The number of data breaches last year set a new record, marking a 68% increase compared to 2020. Cybersecurity
Is your organization’s security infrastructure ready to withstand a cyberattack? Here are some steps you can take to bolster your defenses before they are put to the test.
Build Resiliency
Experiencing a cyberattack is more a question of when rather than if. However, you can reduce the impact of a breach by building resiliency into your infrastructure. You should create integrated business continuity and incident response plans that clearly outline the steps your organization will take to recover and respond, respectively, to an attack. These plans should be tested periodically to ensure they are effective and that personnel are ready to execute their assigned roles—speed is crucial to the enactment of both plans.
Reliable data backups are a critical component of a resilient security infrastructure and the cornerstone of many business continuity plans. Ensure your backups are diversified by following the 3-2-1 rule: maintain three copies of your data, store them using two different types of media and keep one backup offsite. This approach protects your backups from being compromised by a single point of failure.
Minimize Vulnerabilities
Employ a vulnerability management strategy to harden your security infrastructure against attacks. You should regularly scan your assets to detect known vulnerabilities, then prioritize them for remediation, mitigation or acceptance based on the risk they pose to your organization.
Know Your Infrastructure
In the words of Frederick the Great, “He who defends everything, defends nothing.” Security resources are limited and should be deployed strategically to protect your most valuable assets from the most serious threats. This is only possible if you know what assets you have, their value to your organization and the threats facing them.
Your security infrastructure should maintain an up-to-date inventory of hardware and software assets. Additionally, you should know what sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or private health information, is stored or processed by your organization. Ideally, data should be classified per a defined policy.
Once you know what assets and data you are protecting, you need to perform a comprehensive risk assessment to identify the strengths, weaknesses and urgent gaps in your security infrastructure. This assessment is critical to formulating and evaluating your cyber defense posture, so consider enlisting the aid of an experienced cybersecurity partner to ensure you get it right.
MBL Technologies offers comprehensive cybersecurity services that can help you understand your environment and address its unique risks in an informed and cost-effective manner. Let’s build a strong, resilient cybersecurity infrastructure that’s ready for the threats of 2022 and beyond.
