Business cybersecurity challenges intensify every year, with companies taken aback by data breaches and related issues. Disruptions are becoming typical troubles in industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and finance, affecting millions of customers.
It seems unattainable to be one step ahead of hackers, as their approaches are increasingly sophisticated, making phishing attacks challenging to identify. Moreover, insider threats are on the rise, with developers sabotaging their software codes for a cause—a movement called protestware.
Therefore, companies must be prepared for any imaginable risk compromising their cybersecurity systems. However, sometimes strong passwords and consistent employee training aren’t enough, so prevention is ideal.
Conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment is underrated, but it can protect your business from unwanted exposure. Here’s why you should do it more often.
You reduce your chances of experiencing a data breach
While the number of records exposed following data breaches in the US decreased in the past year, we’ve seen worse consequences of data leaks. In the first quarter of 2023, about 389,002,497 records were involved in data breaches in the US, according to Statista.
Data breaches are considerably dangerous for companies because their effects are long-term. Your company will have to manage the legal implications and damaged brand image, and it will be difficult to return to your previous profit-making.
That’s why you should approach cybersecurity solutions. Working with professionals will help cater a strategy to decrease your exposure to attacks by improving compliance based on trustworthy security policies, such as HIPAA or NIPA.
You manage insider threats
Whether internal or external, threats intensify as your brand becomes more popular, but while external ones aren’t that difficult to understand and identify since they’re done with a financial purpose, internal threats are always unexpected.
Protestware is a form of inside threat that can impact both employees and customers. In 2023, Tesla found that two former employees sent personal information to a German organization of over 75,000 workers, including consumer bank details and production secrets.
However, inside threats can also be the cause of carelessness, which is why companies must be vigilant about third-party access, employee monitoring, and unusual platform activity. Since this takes time, conducting frequent cybersecurity risk assessments can help manage the problem.
Your company is compliant with the latest regulations
Every business must keep up with how cybersecurity regulations change. Following them is necessary to ensure company operations are legal and ethical as imposed by laws in your country. Moreover, being compliant means trust from customers and stakeholders.
For example, the US National Cybersecurity Strategy recently improved some of its features, such as the objectives of better cybersecurity scenario exercises. In addition, the US government announced the State Department Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, whose responsibility will go beyond borders to provide support in managing cyber risks.
Europe and Singapore also have solid cybersecurity investments in place. Their procedures might be different from those of the US system, but it’s best to see how cybersecurity is tackled worldwide.
You increase productivity levels across all departments
Among the benefits of approaching a cybersecurity risk assessment plan is that you’ll find it easier to be more productive, as the report will offer insight into what you could change. For example, you could better assign outdated software and hardware solutions and change them until scheduling the next risk assessment.
It may seem unbelievable in the digital era, but many companies have old operating systems and ancient and slow computers. While they allow employees to get the job done, they’re not efficient in growing the business.
With risk assessment, you’re aware of the limits that outdated technology brings to the office and can update it according to the company’s needs, regardless of the industry. This way, your employees can be more efficient in solving tasks.
You create a cybersecurity defense strategy
Every business should have a cybersecurity defense plan in place because it helps respond to any problem that arises. Even the most basic program can ensure protection against firewalls or malware. However, besides prevention, the plan also covers detection and response as actions for a cybersecurity problem.
A risk assessment audit can help detect dangers to your system. Security monitoring tools are the best solutions in this situation because they raise awareness when regular defense mechanisms fail.
It is also important to know how the system responds to such risks. Assessing the damage, containing the incident, and finding the proper recovery systems are part of the strategy, and they should start as soon as the problem is discovered.
Cybersecurity challenges keep evolving
The business cybersecurity ecosystem is constantly changing, but one persistent problem we can’t seem to eliminate is human error. Therefore, leaders have to choose between switching to automation to avoid these mistakes or finding ways to manage them adequately.
At the same time, rapidly evolving technology makes things even more difficult, as digital literacy is still lacking around the globe. Employees and users also require constant training on cybersecurity, which includes more than how to create a password.
That’s why the labor shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals hinders companies’ productivity and innovation. The skill gap might also push companies to develop technologies that can replace such jobs, which can become a vicious cycle.
Truthfully, each company should create its own cybersecurity strategy. Regardless of the steps found online, working with professionals brings the best results for protecting consumer data and scaling the business. Of course, businesses should collaborate with competent cybersecurity brands that are equipped with support through the latest technologies, including AI-driven threat detection.
Are you ready to implement a cybersecurity risk assessment?
As companies find it more difficult to withstand threats in the online environment, customers are losing trust and always looking for competitors. Therefore, you must focus on cybersecurity resilience to avoid becoming obsolete as a brand.
The best way to do this is to create a cybersecurity risk assessment plan and frequently inquire about it. The reasons are plenty: the company is less exposed to data breaches, more compliant, and more productive.
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