Using your cybersecurity budget wisely

The year ahead holds a number of cybersecurity predictions that include evolving ransomware and the cybersecurity skills shortage, and an increase in business cybersecurity spending.  The spending is good news for security; but like with everything business related, if you don’t allocate that budget effectively, your dollars end up going wasted.  This can be avoided when you take a closer look at some of the cybersecurity predictions and what this means for spending so that a business assures it’s putting those dollars to good use for cybersecurity and business growth.

First on the list of predictions is ransomware as a means of attack, but an evolving means of attack.  This means you can learn from last year’s attacks, but you need to prepare for the unexpected due to the evolution of that type of attack.

The best solutions for preparing against different types of ransomware threats are to allocate some spending towards those areas that affect your data and ransomware.

• This means, employee training to inform employees of the ransomware threats as they evolve, change their look, and means of attack.

If you didn’t know, one of Verizon’s studies showed that 75% of attacks come from compromised credentials.  Even though this isn’t directly connected to a ransomware attack, what is clear is that your employees, those in the company with access to any data, are a source of information and a target of anyone who wants to try to get inside an organization’s network.

• By using yearly spending on monthly training for ransomware and phishing, you can ensure your employees are up to date on latest threat methods and what to do if in doubt when it comes to these types of threats.

Second on the list is the cybersecurity skills shortage, which is causing problems for organizations when it comes to hiring the expertise needed to work in-house on security matters.  What this means to spending is that businesses need to look for alternative solutions for that level of cybersecurity expertise through a mix of solutions that involve people, process and technology.

• In this context it means first of all, finding a cybersecurity partner that can be there to advise you on the best steps you can take; secondly, set up a business continuity plan for breach and/or unforeseen natural disasters; and thirdly, technology that can help you spot at least a part of the vulnerabilities, but not lead to an exaggerated number of false positives thanks to the human behind managing and reading the tools you use.

By approaching your cybersecurity spending with these areas in mind, you can rest assured that you will make the best use of your spending since your investment involves those people that know what they’re talking about and the processes needed in place to have a plan and assure an effective incident response when the time comes.

To talk more about how to best allocate your cybersecurity budget give us a call!

Photo Courtesy of Peshkov Daniil