Cybersecurity Plan: Your Ultimate Guide to Protecting Against Cyber Threats

Insecure networks put your business at risk, but securing them takes time, money, and professional oversight that many small- to medium-sized businesses simply don’t have.

Any unsecured network will have weaknesses: unprotected devices, outdated antivirus software, poor password or email practices, uninstalled security patches, or open WiFi connections to name just a few.

Hackers will take advantage of your network’s vulnerabilities, but how do you balance your network security with limited resources and budgetary constraints?

Many cyber risk insurance policies consider a state-sponsored cyberattack to be an act of war and refuse to pay claims for these attacks.

Cyber risk insurance is a policy taken out by an organization to cover expenses following a breach. Like any insurance policy, it’s important to read the fine print to make sure you understand exactly what is covered.

Many insurance companies offer cyber risk insurance as part of generalized business insurance. Chances are that this add-on coverage will not offer you the protection you need if a breach occurs.

Your cybersecurity plan needs to include network security tools like spam detection and blocking platform as well as ways to train your employees to spot these hacking attempts so they don’t accidentally open infected attachments or visit malicious websites.

The next step your cybersecurity solution needs is rigorous anti-virus software. These network security tools should routinely scan all installed applications to check for compromise as well as look for recently installed software or applications that were not authorized.

Storing all your files in the cloud is a great way to add another level of protection to your cybersecurity strategy. The damage done by a breach is limited to how much data the hacker can access; moving your file storage to a secured cloud platform means that bad actors can’t access them even if they breach a device.

Endpoints include all the devices and machines connected to your network. These must be individually secured via password protection to make sure a hacker is stopped before he or she can move from the device and into the network and access information. Encryption is a network security tool that renders a file unreadable to an outside source who doesn’t have a key, and is another way to protect your endpoints from being hacked. Even if hackers gain access, the information they get from the devices is unusable.

A Special Note About Zero-Trust Networks

A Special Note About Zero-Trust Networks

Zero-trust networks is an approach to cybersecurity that assumes every user and device is a risk. “Never trust, always verify” is the main principle to having a secure, zero-trust network.

Zero-trust networks use multiple layers of protection that prevents cyberthreats and limit the damages those cyberthreats can do if a hacker gains access to the network.

The Main Focus of a Zero-Trust Network

Let’s look at the three areas to focus on when deploying a zero-trust network.

Provide Secure Access

This may be a no-brainer, but ensuring that your users are secure when logging on is a key factor of a zero-trust network.

It’s more than just safely logging on, though. You need to manage permissions for accessing sensitive data, limiting users to only the data they need to use to perform their job duties.

Monitor, Monitor, Monitor

All the cybersecurity precautions in the world will not help secure your network if you don’t stay on top of the status of your users and endpoints. Modern cybercrime is sneaky, and most businesses don’t realize they are infected or breached until days, weeks, and even months after the exposure.

Remote work means less direct supervision of your employees, and chances are they are doing a lot of personal browsing while working. Routine monitoring allows you real-time insight into your network to make sure there is no unusual or suspicious activity on event logs or on the dark web.

User Identity

How do you know the person calling your office is really who they claim to be? This same principle applies to your users.

Hackers frequently use phishing to trick unsuspecting users to provide sensitive data, including their credentials. A zero-trust approach is one that asks not only for credentials such as passwords and usernames but goes a step farther in verifying the user is who they say they are. This is done with multi-factor authentication.

Every industry has a unique set of regulatory requirements to ensure that your cybersecurity plan meets their standards of efficacy and client privacy. It’s helpful to understand these regulations when you set up your cybersecurity strategy to avoid costly violations and fines.

If a breach or natural disaster happens, you will need to have a way to restore your data and files as quickly as possible. Use the cloud to store your backups for rapid deployment following an emergency.

Never store any backup files on the same network as your operational files. It’s recommended that your backups are stored off-site, separate from your physical location. Your backup and business continuity plans are the most important aspects of your overall cybersecurity strategy. It’s more than just restoring files after a breach, it’s restoring files after accidental deletion, fire, flooding, or any other natural disaster.

You may not consider your maintenance man to be a vulnerability, but the truth is that everyone you work with outside the office, every product supplied to your organization, and every service that touches your business is a potential cyber breach. If a cyber breach happens because a third-party vendor was hacked, you can still be held liable.

Ouch.

Think of all the services you connect with daily: POS vendors, snack suppliers, VoIP providers, office supply companies, even your attorneys and accountants; every one of them could be a vulnerability. How do your third-party vendors protect their own sensitive data? Have any of these vendors had a breach in the past? Are they compliant with industry regulations (not just their own, but yours as well)? Third-party vendor management helps you vet your vendors as well as keep an eye on their pricing and service agreements.

This seems on the surface like a great idea, and it certainly is. Until, that is, you look at the finer points of having an internal IT department.

• Your internal IT department may be stretched too thin to tackle new projects or upgrade existing technologies.
• Your internal IT department will cost more to keep in-house (salaries, tech, training, vacation, and medical benefits just for starters) than if you outsourced your IT needs.
• Your internal IT department may not be aware of trending technologies or able to detect cyberthreats.
• Your internal IT department will take vacations or need to take sick leave, rendering you in a bind if you rely on them exclusively and experience an IT issue.
• Your internal IT department may not be able to handle the daily operational ticket load along with proactive security patches and updates. This can leave a dangerous gap in your cybersecurity plan.

Having an internal IT team does have its benefits, such as a dedicated staff that knows your network and infrastructure inside and out, and having someone onsite to tackle immediate IT issues.

Maybe you should outsource your IT and hire a managed services provider. Not all MSPs are the same, however, and you need to find one whose goals and values align with your own. Here’s a few questions you can ask your prospective Managed Services Provider:

If you already have an internal IT department but want to take it to the next level, the co-managed services platform is your best option. Co-managed services allow you to keep your IT personnel while giving them an extra boost of IT knowledge, solutions, and toolsets that are otherwise unavailable to them.