How strong is your organization’s security posture? What can you do to strengthen it? Read on to learn how to make your organization’s security posture even stronger.
Why Your Security Posture is Important
Your organization’s security posture reflects how strongly you can defend your data, network, and infrastructure from cyberattacks, data breaches, and other threats. A weak security posture means you are at extreme risk; a strong security posture means that your organization is better protected.
Given the magnitude and increasing risk of cyber threats, having a strong security posture is essential. According to the IBM Cost of Data Breach Report 2021, the average cost of a data breach increased from $3.86 million to $4.24 million in 2021. Ransomware attacks alone increased 148% over prior year levels through the third quarter of last year. The stronger your security posture, the better you can defend against such attacks.
How to Ensure a Stronger Security Posture
According to IDG’s Cybersecurity at a Crossroads: The Insight 2021 Report, 78% of IT security leaders believe their organizations are insufficiently protected against cyberattacks – and 91% are increasing their cybersecurity budgets in response. Here are five steps you can take to strengthen your firm’s security posture.
1. Perform a Thorough Security Assessment
The first step in strengthening your security posture is to assess potential risk and evaluate your current defenses. This security assessment should include:
- Identifying assets that might be targeted by cyberattacks – what assets you have, where they’re located, who can access them, and their value to your organization
- Assessing the current state of your organization’s network and data security
- Assessing potential threats to your data assets
Based on this security assessment, you can then determine which assets are most at risk and develop preventative measures to mitigate those risks.
2. Prioritize Threats by Potential Impact
When assessing potential threats, know that not every threat is the same. You need to identify those threats that could have the biggest impact to your business. This could include threats that:
- Impact the most data or assets
- Impact the most sensitive data (including customer records)
- Have the largest financial impact on your business
- Could shut down your entire system for an extended period of time
You should also prioritize the most likely threats to your organization, such as ransomware and phishing attacks. This way you won’t waste time guarding against less likely or less damaging threats.
3. Automate Threat Detection
Detecting threats is a full-time job – even when you don’t have staff on it full time. One of the most effective ways to strengthen your security posture is to automate the threat detection process. Automating threat detection strengthens your security in a number of important ways:
- Enables you to stay on top of all potential threats
- Eliminates human error – catches everything that occurs
- Bridges any existing gaps in your cybersecurity
- Shifts from reactive security to proactive security
Threat remediation can also be automated. This enables immediate action against identified threats without having to wait for human interaction.
4. Regularly Update All Software, Systems, and Devices
Many security incidents start by malicious actors exploiting known vulnerabilities. Unless you update your apps and operating systems on a regular basis, you leave open the possibility that cyberattackers can take advantage of these vulnerabilities to infiltrate your system.
In many instances, companies issue security patches that companies are too slow to install, leaving attackers a window of opportunity. You need to establish the standard operating procedure of installing all security patches and system updates as soon as they are issued. This should apply to not just your primary apps and systems, but also to custom software and apps from third parties. The same policy should apply to all company devices – and be highly recommended for personal devices employees use to access your system.
5. Beef Up Remote Security
With a growing remote workforce, due in part to COVID-related restrictions, many cybercriminals are targeting employees working from home as a means to gain access to corporate systems. You need to deploy all necessary methods to more strongly secure employees connecting via less-secure personal devices and home or public Wi-Fi networks. Special attention should be given to securing employee communications, ideally via a secure communications platform that employs end-to-end security, such as that offered by Wickr.
Let Wickr Help Strengthen Your Firm’s Security Posture
When you want to strengthen your security posture via more secure communications, turn to the security experts at Wickr. Our secure communications and collaboration platform uses end-to-end encryption and other military-grade security to ensure that all text, voice, and video communications are completely secure from hijacking or attack. Wickr also effectively protects against cyber threats such as phishing, malicious file attachments, and ransomware. Ensure that all of your communications stay safe and secure – and strengthen your security posture – with Wickr.
Contact us today to learn more about how Wickr can help you strengthen your security posture!