Everybody, from the small enterprise owner, to senior enterprise executives are confronting a seemingly insurmountable problem: Fixed and rising cyber security breaches. It seems it doesn’t matter what we do, there’s always somebody that was hacked, a new vulnerability exploited, and millions of dollars lost.
In an effort to stem the tide individuals have tried everything: From throwing cash at it by buying the latest and greatest tech gizmos promising security, to outsourcing cyber security management, to handing it over to the IT folks to deal with it. And, each time the result is money lost, productivity decreased, and the attacks continue.
Many business individuals complain that we’re not just shedding a battle here and there. We’re shedding the war. Is that true? The reality is that those who keep losing their cyber battles and risk dropping the war are making three critical mistakes:
1. They think cyber security is a technology problem.
2. They follow a cyber security check list once-and-done.
3. They don’t have a cyber security awareness training program in place.
First, cyber security shouldn’t be a technology problem. Removed from it. It’s a business-critical problem, and more importantly: It’s a folks problem, and we need to address it at that level.
Second, cyber security is a constantly evolving battlefield. The threats evolve, the attacks take new paths, the undermendacity technologies change. A static check list solves yesterday’s problems, not as we speak’s, and definitely not tomorrow’s.
Finally, if individuals don’t understand the threat they won’t even see the attack coming, a lot less be able to reply and protect themselves. Cyber security awareness training is the only way to arrange everyone for the new reality we live and work in.
Keep in mind: Cyber security just isn’t an IT problem. It is a risk administration problem, a keep-in-business problem. This is less complicated to understand in you work in a regulated industry. There, the idea, language, even governance of risk management is a part of the daily lexicon.
Not so with small and mid-market business less familiar with the risk management function. It doesn’t assist that the very nature of the threat and the way the “payload” of the attack is delivered is via information technologies. It nearly makes sense to have IT deal with cyber security. But the victims will not be the computers. The victims are the companies and their people.
More importantly: An organization’s Info Technology generates Value. It does so a myriad different ways depending on the business you’re in, from the precise delivery of products to purchasers (e.g. software companies, data businesses, media and technology companies etc.) to complementing, enhancing, and realizing the mission and vision of the corporate (law firms, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, etc.)
Cyber security, like all risk administration, is there to protect value. Subsequently, you can never have cyber security (the value protector) report to IT (the value creator). That creates a battle of interest. Just like IT reports directly to the CEO, so should cyber security. They’re parallel tracks keeping the business train aligned and moving.
Once you have the reporting construction correctly in place, it is advisable empower it with executive purchase-in and engagement. Cyber security needs your direction on firm goals and risk appetite so they can develop the fitting strategy to protect the corporate’s assets. Cyber security professionals, working with the board and executives, including IT and business units, will develop the suitable defense-in-depth strategy that’s right for the company.
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