Steps to a Cyber Security Strategy

Having a documented cyber security strategy is key to protecting your company against data breaches. There is more to cyber security beyond the standard tools such as an antivirus program, firewalls, IDS, and vulnerability management. With companies having multiple digital transformation initiatives underway from solutions such as the cloud, artificial intelligence, data analytics, blockchain and IoT, there are often notable gaps in organizations being able to holistically solve for today’s cyber security demands.

As such, business leaders must understand budgets and resources when prioritizing their cyber defense efforts across data, applications, infrastructure, and incident response. With cyber transformation being a challenging part of cyber risk management for CSOs and CIOs, companies often see the largest part of their budgets spent on cyber monitoring and operations, governance, and resilience.

To be effective, a cyber security program should cover the goals and objectives to ensure safety, while also understanding and creating solutions to cover any gaps. To simplify implementing an impactful strategy, businesses should follow these steps:

• Create a security governance role to map out the cyber security strategy
• Analyze and document the existing security program, including known strengths and weaknesses
• Prepare a road map of security program needs and and an implementation plan
• Communicate and align on the priorities with internal stakeholders
• Ensure you understand and meet regulatory and compliance requirements
• Measure the impact and progress of the cyber security controls
• Enlist risk quantification tools to evaluate cyber security investments

Once a cyber security program has been implemented, an organization should maintain rigor around it. As no organization can ever assume they are entirely safe, it’s key to continually review, measure, and modify the cyber security program to ensure safety. Many companies enlist partners to handle security operations so they can focus on their core day to day deliverables.

With new technologies disrupting traditional ways of doing business, your security strategy should be connected to your organizational goals and objectives. Doing your due diligence to confirm your cyber security strategy program is fully supported across your organization is key to preventing cyber incidents.