How to Choose the Right Cyber Security Solution for Your Business

The right cyber security provider does much more than react in the aftermath of a cyber attack, they actively protect your business to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. We explain how to choose the best cyber security solutions for your business, including why it’s so important and the types of solutions available.

Why Every Business Needs a Cyber Security Strategy

Having the correct cyber security systems in place is vitally important for businesses of all sizes. Cyber crime is more indiscriminate than ever before, targeting everything from small startups to global enterprises with sophisticated and convincing cyber attacks.

According to the government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 43% of businesses experienced a cyber security breach in the past 12 months. This includes countless incidents where cyber criminals were able to get into systems, trigger ransomware, send fraudulent payments or access sensitive or valuable corporate data. Your business cannot afford to ignore this rising threat.

Beyond the cost implications for your business, you also have your reputation and compliance requirements to consider, including Cyber Essentials and GDPR. Failing to protect your business can cause customers to lose trust or deter other companies from working with you.

The right cyber security solution isn’t just ticking a box – it’s directly protecting your business against real, evolving threats. This is even more important for companies with cloud security challenges and remote workers, where there are more gateways for malicious attackers to access your business.

Understand Your Business’s Security Risks First

The optimal cyber security solution for your business should be tailored to your specific risks rather than built around the latest trends. Here are some of the steps you can take to define your specific risk factors:

Identify Critical Assets

Understanding your critical assets is an essential first step. This could include data that is vital to your operations, irreplaceable operational information, financial or operational information that could be sold or used to gain access to funds and customer information that needs to be protected in line with GDPR.

Key types of critical assets:

• Customer data
• Financial information
• Intellectual property
• Operational systems

Assess Potential Threats

Cyber threats are not just a single risk that can harm your business. They encompass a range of sophisticated scams and fraudulent methods that can target your business from multiple angles. It’s important to examine how your business may be vulnerable to individual cyber attacks rather than looking only at the bigger picture. Phishing and its variations, such as vishing and smishing, account for over 90% of all cyber attacks according to the ICO, making them a vital consideration.

Types of cyber threats to assess:

• Phishing (including spear-phishing, vishing, smishing etc.)
• Ransomware and malware
• Insider threats
• Business email compromise
• Supply chain attacks

Evaluate Current Security Gaps

Determining the specific gaps in your current cyber security can enable you to fill these holes and prevent cyber attackers from gaining unauthorised access to your systems. Some of these gaps will be technical, such as not patching software as frequently as you need to, while others will be social or training issues, such as employees not following guidelines or lack of training.

Current security gaps you should consider:

• Using outdated or unpatched software
• Using weak passwords
• No centralised management of company devices
• Lack of employee awareness and training
• No administrator blocks on app and software downloads

Types of Cyber Security Solutions Businesses Should Consider

Endpoint Protection

Endpoint protection directly secures the devices in your workplace, including laptops, smartphones and servers, individually against malicious cyber threats. This protection is achieved through a combination of different processes that work together to significantly reduce risk. These include:

• Antivirus: A program that detects and removes malware
• EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response): A behavioural analytics-based solution that mitigates threats through ongoing monitoring
• Device monitoring: Keeping track of the usage of individual devices, including websites and software accessed

Network Security

Network security protects your business from cyber attacks that happen due to vulnerabilities in your interconnected systems, such as your servers, your computers, office devices and data storage methods. Most businesses utilise networks to run day-to-day operations, leaving your company vulnerable to attacks without proper protection. The types of protection you should consider include:

• Firewalls: A security system that monitors and filters the data packets entering and exiting your organisation
• Intrusion detection: Security tools that monitor networks around-the-clock for unauthorised access or policy violations
• VPNs: Secure, encrypted connectivity between devices and a remote server or in-house network

Cloud Security

Cloud systems are increasingly popular for businesses, providing an easy way to access apps, data and systems from anywhere instead of being tied to a physical server in an office. However, these systems can also cause vulnerabilities if they are not well-managed. Some of the areas you should consider include:

• SaaS security: Protection for cloud-based applications, preventing access to sensitive data
• Cloud configuration management: Ensuring continual compliance and security with active management and monitoring
• Identity and access controls: Verifies the identity of users and controls access to resources

Email Security

Email security is a vital consideration for your company, as phishing is one of the most prevalent cyber threats. 3.4 billion phishing emails are estimated to be sent globally every single day. Integrating protections into your system can reduce risk alongside improving staff awareness. Areas of email security you should consider include:

• Phishing protection: Identification of phishing emails that may otherwise be convincing to employees
• Spam filtering: Removing spam emails from inboxes to reduce risk and prevent employees from missing real emails
• Email authentication: Requiring authentication of the sender for sending emails, preventing domain spoofing

Security Monitoring and Threat Detection

Security monitoring and threat detection are fundamental parts of your cyber security strategy. These solutions provide a proactive way to prevent cyber attacks before they can be harmful to your business. Up to 88% of ransomware attacks occur outside of normal office hours, making it important to have around-the-clock protection to prevent successful attacks. You should consider the following:

• SIEM: A platform that aggregates and analyses security data in real-time to detect and investigate cyber threats
• MDR (Managed Detection and Response): Advanced detection and rapid incident response for cyber security incidents
• 24/7 monitoring: Around-the-clock protection for your company outside of working hours, with immediate notification of issues

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Cyber Security Solution

Business Size and Industry

While cyber security is essential for businesses of all sizes, your exact strategy will vary depending on the industry and scale of your organisation. For example, small businesses may have differing security requirements from large enterprises due to simpler systems and less complex infrastructure. Businesses in specific sectors will have individual legal requirements for the protection and security of data, particularly customer or supplier data. For example, companies operating in the healthcare, finance and legal sectors will have more stringent cyber security standards.

Compliance Requirements

Compliance with cyber security standards is a must for a range of certifications and standards in the UK. These include:

• GDPR: A law concerning the use, storage and processing practices for personal data, required for all UK businesses
• ISO 27001: The international framework standard for managing Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), required for specific supply chains and public sector tenders
• Cyber Essentials: A government-backed scheme helping companies to protect against cyber threats, with CE or CE+ certification often resulting in lower cyber insurance prices
• PCI DSS: The cyber security framework for the protection of cardholder data for processing, transmission and storage, mandatory in the UK

Scalability

Scalability is an important consideration when implementing new cyber security measures. You need a solution that will work as your organisation changes and grows, ensuring you are continually protected against threats. Your solution also needs to integrate with your existing systems and scale along with them to prevent lack of coverage.

Ease of Management

Cyber security is more complex than ever before, with AI driving a significant increase in the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks. Depending on your cyber security requirements, you could handle your systems in-house as part of a dedicated IT department. Alternatively, you could work with outsourced managed cyber security services to handle all of your security needs, with around-the-clock support for cyber attacks.

Questions to Ask a Cyber Security Provider Before Signing a Contract

If you are considering working with an external provider for your cyber security services, it’s important to ask the right questions before committing. Here are some of the questions you may want to ask when deciding on the right cyber security company:

• What certifications do you hold?
• Do you provide 24/7 monitoring?
• How quickly do you respond to incidents?
• What reporting is included?
• Can you support compliance requirements?
• What technologies do you use?
• What is included in onboarding?

Looking For A New Cyber Security Specialist? Get In Touch With Our Experts Today

Technical Drive has extensive experience in cyber security processes and safeguarding, working with a wide range of businesses to protect them from cyber threats with a multi-layered approach, including 24/7 monitoring, security awareness training and rapid response.

If you need an experienced and reliable cyber security provider, get in touch with our team today. Call us on 01527 880088, email us at hello@technicaldrive.co.uk or fill out our contact form to speak with our cyber security experts.