Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) typically invest less in cybersecurity, making them easier targets for cybercriminals. Close to 30% of businesses encounter a cyberattack at least once per week due to a lack of cybersecurity plans.
The need for continual vigilance and protection against hackers has led many SMBs to complicate cybersecurity matters. Though the percentage of businesses that have adopted formal, business-wide incident response plans has increased from 18% in 2015 to 26% in 2020, the ability to contain an actual attack dropped by 13%. The inability to control a cyber attack occurs because businesses do not consistently test the threat-readiness of incident response plans. Many of them use too many security products that hinder the ability to distinguish and respond to a cyberattack promptly.
Here, a cyber resilience strategy can benefit organizations to protect uptime and recover from incidents quicker. Some people use the terms cybersecurity and cyber resilience simultaneously, but the meanings are different.
While cybersecurity primarily aims at blocking nefarious cyber players from attacking your network, cyber resilience is more about planning, defending, responding to, and recovering quickly from a cyberattack. Endpoint protection, email security, network security, backup and data recovery, identity and access management, and a host of other critical solutions together fuel a comprehensive cyber resilience strategy.
Arm Your Business with Cyber Resilience
The cyber threat landscape is evolving at lightning speed, and traditional security measures cannot keep up with it. Experts have predicted that a ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds in 2021. The only way forward for businesses, including yours, is to compose a cyber resilience strategy that highlights ways to move forward in the face of a cyberattack.
Your business is cyber resilient when:
- You’ve implemented measures to guard against cyberattacks
- Proper risk control measures for data protection get deployed
- Hackers cannot severely disrupt business operation during or after an attack
The major components of a cyber resilience strategy are:
Threat protection: By deploying effective attack surface management and risk management, you can easily take your business through the path of cyber resilience. Doing so helps you minimize first-party, third-party, or fourth-party risks arising from data leaks, data breaches, or misconfigurations. Additionally, assessment reports identify key risk areas that require attention.
Adaptability: Cybercriminals are shapeshifters who constantly change their devious tactics. Ensure your business can conform to emerging cyber threats.
Recoverability: To quickly bounce back after a security incident, your business must have all the necessary infrastructure, including robust data backups. Conducting mock drills that let you understand the employee readiness to counter cyberattacks is also imperative.
Durability: Your IT team can improve the business’ durability through constant system enhancements and upgrades. No matter what strategy the criminals use, prevent their actions from overcoming you through shock and disruption.
5 Ways Cyber Resilience Protects SMBs
Adopting cyber resilience proves beneficial before, during, and after cyberattacks. Here are five ways cyber resilience protects SMBs:
Enhances system security, work culture, and internal processes
By implementing a cyber resilience approach within your business, you can easily design and develop strategies specifically for your existing IT infrastructure. Additionally, cyber resilience improves security within each internal process so that you can communicate desired behavior to employees.
Maintains business continuity
Cyber resilience ensures that operations are not significantly affected and business gets back to normal after a cyberattack.
Lessens financial loss
The financial damage caused by a breach can be so severe that businesses go bankrupt or even close. Cyber resilience keeps threats in check, reducing the chances of business disruption and limiting financial liabilities.
Meets regulatory and insurance requirements
Cyber resilience helps keep your business out of regulatory radars by satisfactorily following all necessary criteria. Also, complying with regulations can be advantageous to your company for cyber insurance claims.
Boosts company reputation
Having cyber resilience by your side gives you better control in the event of a successful cyberattack. It helps you block attacks, bounce back quickly if an incident happens, and lessen the chaotic aftereffects of a breach. This improves your business reputation among partners and customers.
Don’t worry if the concept of cyber resilience is tough to crack. We can guide your business to and through cyber resilience. Start with an assessment to check your business’ cyber resilience level. Contact us now at 855-647-3835 or send us an email at info@phxtc.com.
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Article curated and used by permission.
Sources:
1. Infosecurity Magazine
2. The 2020 Cyber Resilient Organization Study
3. JD Supra Knowledge Center