If you are looking for effective ways to harmonize your cybersecurity 2021 budget with business, here are some helpful tips to guide you.
It is important for executives to find their way around spending for cybersecurity in the most efficient way possible for the business, while also not losing sight of a holistic posture.
As a security company that focuses on guiding business owners and security executives through the complex holistic cybersecurity environment, we see how things fall through the cracks due to incomplete cybersecurity spending solutions.
The following tips will guide you to avoid the cracks and spend in a way that fulfills your business operational needs and holistic cybersecurity needs.
Tip 1: Spend on technology that easily adapts with changing times and that has remote workforce risks as a priority.
We recently interviewed Larry Ponemon on the Bite Size Security podcast regarding growing remote workforce risks (if you want to tune in: click here) and it is clear that they are growing, even when COVID-19 lockdowns pass.
While the C-suite was once focused on technology centered around Identity and Access Management (IAM), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and Data Loss Prevention (DLP), now there is more. Defenses go beyond the firewall and can include zero-trust architecture with split-tunnel VPNs, for example.
Tip 2: Identify the new risks involved with a remote workforce and break it down in a way that the C-Suite can understand.
The C-Suite is used to measuring based on business terms of loss and gain, which has always presented (and still presents) a challenge for the CIOs and CISOs when it comes to budget approval. While you can propose an insurance policy for part of how you can mitigate loss, it is important to show how training your remote workforce will reduce risks, as well as how having an updated incident response plan and business continuity plan will benefit you long-term now that the risks are not solely in one physical location.
Tip 3: Align the cybersecurity budget with business objectives to harmonize spending with areas that the company is already evaluating investing on.
Any area of business operations that is of primary concern to the company is where you want to fit in cybersecurity too.
It may be an investment in technology and/or software for remote working teams. Perhaps the company is looking to invest in computers for the remote workforce or a new software for teams to work together. Whatever technology and software are being evaluated, ensure cybersecurity gets to be a part of that.
For new tech and software, you can also add the need for training of the remote workforce, which gives you leeway to make it basic cybersecurity hygiene too. You can do this by showing how training improves performance since the time of employees using the software and/or technology won’t be lost, which takes place without any formal training. You can also show how training reduces remote workforce cybersecurity risks too.
Harmonizing your cybersecurity spending with business operations for 2021 is important if you’re going to meet the new risks that come with a remote workforce, as well as the new challenges presented at this time in a changing world.
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