How to improve your business security posture

With cyber attacks now the norm and data breaches becoming more frequent, businesses are under pressure like never before to keep their IT infrastructure secure. We live in a world where you can’t wait until something goes wrong before considering how to make things better. You need to adopt proactive measures that keep information security at the forefront of your mind.

So, how do you improve your cybersecurity posture? Let’s take a look at some useful tips and tricks below!

What is security posture and why do you need it?

There's no denying that strong cybersecurity defenses are more important than ever before. A cyber attack, regardless of its cause, can be costly, with the average cost of a data breach being USD 9.44 million. These assaults might not only devastate a company's finances but also its reputation.

An organization's security posture refers to the strength of protection over its networks, data, and systems (hardware and software). Security posture is another term for your organization's vulnerability to cyber threats or data breaches. For example, how does your organization respond when an attack or data breach occurs? Are you keeping critical data backed up in a secure location to minimize the consequences of a data breach?

It is critical for organizations to develop security and compliance measures that are preventative, rather than reactive, to enhance cybersecurity protections. It is smart to proactively protect your organization from a potential data breach rather than just performing damage control once one has already occurred.

Regular security assessments

The first step towards building a secure environment is knowing what risks your organization is facing. It's easier to protect against dangers you're aware of in the previous section. Conducting your preliminary risk assessment may seem time-consuming at first, but it will save you time and money in the long run. Enlisting the help of a managed security service provider can ensure you have the bigger picture at all times when it comes to ensuring you can meet the challenges of the threat landscape.

Monitor for vulnerabilities

It's important to keep an eye on your organization's network vulnerabilities, even if the risks have been identified and prioritized. In addition, new vulnerabilities in cyber security might emerge at any moment. To stay ahead of any issues, continuously monitoring your network, devices, and key business systems will reduce your security risk as soon as vulnerabilities are identified.

Analyze gaps in your security controls

To construct a resilient organization and meet your regulatory compliance requirements, establishing a comprehensive set of security controls is critical. Your organization must implement controls—policies, procedures, processes, and technologies—to mitigate certain dangers and satisfy compliance requirements. Security controls are a critical part of protecting your business from cyberattacks and data breaches. While you might be confident in the ones you already have, it's critical to test them and look for potential holes.

Educate employees on cybersecurity best practices

By educating your employees on cybersecurity best practices, you can accomplish an even stronger security posture. This is particularly important if your business has any contractors or employees who work off-site or remotely. Security awareness training ensures your business systems are protected by a human firewall and that any suspicious activity is reported immediately to be dealt with before it becomes a company-wide problem.

Create an incident response plan

It is vital to have a plan in place before an incident occurs, to ensure a fast response and a quick recovery. An incident response plan needs to have these key elements:

• Preparation
• Identification
• Containment and eradication
• Recovery

To ensure the incident response plan is managed effectively, your business should also have a dedicated incident response team in place.

Improvise your security posture with the experts

The world of cybersecurity is continually evolving, making it a challenge for businesses to stay on top of the changes, which also involves understanding what threats are out there and how to best counter them. To keep your business secure, you need to have a strong security posture. With the help of the security experts at ThreatAdvice, implement these cybersecurity tools and measures and keep your business data safe.