How Enterprises Should Shop for Enterprise Cybersecurity

In an ever-evolving technological world, investing in cyber security for enterprises is an absolute essential. The rapid and continuous digitalization of business operations means that companies rely more and more on digital tools and assets to provide high quality services to customers and maintain a competitive edge. 

Concurrently, cyber threats and cyber attacks have risen dramatically to target vulnerabilities within digital infrastructures. The nature and tactics of such threats may change, but the consequences of cyber attacks for businesses are the same, and only growing more serious – data breaches, financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory repercussions can hobble even the sturdiest organization. 

In order to determine the best way to protect your enterprise from threat actors, the first step is to understand what enterprise cyber security entails.

What is Enterprise Cyber Security?

Enterprise cyber security is a term broadly describing how businesses implement practices that protect their company from cyber threats. Cyber security for enterprises can include many different approaches and strategies in service of protecting digital assets, information, and users. Common practices can be both proactive and reactive, and involve covering networks, systems, and data with firewalls, using antivirus software and encryption tools, undergoing routine risk assessment and vulnerability management, incident response training, and more.

An effective enterprise security architecture will be multi-layered and cognizant of the many techniques and endpoints through which threat actors may attempt to gain unauthorized access to your systems and data. Safeguards should be set up for on-premises hardware, mobile devices, cloud-based technology, and anywhere else containing valuable assets that might be exposed to intrusion, in order to prevent and mitigate data breaches, ransomware attacks, social engineering, software vulnerabilities, and more.

It is important to note that enterprise cyber security solutions are relevant to businesses of all sizes, not just large businesses with revenue above $10M or $50M, depending on how you might traditionally define the word “enterprise.” Robust enterprise security systems are a must-have for all organizations. To better understand why cyber security is important, consider the benefits of ensuring the safety of your business, and the risks of leaving yourself unprotected.

The Importance of Enterprise Cyber Security

There are a multitude of good reasons to ensure you have a strong cyber security enterprise. Here are just a few:

Prioritizing Customer Trust:

• Enterprises live and breathe on the strength of their reputations. If customers do not trust your cyber security practices, that is a death knell for your business. Customers expect that when they share personal and financial information with your organization, their data will be kept safe. When that trust is broken, the consequences can be cataclysmic. One need only look at the very recent history of major data breaches – Yahoo, Facebook, Equifax – to see that customers drop products and services in a hurry when they no longer feel their data is secure, not to mention the potentially billions of dollars in fines that can be levied. On the contrary, if customers feel your business is trustworthy, they will remain loyal and even spread the word that your organization is reliable.
  
  

Plugging Data Leaks

• Data leaks, such as those referenced above, can occur for a variety of reasons. External cyber attacks are just one of the ways your data can be compromised. Data leaks can be sourced to internal issues, stemming from either malicious intent or human error. According to a recent Gartner report, 69% of surveyed employees deliberately bypassed security controls in the past 12 months, and 93% knew their actions would increase organizational risk but proceeded all the same. Internal threats are difficult to prevent, but regular audits of company software, hardware, and employees can help create redundancies and resiliencies that take the onus off a single layer of security. Simultaneously, emphasizing security awareness training can help minimize the risk of human error.
  
  

Mitigating Cyber Threats

• External cyber threats from bad actors are perhaps the most well-known hazards to enterprises. Phishing, ransomware, denial-of-service (DoS), advanced persistent threats (APTs), and brute force attacks are just some of the types of attacks that cyber criminals employ. Whether for the purposes of financial gain, espionage, political activism, or just for sport, cyber criminals can be incredibly wily and up-to-the-minute with strategies designed to exploit security vulnerabilities. Keeping up to date with the latest and most effective cyber security techniques is the only way to maintain business continuity in the face of determined and unscrupulous criminal behavior. Read below to learn about specific best practices.
  
  

Enterprise Cyber Security Best Practices

The practice of having multiple differentiated layers of security controls is referred to as defense in depth. Defense in depth is a comprehensive strategy leveraging several layers of security in case one or more are compromised, all of which aim to stop cyber threats before they happen, but which also thwart attacks that are already underway. These various layers do not all do the same job, but they are all necessary. Here are some best practices of a defense in depth strategy for your enterprise security system.

Assessing Architecture Vulnerabilities

Assessing potential weaknesses in your enterprise's systems and architecture is crucial. Absolute vigilance is required. Make sure any new software or processes are in airtight alignment with the core systems of your business, and review all relevant security and compliance regulations at systematic intervals (these requirements can change in small but meaningful ways, often without much warning). Bring risk management into every stage of your projects, from design to implementation to maintenance. 

Recognizing Security Scope

One of the best ways to protect your company data is to match your security infrastructure with the needs of your enterprise. Consider the scalability of whatever cyber security solution you choose – are the tools in your data security solution going to continue to work well as your company expands? In the same vein, while it is very important to dedicate significant resources to cyber security, you will want to avoid overextending your budget in ways that don’t actually provide additional layers of protection. Over $150 billion is spent per year globally on cyber security – consult with experts to ensure you use your money wisely.

Securing Your Data

It goes without saying that data is among the most valuable assets at your company. Cyber criminals looking for a big payday are often hoping to sell stolen credentials and other digital assets on the dark web. Employing cyber security architecture elements such as firewalls, antivirus software, and virtual private networks (VPNs) are a good first line of defense. Centralized monitoring, network segmentation, and distributed security controls can also help isolate sensitive data from harmful access. Most of all, data encryption will guarantee that even if your data becomes compromised, only authorized users will be able to quickly decrypt the actual content of the data packets.

Limiting Privileges and Educating Employees

Finally, preparing your employees as thoroughly as possible for potential threats is key to a successful cyber security scheme. Human error is unfortunately both very common and very dangerous, and there is not always a way to anticipate mistakes. However, training employees on best practices and cyber security awareness is the only way to truly have a chance at end-to-end security. Your IT departments can provide comprehensive resources and examples for your employees to review, as well as simple ways of reporting suspicious activity as it occurs. Moreover, limiting privileges held by individual and lower-level employees will reduce security gaps. Implementing access control and multi-factor authentication (MFA), and eliminating automatic sharing of admin privileges are all healthy security practices.

Conclusion

Enterprise cyber security solutions are most effective when there is buy-in across the entire organization. Everyone from temp workers to contractors to C-suite officers all do their part to provide top-notch security. Contact the cyber security experts at Compuquip to get help and advice for protecting your business’ interests.