The increasingly virtual business environment is something of a double-edged sword.
It can increase efficiency and productivity across the board, eliminating monotonous tasks and processes that slow you down.
However, this means that your business is more susceptible than ever to security threats that can bring your organization to a screeching halt.
A business owner must ask themselves a simple question: is our security structure reactive or proactive?
Have you adapted your security protection and disaster recovery plan as you’ve grown and taken advantage of the latest technology, or has it been put on the back burner?
Just because you’ve never experienced a security breach or disaster doesn’t mean it will never happen.
It’s not a matter of if it these productivity killers will happen. It’s a matter of when.
So, that makes it today’s problem to solve, not tomorrow’s.
Rapid Detection and Rapid Response
The name of the game is rapid detection and rapid response, also known as the RDRM model.
This is defined as a model that “helps organizations accelerate their ability to detect, investigate and stop attacks by ensuring the organization is prepared from a people, process and technology perspective.”
No matter the challenges your business may face, whether it be a shortage of talent or budgetary restrictions, this particular focus can help you find a realistic solution.
Speed vs. Impenetrability
Security policy of the past focused on making systems, files and other sensitive aspects of a business impenetrable. Think firewalls.
As business technology and internal processes become more sophisticated, so do the threats that can break them down.
So, how do you safeguard the lifeblood of your business when industry-standard barriers are becoming ineffective and obsolete?
Speed!
It is now a universal truth that no system is 100% secure. However, with rapid detection systems, you can drive down the amount of time hackers are able to spend within your system.
This process works in your system by red-flagging their actions early and giving you the chance to quarantine or eliminate the threat.
Identifying Gaps
In any business, there’s always room for improvement. This is especially true with your security policy.
There are steps you can take to identify the most glaring and potentially business-threatening gaps in your infrastructure.
Assemble your team, and start with a full audit of your current system. Focus on the following activities:
- Document your existing security
- Inspect your technology and its capabilities
- Analyze every process from start to finish
- Examine all response, detection and diagnostic metrics
- Review all past, current and potential threats
Once you know exactly where you stand and what gaps you need to fill, you can prioritize next steps.
Learning From The Past
If you know what position you are in when it comes to your business’s security, you are better equipped to confront issues that will come up in the future.
In terms of executing your plan, however, you might want to take a step back and examine how your business handled security breaches in the past.
Specifically, what kind of breach occurred, what you did right, and, most importantly, what you did wrong.
This simple exercise allows you to determine whether you should implement brand new technology or modify existing processes.
It also helps identify where you could benefit from system integrations.
You can do this by analyzing these past issues and their exact path. Where exactly did your existing security fail?
Regardless of the insights you find, it is also an invaluable step in assuring your team is properly trained. They need to be prepared to handle and maintain your improved security infrastructure.
Improving Response
Now that you know where to improve, it is time to take action.
It helps to take a three-pronged approach to finally get your system where it needs to be.
It’s all about:
- Visibility
- Singularity
- Automation
Gain total visibility across the board, so you can successfully maneuver all systems and understand any incident at a granular level.
Employ one master platform with varying capabilities. Use it to make better use of all your resources, integrate them and improve your infrastructure’s ability to detect threats.
Any and all workflows should be automated within your business to reduce manual steps and, consequently, human error that can lead to security issues.
From speed to response, a rapid detection and rapid response focus for your security policy is the way to get the most out of your company’s resources.
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