Is Your Kingdom Ready for Battle?
Your business is your kingdom. In the days of old kings, they employed layered reactive and proactive defenses to protect their castle from intruders. It started with the sentries, stationed at the edge of the kingdom to identify approaching intruders and sound an early warning.
The knights would frequently patrol the kingdom looking for intruders and internal plots that might threaten the castle. The sentries and knights would undergo continuous training to ensure that they were battle ready.
The castle kept the most valuable possessions of the kingdom. As you approached the castle, the countryside was cleared of trees. That way you could see an enemy approaching and remove any obstacles they could hide behind during an attack.
This allowed the archers and catapults that were on the castle wall a killing field in the event of an attack. Next, you had a moat filled with water and creatures. This was to make it particularly difficult to approach the walls of the castle. The walls of the castle were very high with archers, catapults, and sentries keeping a look out for intruders.
Take a look at our cybersecurity pyramid that shows the layers of defense I am referencing.
Inside the Castle
Once inside the castle walls, there were more knights on patrol. These knights kept order and defended the castle in the event the external defenses suffered a breach. With an army of bad actors at your gates you need to cover all bases.
You should be asking yourself these questions when securing your perimeter.
- Have you had a formal security assessment performed preferably by an independent 3rd party company?
- Does your IT department check their work?
If yes, When? How often?
- How many layers do you have in your cybersecurity defense? Do you even know how many you have?
- In house or outsourced what is your cybersecurity approach?
- How do you rate your cybersecurity?
- Are you equipped to intercept traffic to known bad sites, and have email security systems in place to defend against spam and phishing attacks (threats that become increasingly common and more advanced everyday)
- Do you even have the right troops manning your defenses?
I know it’s a lot of pressure and a heavy burden to carry. I can imagine you may not even know where to begin to ensure your victory. First and foremost, it begins with IT maturity.
The chart below shows CIS’s own IT Maturity Model that is the key to all of our client’s success in their cybersecurity efforts.
This is a detailed in-depth proactive approach that has garnered amazing results for our current clients.
Enemies IN the gates – avoiding a coup
We spend a lot of time thinking about outside threats such as hackers that can cripple your business in an instance. But what about the threats within? The bad actors or uneducated employees that have already infiltrated your walls. Back in the days of old they refer to this as a coup. There are ways to prevent such an attack.
For starters:
- Protect every device and user on the network with a password that meets minimum security complexity requirements
- Make sure to change those requirements regularly. Each station on the network should contain updated and managed antivirus and software firewalls.
- 2FA on EVERYTHING!
- Enforce a strict process around passwords – absolutely no password sharing at any time
- Be sure that access to certain programs is only given to those who absolutely need it, keeping all departments separate
- Employee monitoring software should be applied to each system. – with this approach you can be alerted to many employee activities that weaken your business
- Ensure your troops have the tools and knowledge to thwart an attack – Training your employees is the most inexpensive and effective weapon to use in cybersecurity warfare.
Final thoughts
If your IT support personnel (whether they be an employee or a 3rd party provider) cannot quickly and succinctly tell how they manage and execute all aspects of your cybersecurity, then your IT kingdom is already under attack from within.
The best way to know if your kingdom is ready for battle is to get an assessment. Get your free 30-minute Cyber Security Gap Analysis. A gap analysis is the first step in a healthy IT maturity model which is paramount to your victory.
If you prefer to be on the winning side lets book some time on my calendar today.
