How to Increase Cyber Resilience in a Company
Cyber resilience means your company can withstand various attacks and crisis situations, similar to driving a car without accidents. Just as safe driving requires both a well-maintained vehicle and a skilled driver, cyber resilience combines the capabilities of people and technology. Businesses must use a mix of technical and organizational measures to protect their data and information assets, making them more resilient to attacks and crises.
Key Measures to Enhance Cyber Resilience:
- Preventive Measures: Regular data backups, employee training, and encryption.
- Proactive Measures: Continuous network monitoring and antimalware solutions.
- Reactive Measures: Incident response plans and disaster recovery strategies.
By implementing these measures, your organization can better withstand cyber threats and recover quickly from any incidents. It is recommended use a mix of technical and organizational security measures as well as proventive a reactive processes. This mix makes your business more resilient to attacks and crises.
- People and Technology: Technical measures alone are not enough, just as organizational measures alone are insufficient. People and technology must work together, focusing on preventing various cyber threats.
- Prevention and Response: It's essential to have well-established prevention measures and the ability to respond effectively if a problematic situation arises.
The goal is to keep your organization running smoothly, making it resistant to all kinds of attacks, failures, and other disruptions.
What Does Implementing Cyber Security Mean in Practice?
Implementing cyber security involves putting in place appropriate and proportionate technical, procedural, managerial, and organizational measures. This includes:
- Risk Management System: Implement risk analysis and assessment.
- Information Security Guidelines: Establish clear guidelines for information security.
- Safety Management Processes: Implement processes to manage safety.
- Data and Information Security: Ensure the security and protection of data and information.
- Information System Security: Secure applications, software, hardware, and other IT equipment.
- Secure IT Service Providers: Use secure IT service providers, including cloud services.
- Staff Training: Provide training in information security for all staff.
- Incident Management: Implement procedures for recording, resolving, and reporting incidents.
- Operational Continuity: Ensure continuity of operations in the event of an incident.
- Continuous Improvement: Continuously improve the above measures.
Recommended Cybersecurity Resilience Measures
The above obligations imply that you have several organizational measures in place, which are essential prerequisites. These are basic principles and best practices. Cybersecurity is not only about IT and technical measures but also involves personnel and HR processes.
- Preventive Measures: Help prevent problems and maintain a more resilient environment.
- Proactive Measures: Counter threats and create active protection.
- Reactive Measures: Respond to problems that have arisen. Even a well-managed response helps to reduce the effects of problems.
Preventive Measures Help Prevent Problems
Prevention is absolutely key to resilience. By focusing on prevention, you can avoid many problems. This includes everything you can do and improve on an ongoing basis:
- Data Backup: Regularly back up your data to prevent loss.
- Education and Security Literacy: Educate employees and increase their security awareness.
- Encryption: Protect communications, devices, and data using encryption.
- Data Erasure: Erase data from devices you decommission.
- Employee Screening: Screen employees before they join the company.
- Access Control: Manage the assignment, change, and removal of permissions based on job roles.
- Maintenance and Updates: Perform regular maintenance and updates of IT equipment, hardware, and software.
- Inspections and Testing: Conduct regular inspections, evaluations, and testing.
- Access Removal: Remove all access when an employee leaves.
- Access Assignment: Ensure new employees receive the appropriate authorization.
Proactive Measures Actively Detect Attacks or Attackers
Proactive measures counter problems by actively seeking out or eliminating potential attacks or their sources. This includes:
- Antimalware: Antivirus, email security, URL filtering, etc.
- Network and Behavior Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of network activity and user behavior.
- Suspicious Behavior Monitoring: Keeping an eye on suspicious behavior of people or users.
Reactive Measures Help Manage Incidents
Don't assume that no attack or problem will occur. It's not a question of if, but when. Being prepared means that an attack or other problematic situation will impact you less severely, and you'll be able to recover faster and return to a stable state. Key reactive measures include:
- Knowing what to do in the event of an attack or other crisis situation.
- Having a spare, backup solution ready.
- Ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Knowing where your data backups are, how old they are, who to call, and who can restore them.
- Having response plans and procedures for accidents and recovery.
- Being able to restore the operation of systems.
How Does Aptien Help You Increase Your Cyber Resilience?
Aptien, as an organizational tool, helps you manage risks, individual measures, incidents, suppliers, and employee development. It also handles the assignment of permissions to employees.
- Risk Management: Effectively identify, assess, and mitigate risks.
- Supplier Management: Ensure your suppliers meet security requirements.
- Managing the Implementation of Measures: Oversee the execution of security measures.