With every year that passes CIOs and executives around the globe know there will be more security risks and incident threats to deal with due to advances in technology and the adoption of these technologies within the workplace (needed to stay in business as the world goes digital).
But what are some of the challenges with these tools and technologies that can provide some focus to avoid CIO and CEO overload in how to approach incident response planning and/or setting up a holistic cybersecurity posture? Well, the main challenge, no matter how you look at this, is the uncertainty that comes with the rise in the types and numbers of digital tools and technologies being adopted and used within the company.
Whether businesses want to or not, and independently from the size of a company, digital tools and technologies are a part of (or will at some point become a part of) conducting every aspect of doing business, of closing business and new deals or partnerships, and of operating within the enterprise between the c-suite, departments and teams, and new and returning clients. Every type of software adopted, from invoicing software to anti-virus tools and CRMs add security risks to the enterprise.
There’s the need to patch and ensure patching takes place to reduce vulnerabilities, which creates its own sets of issues with the functionality of the software, as well as its ability to work with other software. There’s also the aspect of every machine that has the software uploaded to it, and the machine itself needing to be checked for vulnerabilities.
Software alone creates many areas for the CIO to have to take into account as they work on security within the enterprise day in and day out; and in the absence of a CIO or any expert IT security staff member, the CEO is most likely not informed on every aspect that needs to be taken into account to ensure a reduction of risks from the software and machines used, but also limited experience in setting up an appropriate incident response plan that is not only written up and decided upon, but also put into practice to ensure it works.
For a bit of a reality check, it is known that software and machines go through continuous updates. This means, whether a company has someone coming in to patch, update, and ensure a reduction of vulnerabilities with the basic tools used to conduct business operations or if they do it in-house, security steps and incident response plans don’t stop here.
There’s also the adoption of the cloud, IoT devices, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and let’s not forget about employee devices (bring your own device – BYOD). All of these advances are a means to better serve consumers, grow one’s business, but also make room for hackers to get in.
As my father use to say, “Have a Plan or Plan to Fail.” It’s the same with Cybersecurity, Especially given the level of complexity today. You need to know your adversary, and what they want want from you. Accept that this is a war that will never end. Realize that someone, somewhere wants your data and it only a matter of time before they gain access. You must develop your security framework and build your defenses. Build for security and resilience.
~Mike Fitzpatrick, NCX Group CEO
Today, every business is a tech business and conducts a good portion of their business operations online, but not every business is investing budget and time into setting up a holistic cybersecurity posture that includes an effective incident response plan.
With the new digital tools and technologies that bring about vulnerabilities to an organization, CIOs and executives should look to get the support they need with the IT security expertise skills gap that impedes them from being able to take care of all the incident threats and security risks ahead.
Let’s talk about how NCX Group can help you set up an effective incident response plan and/or a holistic cybersecurity posture for this year, and more years to come.
Photo courtesy of pathdoc