People love the fresh start that comes with a new year: new goals, updated to-do lists, and the promise of things to come. In 2022, maybe you made some strides when it comes to cybersecurity and you’re feeling good about where you’re at.
And we’re not trying to rain on your parade but we are here to remind you that cybersecurity isn’t just a one-time thing; it’s something you need to stay vigilant about throughout the year. So in honor of the new year, we’d like to talk about a recent buzzword flying through cyberspace that’s going to gain a lot of attention in 2023: cyber resilience.
What We Mean by “Cyber Resilience”
We’re sure you recognize and understand those two words separately but what about in the digital world? To be resilient means that you can bounce back from any situation—if you lose your job, you’re able to find another without losing too much time or money. Or if your significant other decides that “there’s just someone better out there for the both of us,” you get through the break-up after just a few gloomy ice cream sessions.
So when it comes to cyber resilience, it’s all about protecting your data, systems, networks, and devices from cyber threats in an effective way. You need to be able to respond quickly when something goes wrong and have a plan of action so that you know how to recover from any damage or disruption.
Why Should Cyber Resilience Be Your Focus in 2023?
If you have a solid cybersecurity plan in place, it’s time to focus on disaster recovery and cyber resilience. As scary as it sounds, your ability to get your systems back up and running after a cyberattack or disaster determines how much money and the number of customers you lose.
And like cybersecurity in general, cyber resilience is an ongoing process of implementing tools, applications, and mindsets. A disaster recovery plan is vital, but if you and your employees don’t have the skills to implement it, your data is dead in the water.
The Threats Your Business Will Likely Face in 2023
Based on our research and data in the industry, here are some of the threats that you should be aware of:
1. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): This is a malicious attack that floods your system with so much traffic that it can no longer function.
2. Phishing: Some threats never change, do they? The social engineering of phishing scams—how a hacker personalizes their message—is becoming more complex.
3. Supply Chain Attacks: Not all threats come from the outside. Supply chain attacks involve malicious actors that compromise your systems through a vulnerability in the software or hardware of an external supplier.
4. Unsecured Wi-Fi: If you’re not encrypting your Wi-Fi connection, it’s easy for malicious actors to intercept and steal any data that’s sent over the network.
5. Insider Threats: Whether your employees or customers mean to be malicious or not, human error causes 95% of data breaches. 300 million records at TransUnion South Africa were held for $15 million because one of their customers used the word “password” as their banking login. People make mistakes, but you can put systems in place to avoid disaster.
Tips for Building and Fostering Cyber Resilience
Remember, cyber resilience is a long-term approach to cybersecurity and risk management. But if you’re ready to focus on cyber resilience, here are five tips for getting started.
- Invest in the right tools: Since your business relies on its data and network, you need to invest in a reliable backup system that quickly recovers your data after an attack or disaster.
- Train everyone: Cybersecurity awareness training can go a long way towards building cyber resilience within your team; make sure everyone is up to speed with the latest threats and best practices.
- Develop a plan: You need an actionable plan detailing every step of your response to an attack or disaster, from identifying what’s happened to notifying customers to recovering data.
- Prioritize communication: Communication is key in any crisis—make sure everyone in your team knows what’s happening and how they’re expected to respond.
- Monitor constantly with a managed service provider: Cyber resilience requires ongoing monitoring of your systems, networks, and applications for threats and vulnerabilities. The best way to do this is with a managed service provider (MSP) who will use threat intelligence software to keep track of any issues or suspicious activity on your system.
Bounce Back Better With Stability Networks
Cyber resilience becomes easy when you partner with our team at Stability Networks. By analyzing your current cybersecurity, making a step-by-step plan for the future, and providing ongoing monitoring, we’ll help you recover from any threat to your data.
Instead of constantly playing catch up with technology, let us help you use it to your advantage! Schedule a consultation with us today to see if we’d be a good fit as your managed IT partner.
