The Importance Of Cybersecurity For Your Enterprise

Like sitting ducks, small businesses and enterprises are constantly under a threat of a black-hat hacker attack. Hacks and data breaches are not uncommon these days, to say the least. We often have a chance to see examples of such cases in the news. These kinds of attacks damage businesses in terms of leaked information and cost of repair. As an entrepreneur, one should get well acquainted with the potential problems their business might encounter along the path of development.

Data breaches are extremely expensive, especially for a developing business. Regardless of that, a great number of companies still do not pay for cybersecurity before the terrible breach.  Since the beginning of this year, companies have paid an average of $220 per compromised record! Additionally, companies spend about 6 million on the organizational cost of a data breach. And still, the rate of malicious attacks is constantly on the increase. Around 50% of all data gets lost due to hacker attacks.

How Secure is Your Company Anyway?

The National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST), through president Obama’s executive order, compiled a Framework of standards and guidelines as an optional set of security standards for companies of any size. This Framework allows businesses to asses their infrastructure to manage risks and to identify threats. The main points of the Framework are:

• Identify risks
• Protect infrastructure and assets
• Detect attack, risk or threat
• Respond to an attack
• Recover from an attack

This is not a universal guide, however it can applied logically to business of any type. It will help you with strategic planning and regulatory environments. You can analyze examples of best practices across the industry too. Some of the companies using the Framework include Chevron, Intel and the Bank of America. Smaller businesses, with around 50 employees or so also use this Framework and had been extremely satisfied with how they have began to manage their cybersecurity.

The Business Security Guide:

A ten point primer, issued by the Federal Trade Commission is an another way to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats. It helps companies deploy a secure remote access software and use only the best service providers. The guide is also used for the matters of personal security, security in the workplace as well as and on portable devices.

The National Cyber  Security Alliance had partnered with Business Executives for National Security to initialize Re: Cyber. It is a platform of useful resources which contains information on cyber policy and regulation, risk management for C-suite and tips for creating a culture of cybersecurity awareness in the workplace. Strong password, a clean PC and travelling with electronic devices are some of the points included.

Cybersecurity proves to be one of the most important things when it comes too running a business. Just one hack can mean the loss of all data and a hell of a lot of money too. Be prepared. Invest in cybersecurity on time and don’t think about it ever again.