We also saw this when GDPR came into being, with US-based companies adopting its compliance rules to set themselves up for US laws that are starting to come into place today.

Governance Risk and Compliance

Most strategies for compliance will use what’s referred to as a governance risk and compliance (GRC) solution.

A GRC solution is a software program where companies can oversee all their IT operations and data that must be regulated.

Compliance monitoring, auditing, and reporting can all be conducted from a single platform so nothing goes amiss. If there are potential breaches or violations, they can be quickly investigated, remediated, and reported.

As we noted earlier, because of the complexity of managing compliance obligations, it’s common for businesses to have a dedicated compliance officer or hire a third-party to manage their compliance for them.

Related Blog: 11 Things You Need to Know About Cybersecurity Compliance

Cybersecurity Consulting

Consultation is an important aspect of business cybersecurity that can generally be segmented into two distinct elements—security awareness training and strategy consultation.

Consultation

When we speak about cybersecurity consulting services, it’s important to note that the cybersecurity environment is in a constant state of flux.

Related Blog: Do You Need Cybersecurity Advisory Services?

New dangers, new solutions to those dangers, new regulations, and changing needs for businesses in terms of their internal networks and environments all add up to a situation where ongoing consultation is a necessary component of a successful business cybersecurity plan.

This will typically involve a partnership with a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer, or vCISO.

The vCISO is a business’ point of contact for all their security needs. They oversee the company’s strategy and are expected to consistently report and present to the organization the state of the business’ cybersecurity program.

vCISOs will typically be made available as part of a managed security service program. Companies should be sure that they are comfortable with their consultant, as this person will be a key figure and an important relationship for them going forward.

Related Blog: What Is the Role of a vCISO in Cybersecurity?

Training

Secondly, there’s the aspect of consultation that concerns security awareness training of employees at the business.

Related Blog: The Importance of Cybersecurity Awareness, Training, and Education

Businesses continue to make a crucial mistake in their approach to cybersecurity: forgetting that their staff are the biggest threat to their business.

The overwhelming majority of cyberattacks are routed in some form of social engineering. Social engineering refers to the manipulation of end users into divulging or exposing sensitive data or information.

This kind of manipulation is very common and is typically delivered to end users via email. Other vectors for social engineering include text message and “watering hole” attacks, which target websites frequently used by a particular organization or industry.

In short, security awareness is an important factor in cybersecurity because of human error.

Because of this, it’s imperative for businesses to understand that a comprehensive security strategy for their organization involves more than just software solutions, and security awareness is one example of this.

This is especially important as many SMBs have indicated a willingness to allow remote work as a long-term option for employees. This increases the need for those organizations to ensure that staff operating outside of their regular work network are protected appropriately.

In short, as long as there is an opportunity to take advantage of—namely, ill-prepared workers—cybercriminals will do just that.

That’s what makes security awareness so crucial and why it is such an important aspect of a modern cybersecurity strategy.

Security awareness programs will educate employees through a variety of courses and “fake attacks,” meant to test an end user’s ability to spot a threat so they’re prepared for the real thing.

This can manifest in fake phishing emails being sent to employees, for example. Those who click on them will be marked out for security awareness training so they are no longer a weak link for cybercriminals to target with a real phishing attack.

Importance of Layered Security

Owing to the current cybersecurity landscape, it’s becoming more apparent that a basic security strategy simply won’t cut it anymore.

As the cybercrime industry grows in size, resources, and sophistication, organizations must respond to keep pace, something that doesn’t appear to be happening.

In a survey by the Ponemon Institute, only 26% of respondents said their organizations have been able to decrease the time it takes to respond to a cyberattack.

In order to effectively meet and head-off the rise in attacks, which can very easily bankrupt an SMB, companies must invest in a strategy which employs a range of technologies and solutions to cover all bases.

Utilizing an Array of Solutions

What exactly do we mean when we say this?

Many businesses, big and small, may be accustomed to just using a basic firewall and antivirus solution. Maybe they don’t have the resources to buy a raft of different solutions and pay a team to operate them. Maybe that’s just what they’ve always had and never gave it a second thought.

An organization should not see cybersecurity as a one-and-done job. It’s a continual process that involves monitoring, threat hunting, training, and more.

The idea behind this is that each solution can act as a kind of failsafe, so your business isn’t relying solely on your operating system’s built-in firewall.

Related Infographic: The Layered Cybersecurity Defense

Future Outlook for Businesses

As the cybersecurity environment becomes increasingly volatile and attacks increase on SMBs, businesses must protect themselves with cybersecurity stacks that are comprehensive and cover every aspect of a modern organization.

Where previously cybercrime was typically focused on enterprise companies, in the last few years SMBs have had to come to terms with the notion that their chances of being targeted are far greater than ever.

In fact, in Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, 61% of SMBs reported being the victim of a cyberattack over the course of the previous year.

In short, more SMBs are being attacked than not, and expectations about vulnerabilities must be adjusted when it comes to considering how likely a small or medium-sized business is to be targeted.

For those companies that are yet to implement a tech stack for cybersecurity, the odds of being hit are far higher. In those cases, it’s more a question of “when” than “if.”

As such, the outlook for virtually all organizations large or small is that, faced with this knowledge, the sensible course of action is to adopt a strategy for cybersecurity sooner rather than later.

For companies that are more predisposed than others to attack, such as those which operate with many remote devices, the impetus should be much greater. For SMBs, the costs of a potential breach far outweigh the costs of investing in a security plan.

Conclusion

We hope that by reading this you now have a clearer understanding of what a business needs when it comes to cybersecurity in terms of strategy and the makeup of a solutions technology stack.

As the world of cybersecurity becomes more complex, a tech package that is equally sophisticated must be assembled to shield organizations from harm.

While the particular solutions used in a stack will vary, they will generally look to cover similar areas in their scope.

These areas will typically involve programs that deal with edge security and network monitoring for your office network and data and information protection to ensure the integrity of sensitive data handled in your organization.

There is also a large emphasis on endpoint security in most programs today. The importance of this will depend especially on the composition of the individual company’s workforce. For businesses with a large number of remote workers, endpoint security will be particularly key.

Even for companies with conventional work environments, the number of endpoints (and potential vulnerabilities) is significantly higher today than it ever has been, and so safeguarding these devices is crucial.

Additional solutions in the stack should include authentication protocols and proper access controls. These will be especially important for businesses that need to abide by regulations.

Lastly an important aspect of the stack will be a backup and disaster recovery solution so that in the event of a breach, operations can be returned to normal as quickly as possible with minimal losses.

Without these solutions, hackers will have a far easier time penetrating your system. With them, you can rest easy knowing that you’re as protected as possible for any kind of business.

Get Expert Help

Businesses that are unsure of where they stand with their business cybersecurity should first consider a cybersecurity risk audit performed by a managed service security provider (MSSP) like DOT Security.

Our experts will do a deep dive of your business’ network, getting a complete picture of your risks and vulnerabilities and helping put together a strategy to get a program in place and implement the necessary solutions for cybersecurity success.

Get a strategist’s eye on your business’ cybersecurity system. Contact a DOT Security specialist today.