Amid concern about an impending global recession, many organizations are seeking to reduce their operating costs. Cybersecurity programs may be a tempting target, but blanket cuts to cyber defenses can have devasting consequences. All businesses are potential cybercrime targets; those that are unprepared may suffer heavy financial or reputational losses, potentially putting them out of business.
Instead of cutting your defenses, you should recession-proof your cybersecurity operations by prioritizing and streamlining. Using a risk-based approach, organizations can strategically allocate security resources where they’re needed most, limiting costs without opening themselves up to excessive risk.
Assess Risk
First, you should perform a comprehensive risk assessment to identify your critical assets, major vulnerabilities and likely threats. It’s impossible to determine which components of your cyber defense are indispensable versus “nice to have” without a thorough understanding of your assets and possible threats. If compromises must be made, those decisions should be based on your organization’s unique risk profile.
Measure Effectiveness
Part of recession-proofing your security program is evaluating its effectiveness. How do you determine what security expenditures are actually improving your security posture? By measuring. Establish meaningful metrics to identify which controls are integral to your security and which aren’t providing a return on your investment.
Evaluate Tools
Many organizations invest heavily in security tools, and ongoing implementation and subscription costs eat into the security budget. Consider performing an audit of your security tooling to determine whether each tool is providing sufficient value in mitigating likely threats. Some tools may be performing overlapping functions, allowing you to cut costs by consolidating.
Standardize Processes
Due to competing priorities, many cybersecurity programs lack streamlined, well-documented processes. Formalizing and clearly documenting these processes can improve overall efficiency at minimal cost.
Collaborate and Delegate
Look for opportunities to leverage other IT personnel or managed service providers to alleviate resource constraints on your security team. For example, have your network team assume responsibility for firewall management or engage a cybersecurity partner to handle threat monitoring.
Demonstrate Value
Many executives still consider cybersecurity to be a cost center. During times of economic uncertainty, it’s imperative to counter this misconception by making a business case for security. To keep your program off the chopping block, you need to clearly communicate how your security operations enable overarching business objectives and back up those assertions with relevant data points.
Prioritize Your People
If you must cut security costs, these two things should be off the table: security training and skilled employees. Most breaches involve a human element, and there’s already an acute cybersecurity skills shortage. The average recession only lasts 13 months, but cuts in these areas will put you at a disadvantage for much longer.
At MBL Technologies, we specialize in developing cost-effective, results-driven cybersecurity solutions. We can help recession-proof your cybersecurity operations to keep you safe even when budgets are tight.
