Understanding the Three Pillars of Cybersecurity and Tips to Protect Your Organization

Do you know…

• Cybercrime will cost companies worldwide an estimated $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
• The global information security market is forecasted to grow to $170.4 billion in 2022 to cope with the rising cybercrime projection.
• 95% of successful cyber-attacks are due to human error.
• 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses.
• $3.86 million is the global average cost of a data breach.
• Over 77% of organizations do not have a cyber-security incident response plan.

With the incidence of cyber-attacks growing at an unprecedented rate, having a strong security culture is fast becoming non-negotiable for all businesses. While most organizations understand the importance of having a strong defensive posture, many are confused about where to start and how to simplify oversight, monitoring, and security across complex network architectures. The problem is that most companies continue to operate on a mix of legacy and cloud infrastructure that makes it challenging to deploy the same security solutions across-the-board without missing out on silos of devices and information. However, the cost of letting vulnerabilities grow in the dark can be steep. Building back from a significant security breach has become increasingly harder for organizations. Quite apart from the monumental costs associated with significant data breaches, the reputation cost to the business can be deadly.

Organizations now clearly understand the desperate need to have a strong foundation of security. But to get started on building a better security culture, many are confused by the fact that they don’t really understand the extent of their vulnerabilities. It’s a common misconception that cybersecurity is all about technology, however cybersecurity can be broken down into three main pillars: people, processes, and technology.

All cybersecurity experts agree that the core pillars of building a stronger defensive posture comes down to: people, processes, and technology. Using a combination of these three strategically can help you build an effective road map for a robust cybersecurity protection strategy.

With 95% of successful cyberattacks being due to human error, it is evident that people (employees) can be the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain—creating the greatest risks to your organization. Time after time, malicious actors have exploited vulnerabilities simply by compromising people (willingly or unintentionally) thus managing to compromise the integrity of large multinational corporations.

However, when properly trained and informed, people can also be your greatest asset and the first line of defense. Getting your cybersecurity strategy right when it comes to people is key to the overall strength and resilience of your defenses. Companies also need to be more inclusive in defending its people against potential dangers across the company. This may involve separate strategies for decision makers, such as C-suite executives, directors, and management; staff and third-party consultants; vendors, business partners, and more.

The core framework for governance of cybersecurity is defined by the processes and policies an organization designs and follows. Effective processes are key to an organization’s preventative and responsive controls. This can come in many forms including separation of duties, physical access controls, ensuring follow through on best practices, regular security audits, reviews, and more. However, as cyber threats can change quickly, these processes need to be continually reviewed to adapt with expanding threat landscape.

Deciding on the right hardware and software for effective defensive strategies is critical to organizational security. These generally form your defense against malicious actors, both internally and as your perimeter. Perimeter security can include enterprise-grade firewall, remote access controls, VPN, spam filters, etc. While internal security includes your anti-virus protection, advanced threat detection, encryption, offline backups, and so on. These technologies can be strategically leveraged and layered to design an effective security system that protects organizational data.