In order to stay safe and secure, the idea of cyber security has been a long-held concept that many businesses have been encouraged to adhere to. But a new perspective and feeling is growing within the IT community, staying cyber resilient.

The key focus of cyber resilience is how to help a business back from the brink. A cyber attack has happened and a business is in total disarray; how can it be revived? Stringent cyber resilience policies can clear the path back to normality for companies who’ve been the victim of downtime that can cause the loss of thousands of pounds.

Our partner, Mimecast issued their ‘The State of Email Security Report’ in 2020, which stated that 31% of organisations experienced data loss due to a lack of cyber resilience policies. With so many cyber crime groups in operation nowadays, it is critical that companies change their way of thinking – it’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ a business will suffer a cyber attack.

Here are a few key ways to keep your business resilient in the face of any cyber attack:

MSSP from Neuways

  • 1. Preservation of your systems

    Sketching out the risks associated with your network and information systems, as well as your supply chain, is important. Tactics such as malware protection and Phishing Awareness Training will come into play here. Just because cyber resilience focuses on after the attack, doesn’t mean that businesses shouldn’t be continually educating and focussing on the preservation of their current IT setup.

    Other top tips include the application of software patches as soon as they are made available by the official source. Updating your information and security policies, as well as ensuring your company data is adequately encrypted is critical. Do all of these and not only will your resilience to cyber attacks be increased, but the cyber security of your business will be, too.

  • 2. Recognising any issues

    Recognising that there is an issue is key. This allows you to respond to any problems with immediacy and limit the damage done by criminals. Continual monitoring of your corporate networks will be the quickest way to determine if a breach has occurred. There might be unusual activity that could go unnoticed without constant awareness of your IT systems. This increases the importance of knowing what both ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ look like, as it could be the difference between your organisation surviving or not.

  • 3. Recovering from the damage

    Repairing the damage that has been done is imperative. This will prove to the business the cyber resilience measures put in place were worth it, as well as being critical to the future of your company. But working out the ‘how’, is just as important as the ‘why’. The implementation of a response programme will illustrate what will happen in the event of a company breach.

    Think of it in terms of in-office safety. Fire tests are routinely carried out at organisations to establish what would occur in the event of a real fire. This must be thought about and tested, to ensure the safety of everyone in the building. The recuperate phase is just the same. By establishing how your business will recover, you’ll be helped immeasurably if you were breached.

  • 4. Governance is critical

    For some companies this could represent a large undertaking, between different departments and locations of the business. However, this is important to get right, as a missed section could lead to loss of data in the event of a cyber attack.

    Over time, this phase can lead to improvements in the way data is backed up and measures are made that will benefit the business. This means risk assessments and board-level commitment are necessary to ensure success.

We aren’t suggesting it is time to abandon cyber security measures, but rather to add strategies that make your business cyber resilient. This will help your business remain operational and secure your data. Ultimately, this makes it even more difficult for cyber criminals to successfully retrieve your company data, credentials and stops them making any revenue. If you make it hard for cyber criminals to exploit your business, they will be less likely to target you in the future.

If you need to boost your business’ cyber resilience, get in touch with the IT experts at Neuways: email hello@neuways.com or call 01283 753 333.