In the last decade many companies have migrated from a reactive approach to cybersecurity to another strategic, which covers both the incremental sophistication of attacks and the increasing value of the data and the largest amount of tools and defense processes.
To say that cyber attacks increase daily is no novelty. For years, research shows disturbing data on the number of incidents and, above all, their growing impact in terms of corporate cost and reputation.
Given this situation, deploying a well -designed security strategy is essential if what is sought is to find the balance between four essential factors: protection against increasingly frequent and sophisticated threats; Compliance with current regulations, either general (as NIS 2) or specific to the sector (Dora); Management of the costs associated with cybersecurity, especially those related to talent and competences; and guarantee that protection measures do not compromise the productivity and operation of the business.
Given the complexity of the current panorama, the traditional reactive approach has been replaced by different measures oriented to prevention. However, these strategies, designed to work temporarily, require a continuous review to adapt to the variable environment of threats. Substantial is also not to neglect another crucial pillar of cybersecurity: the response to incidents, which, although transcendental, is not the focus of this article.
How to trace then an effective cyber -cyber -cylinder prevention strategy oriented to preserve the data but also the continuity of the business? The response is to establish a plan that contemplates from the analysis of existing threats and the company’s cyber maturity, to the development of a cybersecurity program and a supervision and evolution continues.
A four phase strategy
Simplified, it could be assumed that all companies face a similar risk against cyberamenazas such as ransomware, ddos attacks or vulnerabilities in the supply chain. However, addressing a preventive strategy with traditional tools and approaches would not only be inefficient due to its high cost, but also ineffective, since it would inevitably affect the productivity of the organization.
To design an effective strategy, it is crucial to understand what threats have a higher risk and impact index depending on the dynamics of the company itself, the relationship with its clients and suppliers, and the regulations to which it is subject. But achieving this requires permanent and proactive orientation to detect vulnerabilities, relying on the preventive use of technologies such as artificial intelligence. Once these weaknesses have been identified, it is time to give way to the remediation, with specific interventions in which the most critical points are prioritized.
Next and to apply the appropriate technical, organizational and procedural measures, it is essential to know the maturity level of the company with respect to the identified threats. Here they are very useful recognized cybersecurity frames, such as NIST, which help to understand the current state in the multiple dimensions that make up cybersecurity: governance, tools, processes, and roles. After that, the company must define where it wants to reach within a defined period of time, depending on or in accordance with the previous analysis and the criticality level of each process and of each corporate asset that seeks to protect.
Development, supervision and evolution of the cybersecurity plan
Although after identifying the measures to be applied to prevent threats, any company could display a effective cyber attack prevention program, the truth is that some of them decide to opt for outsourcing. Among the most demanded options, in this sense, the safety awareness services and the SOCs (security operations center), which have become the latent core of the cybersecurity of the modern company.
A cybersecurity strategy is never definitive, but must be constantly supervised and updated. This includes both the evaluation of the effectiveness of the measures adopted and the analysis of their effects on the evolution towards a security culture aligned with the changing needs within the company.
This monitoring should not be limited to counting frustrated attacks, the number of incidents and their causes, whether of a technological or human nature. It means, above all, adapting the corporate strategy to the changes that occur in the own computer ecosystem, which is transformed with the introduction of new technologies, and the panorama of external threats, in constant evolution. A good example, in this sense, is the generative artificial intelligence that has introduced emerging threats such as directed phishing or Deepfakes.
Only through the continuous and proactive supervision of the threats and the periodic review of the tools and the processes can be guaranteed that the security strategy remains effective and aligned with the needs of the company.
