Discussing critical cybersecurity events is no longer a matter of if, but rather one of when. Over the past few decades, the total number of cases of cyber crime, its financial impact, and the number of companies involved have all continuously gone up.
In recent years, 2022 saw a peak in the total amount of monetary damage that cybercrime causes, amounting to over 10,300 million USD in one year alone. Even though this figure relates specifically to the American market, it’s one that closely resembles the vast majority of the world, with businesses across the globe feeling the heat and cyber crime ramps up.
The Current State of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is an industry that’s defined by continual change. Inherently connected to the tech industry, any major innovation will instantly have an impact on cybersecurity. Unfortunately, every single innovation that comes to this industry has an equal innovation for those using technology for malicious intent, making cybersecurity a sector that must constantly evolve.
Most recently, the industry has seen this with the proliferation of AI tools. While AI-first cybersecurity tools will help provide a comprehensive level of security monitoring, they are also being used by cyber criminals to produce and distribute threats more rapidly.
At present, only around 4/10 executives report that they are completely satisfied with their security defenses. Yet, even this figure of 40% is far higher than the 25% of IT security staff that have the same answer. It seems that even at the highest levels of business, there is a major disconnect between the lived realities of cybersecurity experts and the understanding of the C-suite.
Without a clear understanding of the threat that’s building, cybersecurity experts are having a hard time communicating risk management strategies to business leaders. The lack of communication between these channels is only serving to make companies even more vulnerable.
When combining the lack of response to threats with the increasing number of critical security events that occur in businesses each year, we can rapidly see that cybersecurity is on the precipice of disaster. Yet, the vast majority of events occur in businesses that are not prepared.
To avoid becoming just another part of the growing figure of impacted companies, your business must take preventative measures as soon as possible. And, with a new year getting started, there’s never been a better time to focus on your cybersecurity posture.
How to Prepare for Cybersecurity Events
Change doesn’t happen overnight. However, there are numerous strategies that your business can begin to make that will rapidly snowball to better prepare your company for the future. Instead of waiting until a security event occurs, you should instead look toward these preventative measures.
Here are some leading strategies you can use to prepare your business against malicious threats in 2024:
- Backup, Backup, Backup – Before doing absolutely anything, your business needs to establish a comprehensive backup strategy. You should have at least three backups to keep your data safe. In the event of a data breach or ransomware-critical scenario, you’ll be able to use your backups to evade some of the worst consequences.
- Increase Visibility – From your cybersecurity team to marketing and C-suite to product management, your business should aim to create complete security visibility. One method of doing this is training your employees on how to engage with security threats. If someone encounters a bug, a malicious email, or anything they consider to be a threat, they should know exactly who to get in contact with to neutralize the problem as quickly as possible.
- Risk Assessments – The businesses that are most likely to be negatively impacted by a cybersecurity event are those that haven’t taken into account the possibility of being attacked. While living in ignorance is certainly bliss, that won’t protect your company or its data in the long run. On the contrary, your business should continuously conduct risk assessments, penetration testing, red-teaming, and other methods of testing out your defenses. With this strategy, you’ll be able to find vulnerabilities before attackers do and mitigate them.
Alongside working with your cybersecurity team to improve overall defenses, you should also take a more general approach. Explaining the importance of cybersecurity to all your employees and creating a security-conscious company culture will help to improve your chances of avoiding critical security events.
Although you can rely on modern tools and systems to protect you, they’ll only go so far. Real preparation comes from the ground up, with your employees forming a key part of your security posture.
Final Thoughts
Constructing comprehensive cybersecurity defenses won’t happen overnight. While companies can look for platforms, systems, and tools that help to keep them safe, there is still a large part of security that rests on a company’s culture. If business leaders don’t understand the threat, then they won’t invest in employee education and will fail to raise their company’s cybersecurity skill level.
Over the next year, business leaders should make cybersecurity one of their top priorities. In the context of the rising threat, any investment into cybersecurity now will pay off later. Additionally, businesses that overlook their defenses could end up like one of the more than 1,800 companies in the US alone that experience data breaches each year.
When it comes to building cybersecurity defenses, the best time to start is right now.
