Cyber Resilience - The Goal Of Cybersecurity

Summary: This 3-minute article explores the meaning and importance of cyber resilience. Learn the components of cyber resilience planning and why you need a comprehensive IT incident response plan. Then, contact DIGIGUARD CYBER SECURITY at 833-33-CYBER (833-332-9237) or visit www.DIGIGUARDsecurity.com for a cyber risk analysis and to discuss cyber defense solutions for your SMB.

We don’t like thinking about emergencies. Predicting and preparing for possible future adverse events is an unpleasant process. Therefore, planning for “what if” scenarios is a task that, in the course of doing business, can be overlooked and bumped down the list of priorities. However, cyber security planning is more critical than ever. Cybercrime is on the rise and being unprepared for the possibility of a cyberattack puts your SMB’s future at risk. An estimated 60% of SMBs go out of business within six months after an attack.

Cyber Security Strategy

As most businesses are now dependent upon computer systems to operate efficiently, a system slowdown or failure can have crippling consequences. Therefore, it is imperative that SMBs design detailed cyber security incident response plans. Armed with a detailed plan and layers of robust cyber security in place, companies can mitigate the effects of cyberattacks and reduce the chance of unexpected business disruptions. In addition, with an all-encompassing approach, you can dramatically increase your cyber defenses and achieve a higher level of cyber resilience.

What is Cyber Resilience?

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_resilience) defines cyber resilience as “an entity's ability to continuously deliver the intended outcome, despite cyber attacks. Resilience to cyber attacks is essential to IT systems, critical infrastructure, business processes, organizations, societies, and nation-states.” In common terms, cyber resiliency allows businesses to control, limit and recover from cyber breaches with little or no damage to their operations. Unfortunately, cybercrime is here to stay, and hackers create more complex attacks daily. It is estimated that almost one in three companies have experienced data loss from cyberattacks due to a lack of cyber resilience. Therefore, being prepared for anything at all times can be key to a company’s survival.

Cyber resilience is the top goal of a robust cyber security strategy. However, there are many benefits to achieving a high level of cyber resilience:

• Mitigation of Financial Losses – Most cyberattacks are launched with the goal of breaching data and crippling businesses. However, hackers prefer to go after the most vulnerable, unprotected targets. A cyber resilient computer network is much more difficult to breach and therefore less likely to be targeted by hackers.
• Brand Protection – It is easy to understand how a data breach could contribute to customers, clients and vendors losing faith in your brand. On the other hand, cyber resilience supports all your business associates by giving them a higher level of confidence in the security of their interactions with you and your company.
• High Protection For High Compliance Businesses – If your SMB is a high compliance company, such as a medical practice, law or accounting firm, cyber resilience will help you manage its adherence to government regulations and other legal requirements.

Cyber security is a critical component of cyber resilience. There are several basic elements to strong cyber resiliency:

• Robust Protection – State-of-the-art and up-to-date cyber security planning is the first defense against cybercrime. This component requires vigilant monitoring and reevaluation to ensure you employ the best cyber defense solutions for your business. This layer of protection should also be supported by employee training and the establishment of best practices for employees using your computer system. In addition, access should be restricted to employees with authorized credentials who require specific access to perform their jobs.
• Early Detection – Developing the security required to monitor and identify threats before a breach occurs can thwart many cyberattacks before they can inflict damage.
• Quick Recovery – Even with the best protection, cyberattacks can still occur. Once a cyber event is launched, your company’s response time is critical to mitigating the impact of an unforeseen attack. By having a cyber resilience plan in place, your SMB will be able to continue operations while dealing with the containment of the cyber threat.
• Updating and Adapting – Hackers are clever and are constantly expanding their potential target landscape by developing new attacks. All program updates should be installed within 30 days of release to maintain security. Also, a strong cyber security response plan must be able to adapt and change as new cyber threats are developed. Constant vigilance is vital to ongoing cyber resilience.

No matter how sophisticated and comprehensive your company’s cyber security, no solution is 100% guaranteed to protect against cyberattacks. Unfortunately, hackers find loopholes, human errors, backdoors and a myriad of approaches to work around your cyber defenses and breach your SMB’s hard-earned business data. Therefore, businesses must constantly assess the changing target attack landscape and any new hacks that are trending. Furthermore, SMB owners should identify the most valuable digital assets and prioritize security measures accordingly. If your business doesn’t have the budget for a full-time IT expert, you should enlist the expertise of IT professionals who can work with you to create customized cyber defense solutions to protect your SMB’s data and boost your business’s overall cyber resilience.