Cyber threats are all around us. The most recent Allianz Risk Barometer ranked cyber incidents as a bigger threat to organizations than business interruptions, natural catastrophes, and pandemic outbreaks. It’s estimated that 93 percent of company networks are vulnerable to penetration from cyber criminals. In all, cyber-attack attempts increased by 50 percent over the past year.

If you aren’t taking cybersecurity seriously, now is the time! These threats aren’t going away. If anything, they’re only intensifying (and becoming more expensive). It’s necessary to prepare by developing a proactive cybersecurity plan for the future, but first, you have to understand where to start. This article will help you do just that.

The Elements of System Security

Part of the reason businesses don’t invest enough time, money, or resources into cybersecurity is that they’re often confused by the terminology and technology. Before we dig into some of the must-have elements of a comprehensive cybersecurity plan, let’s explain what we’re talking about in the first place.

What is Information Security?

Information security (Info-Sec) is about protecting physical and digital data from unauthorized use, access, disruption, disclosure, or destruction. Info Sec is different from cybersecurity in that it aims to protect all forms of data—not just digital data.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is a component of information security. Its primary purpose is to defend an organization’s digital assets and information. This includes the cloud, computers, network, and other components of your digital business systems.  Cybersecurity works by implementing a variety of technologies, processes, and practices to detect, defend, and neutralize against cyber attacks.

What is Network Security?

The purpose of network security, often referred to as cloud security, is to protect data in the cloud and prevent it from being manipulated or intercepted. Network security focuses on neutralizing ransomware, insider attacks, malware, zero-day attacks, trade-craft attacks, denial of service attacks, and more.

Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of the cybersecurity landscape and the different types of security that exist. Moving forward, this understanding should enable you to make more intelligent and proactive decisions. The next step is to develop a proactive cybersecurity plan that accounts for all of the key fundamentals.

The Three Fundamentals of a Cybersecurity Plan

At the heart of any good cybersecurity strategy, you’ll find three critical elements that will help you get the best results. They include:

1. Governance

Governance is how your organization controls IT security. It’s the foundational element of any good cybersecurity plan or strategy. It gives you a very specific set of rules that state what to do in certain situations, who is authorized to make decisions, and what policies and procedures must be followed. You can think of it as the security rule-book. What’s accounted for in your IT governance is what matters most.

2. Technology

Technology refers to the infrastructure you have in place to withstand cybersecurity threats. Governance is essential, but you also need technology in this day and age to support those rules. This includes physical security, cybersecurity, software, access control, and everything else. It also consists of testing—including regular and thorough network penetration tests and reviews.

3. Operations

Finally, you need a plan for putting all of the governance and technology into action. You can have all of the best rules and tools, but you still need to execute them. The operations component of your cybersecurity strategy ensures you’re able to follow through when the time is right. This usually involves an incident response plan, as well as the involvement of specific team members.

As you plan your cybersecurity strategy, make sure you’re including all of the right stakeholders in the conversation. This includes business leaders, IT staff, operational staff, and relevant team members. Ultimately, if you filter everything through governance, technology, and operations, you’re more likely to have a resilient strategy that keeps cyber-threats at bay and proactively protects the integrity of your organization as a whole.

Why Choose Third Wave Innovations’ Cybersecurity Services?

It doesn’t matter how small or large your organization is—you are not immune from cyber-threats. As the volume of cyber-attacks increases and criminals become bolder, the risk factor for companies continues to multiply.

Cybersecurity must be a priority. If you aren’t currently emphasizing it, you need a plan. At Third Wave Innovations, our managed security services are an important first step in the right direction. Not only do we help you implement the right tech solutions, but our team of elite security veterans proactively investigates threat activity across your enterprise.