In a world increasingly driven by digital technologies and information, cyber-threat management is more than just a strategic imperative. It’s a fundamental part of doing business. Yet for many C-suite executives and board members, the concept of cybersecurity remains vague and complex. Although it might be on your strategic agenda, what does it really mean? And what can your organization do to shore up its defenses and protect itself from cyber-threats? A common myth is that cyber-attacks only happen to certain types of organizations, such as high-profile technology businesses. However, the cold, hard truth is that every organization has valuable data to lose. In fact, the attacks that happen most frequently are completely indiscriminate – using scripted, automated tools that identify and exploit whatever weaknesses they happen to find.
In closing, here are five takeaway questions to reflect on through the lens of a secure, vigilant, and resilient approach to cybersecurity:
Often asked, but difficult to accomplish. Understand how value is created in your organization, where your critical assets are, how they are vulnerable to key threats. Practice defense-in-depth.
Quality over quantity. There may not be enough talent to do everything in-house, so take a strategic approach to sourcing decisions. Are the security teams focused on the real business areas?
Retrofitting for security is very expensive. Build it upfront in your management processes, applications, and infrastructure.
Build strong relationships with partners, law enforcement, regulators, and vendors. Foster internal cooperation across groups and functions, and ensure that people aren’t hiding risks to protect themselves.
Policy reviews, assessments, and rehearsals of crisis response processes should be regularized to establish a culture of perpetual adaptation to the threat and risk landscape.