Cyber security threats and attacks have become a major concern all over the world as they have become more prevalent during and post-pandemic. During the pandemic, when governments imposed various restrictions on the public, corporates all over encouraged their employees to work from home. This “new normal” has opened unforeseen avenues for cybercrooks to unleash various new cyber security threats and attacks as most corporates failed to see this coming and provide a cyber-safe remote working environment for their employees because they do not have end-to-end cyber security services. As a result, most of the companies whose threat intelligence services are weak and vulnerable, have to face the brunt of this onslaught and succumb to various attacks during this period and lose money & reputation while also facing various legal and compliance implications. Such companies are still mulling over the cyber attack recovery strategy. So, the pertinent question remains – How to make your business immune to cyberattacks? Does enterprise security really solve this problem? Let’s find out!
Nowadays, for a business to guard itself against various cyber security threats and attacks, the traditional way of detached and isolated approach to cyber security and threat intelligence services is not sufficient. Those measures may be good for a bygone era. As the infrastructure of businesses became more complex with the addition of various evolving tech elements like cloud infrastructure, mobile, IoT, and remote working, so are cyber security threats and attacks – they’ve become more complex, more vigorous, and more persistent and hence a need for a strong, comprehensive, end to end cyber security services have arisen. Rather than limiting the security of an enterprise to just having some policies, controls, and tools to monitor the same, enterprise security refers to a comprehensive architecture, protocols, and tools that are used to protect various assets of an enterprise – both physical and virtual from various external threats. These assets are not limited to data alone but also personnel, their roles, and functions.
There are various key phases in an enterprise security architecture and each has a specific purpose in defining and building the security of an enterprise.
1. Business context & risk assessment
Since cyber security threats and attacks vary from business to business, it is important to establish the context of the business, its extent, and its plan to reach its goals of the business. This major element in an enterprise security architecture helps in identifying the vulnerable areas of one’s business and help security professionals to come up with preventive measures and also prepare an action plan for a cyber attack recovery.
Once the business context is established and the risk factors are assessed, threat intelligence services will now have an overview of the enterprise security level in this phase.
2. Designing the enterprise security
Once the risk attributes are identified, business risk objectives are designed by security architects which is basically a blueprint on how to handle and strengthen enterprise security. This is an important phase where logical paths between various entities within the enterprise are identified viz., information, processes, and services, and the risk mitigation is designed based on the risk assessment identified.
3. Implementation
Once the blueprint for enterprise security is prepared and the plan of action is identified, the same is put into action, by implementing all the security processes identified in the previous phases, in real-time. All legal and regulatory compliances that are required by the business are adhered to in this phase.
4. Maintenance
Once end-to-end cyber security services are identified and implemented, the final phase would be monitoring the enterprise security system for the optimal operating state of the enterprise ensuring continuous security measures are in place and are being monitored for any eventualities.
Benefits of Enterprise Security
Having enterprise security doesn’t guarantee that your business is safe against cyber security threats and attacks. It only implies that you locked your enterprise for safety. A lock can be broken but it takes time and in the meantime, appropriate measures from your side would help you from being breached, hacked, and robbed. Instead of not having a lock at all, isn’t it a safe bet to always have a lock? Let’s see some major advantages of having enterprise security architecture for your business.
Trust, intact
The key to any successful business is the trust its customers have and once this trust is broken, it is impossible to gain it again! For this reason, businesses all over strive to get the trust of their customers and stakeholders. If you have strong enterprise security for your business, it helps you to increase the trust in all of your stakeholders and increases your business.
Sound, end-to-end cyber security services can not only potentially increase your business prospects to a higher level but also prevent you from losing one to cyber attacks! Once a business is attacked, the chances of cyber attack recovery are nil, and even if the business manages to recover, the trust is lost completely!
Attack, fewer
When you have strong enterprise security, it will result in fewer cyber attacks. It is obvious that the cyber attackers would target weak and vulnerable systems that are prone to attacks and having a good, strong security system would definitely slow them, if not completely deter their attempts. The average cost of a data breach today is USD 4.4 million globally, which is 13% since 2020. This shows how persistent the attackers are and also reflects the need for stronger enterprise security.
Compliance, on the dot
There are a number of data and information security standards that are required to be followed by an enterprise to make sure that the business is strong enough to withstand any unforeseen cyber attacks. Many businesses, depending upon the type of business, have to follow multiple security standards and having an enterprise security framework that aligns with government regulations will help the business sail smoothly through this without attracting any penalties from the compliance authorities.
In conclusion, most businesses fail at security mainly because of three reasons. The number one reason is a lack of understanding and the inability to assess the risk across the enterprise. Understanding enterprises’ vulnerabilities – both the major ones and the ones that appear to be minor would be the first step towards securing the enterprise.
The second reason for failing at security would be a lack of priority by the top order in an enterprise for securing their business. Cyber security should be considered one of the top priorities while building an enterprise and a proper budget should be allocated towards achieving the same. Unless the top management of the enterprise views this as an investment for the future, businesses are prone to fail at cyber security.
The third and most important reason is the lack of adequate funding. This is because most enterprises fail to see the merits of strong enterprise cyber security. One should remember that the cost of cyber attack recovery is far costlier than the expenditure to prevent it. IT professionals too, apart from being fully aware of the vulnerabilities and shortcomings of the system, should be able to explain to the management the effects of the same, the impact they cause, and the damage they can do to the enterprise as a whole so that the ones sitting at the top can realize and release adequate funds for building strong enterprise security.
