Is Your Business Cyber-Resilient? How to Build Strong Defenses Against Cyber Threats

In the rapidly expanding digital landscape, keeping your organization’s IT infrastructure and data protected from cyber threats is ever more important.
While most businesses understand the nuances of cyber security, cyber resilience is something that helps them be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Simply put, cyber security and cyber resilience go hand-in-hand in strengthening an organization’s online security framework.
In this blog, we will discuss different ways in which you can strengthen your organization’s defences against looming cyber threats, but first, let’s understand what cyber resilience is and why it’s important for a business.

What is Cyber Resilience?

Cyber resilience is a lot more than threat protection – it is an organization’s ability to recognize, tackle, and swiftly recover from any number of internal or external threats. These threats could be anything from ransomware and information breaches to any online attacks that hamper an organization’s business continuity.

Unlike cybersecurity which mainly focuses on protection and prevention, cyber resilience focuses on a proactive approach, treating cyber threats as inevitable and building a framework that relies on detecting the vulnerabilities in advance. It involves different practices that continuously strengthen an organization’s defences against evolving cyber threats, such as risk management, employee training, incident response, etc.

Building robust cyber resilience strategies not only aids businesses in strengthening their overall cybersecurity framework, it helps in fostering a cyber-aware environment within the organization.

Importance of Cyber Resilience

With the growth in technology and businesses’ increasing reliance on data, cyber attacks have become more prevalent. Cyber attacks today are no longer limited to a few isolated incidents of computer viruses, instead, they have evolved to a global scale, targeting systemically important institutions and disrupting large economies and businesses alike.

Incidents such as the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack which impacted thousands of organizations worldwide, are one out of thousands of highly evolved cyber attacks. The malware spread rapidly through Microsoft Windows, exploiting the system’s vulnerabilities to its advantage, affecting hundreds of thousands of computers across the globe and causing millions of dollars in damages.

Attacks such as this expose significant weaknesses in the cybersecurity frameworks of major organizations that handle huge amounts of data every day and reveal that no institution big or small is immune from cyber attacks. It also showcased that businesses with a cyber-resilient framework were able to bounce back quickly and restore normal operations faster than others.

A strong cyber resilience strategy helps businesses to tackle and recognize threats actively, and recover from attacks swiftly with minimal to no damage. Businesses that are not cyber-resilient struggle to recover from such sophisticated attacks, risking business loss, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust.

Key Principles of Cyber Resilience

A robust cyber resilience strategy relies on 6 core functions that work together to protect and prepare businesses for the inevitable cyber-attacks. They not only ensure that your organization is well protected but also make sure that you are able to bounce back swiftly as a business. Here are the core components of a resilient cybersecurity framework:

• Identification: This involves understanding and managing cybersecurity risks with proper risk management, asset management, and governance frameworks.
• Protection: This step includes implementing failsafes like access controls, encryption, and timely patch management to safeguard important assets.
• Detection: Organizations use endpoint detection and response tools and intrusion detection systems for early identification of threats.
• Response: This step focuses on developing incident response plans for effective management and containment of cyber-attacks, ensuring minimal disruption.
• Recovery: Here businesses establish robust disaster recovery and business continuity plans to bounce back quickly after an attack.
• Governance: Lastly, implementing a foolproof cybersecurity risk management strategy involves setting the right expectations and defining policies that guide your security efforts.

These core functions together help organizations build a strong cyber security and resilience framework, fostering an organization wide culture that readily adapts to evolving threats and ensures business continuity.

How to Achieve Cyber Resilience?

Achieving complete cyber resilience involves incorporating essential measures that aid in the identification, mitigation, and recovery from cyber threats. With the expanding digital dependencies, businesses are promptly investing in better and more secure cybersecurity frameworks, however, that is not enough. Cyber criminals too are evolving their strategies, continually devising more sophisticated techniques to breach the defences of your organization.

This makes cyber attacks an inescapable threat, requiring solutions that focus on preparation rather than prevention. Here are the top 5 cyber resilience strategies to keep your businesses ready in the face of unforeseen threats:

1. Robust Identity Management

Implementing strong identity and access management ensures that only authorized people get access to your data and systems. This practice not only ensures user security but also protects critical business data against theft and misuse.
Businesses use solutions like IAM and password managers to implement multi-factor authentication and manage password hygiene. Addressing vulnerabilities like weak protection and unpatched systems can also help in securing online assets.

2. Comprehensive Visibility

Better cybersecurity solutions that are resilient require you to have real-time visibility of your organization’s vulnerabilities. One can no longer rely on traditional methods such as regular vulnerability scans to keep your data secure, instead you need to implement advanced systems that regularly analyze the network, applications, and devices to provide insights into potential threats.
Larger organizations could leverage self-learning systems for ongoing observations and analysis, given the large amount of data signals that need assessing.

3. Improving Operational Security

Core systems that are not internet-facing but are crucial for the functioning of business need to be secured too. While these core systems may not appear to be vulnerable or on the front line of cyber attacks, they may still be compromised.
Organizations can do well with implementing risk-based security management measures to recognize and mitigate threats based on the level of impact. This could also help in automating risk tracking and mitigation by using advanced AI techniques and tools.

4. Implement Dynamic Network Segmentation

Segmenting your network into different zones could help in limiting the attacker’s movements. Dynamic network segmentation involves separating important systems from vulnerable networks and reducing the risks associated with lateral movement within the network.
By leveraging modern segmentation techniques businesses can proactively adjust networks based on real-time insights into the risk assessment data and security needs. A proactive approach such as this aids in creating virtual barriers which make it harder for cyber criminals to access your critical systems.

5. AI for Enhanced Cyber Resilience

Incorporating AI based security tools into your cyber security framework can take your cybersecurity efforts to the next level. From real-time risk assessment to implementing strong user controls, AI based techniques can help businesses in enhancing the safeguards against unauthorized access and managing potential risks effectively.

How Can GSS Help Build Cyber Resilience?

GSS being a trusted cybersecurity services provider helps businesses with comprehensive cybersecurity solutions that focus on making your business cyber resilient and secure. Through proactive risk management, and leveraging AI and automation techniques, GSS aids in the ongoing analyses of your digital assets. We prioritise vulnerabilities based on their business impact and implement solutions that mitigate the threats proactively.

GSS also aids businesses with robust data recovery solutions, helping them in recovering operations swiftly, with minimal downtime.

Want to learn more about our Cybersecurity services? Get in touch with us today and learn how Gerab Systems Solutions can enhance your organization’s cyber resilience.