You’re 40% Protected – Here’s What Your Information Security Is Missing

You’re failing your company, clients, partners and business contacts because you’re having the wrong conversation around information security. You probably don’t realize the scale of the problem. After all, you have a firewall. An IT consultant sends you slick monthly reports showing how many threats they quashed. That’s nice, but it’s not even half of what you should be doing to protect your livelihood.  

Would You Deliver 40% of a Service to Clients and Call It a Day?

It’s easy to feel like you’re getting a good value for your cybersecurity services, even when they’re lacking. Even if you tick off every item in this list, you’re not protected:

• Anti-virus
• Firewall
• Two-factor authentication
• Strong password policies

If your IT department or managed service provider is only taking steps like these to keep cybercriminals out, they’re only delivering 40% of the safeguards you need.

When was the last time you only gave 40% of a solution to a client? Never (we hope)

No matter how critical the 40% is to the well-being of your client, it’s still an incomplete offering. It’s the same with cybersecurity. The organizations who survive an attack intact are ones who are ready to pounce when criminals break past the line of defense.

Detection Is the Other 60% and It Saved FireEye from Total Collapse

FireEye^® got its share of bad publicity when a nation-state launched a state-of-the-art cyberattack in late 2020. Believe us, it could have been worse. True, FireEye didn’t prevent the hack. But it was only a matter of time. Malevolent threat actors only need a single victory to infiltrate a company. No one – not even a firm overflowing with cybersecurity experts – can prevent every attack.

Sophisticated cybersecurity companies like FireEye know this and have tools in place to detect and boot out criminals who sneak into their network. It’s part of a set of best practices every business should follow.

Your first step to a more secure IT environment won’t cost anything

Safeguarding your business starts with recognizing the game changed. Leading technology companies already made this change. Like FireEye, they adopted a zero-trust framework to minimize the damage criminals can unleash on their organizations. You can do this too.

Use Zero Trust to Fill in the Missing 60% from Your Information Security Solution

Neatly tie together your exterior and interior defenses with a technology strategy that uses the zero-trust approach to cybersecurity. Zero trust implements stringent security and access controls for all users, devices and documents on your network. You’ll keep your firewall and anti-virus, but layer on tools to:

• Continually look for suspicious activity on your network
• Protect documents and identities
• Root out the bad guys who break into your cyberspace

Defining the who, what, when and where of access to your network outlines what counts as suspicious. Tools can then constantly run in the background, looking for anomalies. When unusual activity is detected, you get an alert. Your IT professional can immediately start isolating the threat.

How to start a conversation about cybersecurity with your IT team or managed service provider

In meetings with whoever provides your IT security services, don’t let preventative cybersecurity measures dominate the conversation. If the meeting lasts an hour, spend 20 minutes getting updates on your firewall, anti-virus and password changes. Then shift your focus in the last 40 minutes to answer these questions:

• Once all that has been bypassed, how do we detect credible threats?
• How do we make sure the right people are quickly alerted?
• How do we kick cybercriminals out?  

Don’t let the pendulum swing too far

Letting firewall or anti-virus subscriptions expire because you have endpoint detection and response isn’t the right answer. You want to know you’re taking advantage of 100% of the security systems available to your business. The only way to do this is to combine interior and exterior protections.

Prevention and detection require different skillsets 

It’s possible you already have access to tools, like endpoint detection and response, through your existing software licensing. But it would be a mistake to just flip it on and expect your current internal team or outsourced IT provider to handle it. First, they might not have the capacity to properly manage the tool. If they do have the time, they could lack the training it takes to sort through the steady stream of alerts the system sends.

Cybercriminals don’t clock in at 8 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m. to hit the gym

Hackers are spread out around the world. There’s no set time zone or hours for operation. Your attack could come at 3 a.m. when you’re sound asleep. Depending on who manages your technology, your IT expert may be asleep too. By the time you head to the office at 9 a.m., you could have suffered irreversible damage. The criminal could have copied every credit card and social security number stored in your systems. It’s a 24/7/365 job and requires professionals ready to take on that responsibility.

Get a Snapshot of Your Risks

Implementing the right levels of control depends on knowing how exposed your organization is. Start with a risk assessment. It will lay out the biggest threats you’re facing right now and give detailed instructions on how to shore up your business. Better protect your clients, partners and employees. Call us to get started right now.