Tips for Developing an Effective Cybersecurity Strategy

By Marianne Chrisos - Last Updated on April 12, 2018
Tips for Developing an Effective Cybersecurity Strategy

Do you have a security strategy for your company?

How to develop an effective cybersecurity defense strategy for your business.

No matter how big your business or even what industry you’re in, you need to make developing a cybersecurity strategy a priority. An IT security strategy is built to protect all your information technology assets – website, e-commerce app or web store, data and analytics, plus any other digital assets.

There are several ways that a business could find themselves under attack or with their information and technology vulnerable and in trouble. These include:

  • Malware
  • Ransomware
  • DDOS attacks
  • IoT and app connectivity attacks

With these and other challenges in mind, it’s important that your company work on developing a cybersecurity plan to protect your business.

Hire the Best Team

Part of figuring out how to implement cybersecurity is having the right people in place. This is two-fold.

First, if your business is big enough, your IT team should be your first line of defense. You want to make sure you hire the best information and technology talent you can. This means paying attention to education and experience, particularly as it relates to cybersecurity and staying knowledgeable on trends. Having a competent IT staff can also help you train other departments within your business – training on cybersecurity means making sure your employees know not to click on any phishing emails and are educated on good password practices, for instance.

Second, if your business is smaller or newer, you may want to connect with a cybersecurity expert or consultant who can help you develop the right strategies and get a plan in place. A specialized consultant might seem like an unnecessary expense, but they can help you develop a cybersecurity strategy template to protect your business and help you understand current technology, trends, and threats, all of which is a worthwhile investment.

Plus, once you have an established cybersecurity plan in place, you can document it and regularly update it so that your business is prepared in the future.

Make Sure Your Strategy is Comprehensive

When working on your cybersecurity strategy – whether with your internal team or a consultant – you want to make sure you don’t just focus on one area and forget about other potential vulnerabilities.

Developing a cybersecurity strategy needs to be a cohesive plan that covers preventing attacks, detecting problems, fixing and solving issues, and regularly updating backups. These different areas will all require different mini plans and potentially different software or hardware solutions.

Find Smart Solutions

There are plenty of tools and software to help your business be safer, and researching these tools should be a part of developing a cybersecurity strategy. When finding the right tools for your business, there are a few areas to focus your efforts on to limit your vulnerability:

  • Application security solutions
  • Endpoint security
  • Network security
  • Cloud system and storage security

Implementing a security policy for your cyber assets can be daunting, but having the right people in place, researching the right tools, and understanding all areas that fall under the need for cybersecurity protection can help you start the process and ensure a more secure and protected business.

Marianne Chrisos | Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a company near Dallas and contributing writer around the internet. She earned her master's degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University in Chicago and has worked in publishing, advertising, digital marketing, and content strategy.

Marianne Chrisos | Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a c...

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