10 Tips For Building Your Cyber Resilience

January 18, 2018

We live in a time of constant cyber threat, and one thing remains certain: cyber criminals are not slowing down.

Organizations that can return to regular business operations quickly following a cyber attack will have a significant advantage over those that are unprepared.

Unfortunately, according to the 2016 Ponemon Institute study, only 32% of IT and security professionals believed their organization demonstrated a strong level of was cyber resilience – down from 35% in 2015.

It should be our goal to not only prevent security breaches, but to prepare for them, and to manage them to the least possible impact on the organization. 

Here's how your organization can improve its cyber hygiene:

1. Plan and prepare for an incident.

   The reality for any organization, whether small or large, is that security incidents are inevitable. Security isn’t perfect so it’s important for organizations to take the necessary steps to be prepared.

2. Know what your crown jewels are.

   Understand the most important data pieces that are integral to your business. How do they need to be protected? Furthermore, what does confidentiality, integrity, and availability mean for your organization and your customers? It is important to understand this so that you can continue to provide essential services, even when digital services are temporarily unavailable.

3. Segment your networks.

   In the event that one network segment gets infected by malware, the other segments can still be protected.

4. Ensure that your organization practices strong cyber hygiene.

   The onus of cybersecurity is on everyone, not just the IT department. Good cyber hygiene includes password management, enabling multi-factor authentication, implementing device management, etc. As we noted in our recent Cybersecurity Conversations For The C-Suite 2018 report, cyber hygiene will be the most important conversation to have in 2018. 

5. Conduct regular social engineering tests against your employees.

   Hackers are repeatedly finding innovative ways to break into networks so it’s important for organizations to continuously test their employees against these techniques.

6. Educate your employees on security awareness.

   Security education is a common, and necessary, component of cyber resilience. Not all employees may be cyber aware so security education can provide the adequate training needed to avoid insider threat.

7. Obtain cyber insurance.

   Given the frequency of cyber attacks, organizations should look into purchasing cyber insurance to ensure they don’t incur significant financial losses in the event of an incident.

8. Use the right tools and practices for cyber defense.

   There is a wide array of tools and services offered for higher cybersecurity protection, but not all may be right for an organization. By understanding the data you’re trying to protect (i.e. the crown jewels) and the industry you are in, you will be better equipped to choose the services that make the most sense for your business as opposed to spending money on solutions that may not work for you.

9. Incorporate Threat Hunting for proactive threat monitoring and detection.

   Threat hunting relies on actively looking for anomalies within large pockets of data that may have been missed otherwise. By incorporating threat hunting into a cyber defense strategy, organizations can ensure that they are being timely and effective in response to any threats that may arise.

10. Stay updated on current threat advisories and alerts.

    Use the US-CERT or subscribe to Herjavec Group’s Threat Advisory mailing list.

To learn more about Security Consulting services which can help bolster your cyber resilience, connect with a Herjavec Group security specialist today.

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