As IT security consultants and managed service providers, we are business partners who provide clients with enterprise-level IT. We specialize in overwhelmingly intricate technology and keep ourselves abreast of the latest cybersecurity developments. However, as with all partnerships, you have a role to play, too. Here’s how you and everyone in your team can play a proactive role in your business’s cybersecurity.
Understand the threats you’re facing
Before any small- or medium-sized business (SMB) can work toward preventing cyberattacks, everyone involved needs to know exactly what they’re up against. Whether you’re working with in-house IT staff or an MSP, you should review what types of attacks are most common in your industry. Ideally, your team would spearhead this review a few times a year.
Reevaluate what it is you’re protecting
Once you have a list of the biggest threats to your organization, you need to take stock of how each one threatens the various cogs of your network. Map out every company device that connects to the internet, what type of data they have access to (regulated, mission-critical, low-importance, etc.), and what services are currently protecting those devices.
Create a baseline of protection
By reviewing current trends in the cybersecurity field and auditing your current technology framework, you can begin to get a clearer picture of how you want to prioritize your preventative measures versus your reactive measures.
Before you can start improving your cybersecurity approach, you need to know where your baseline is. Devise a handful of real-life scenarios and simulate them on your network. Network penetration testing from trustworthy IT professionals will help pinpoint weak spots in your current framework.
Finalize a plan
All these pieces will complete the puzzle of what your new strategy needs to be. With an experienced technology consultant on board for the entire process, you can easily synthesize the results of your simulation into a multipronged approach to proactive security.