At the moment the two hottest buzz phrases in the world of data protection, marketing and Information Technology are ‘Cyber Security’ and ‘GDPR’.

What does cyber security really mean?

Aren’t businesses meant to be secure already?

Do they need a badge to say that they are secure?

This blog will explore what is means to be secure and why Think Cirrus doesn’t have a cyber security badge, yet ensures all clients have impeccable cyber security measures in place.

The Government endorsed scheme Cyber Essentials is doing a great job of raising awareness that businesses should do more to protect themselves from on-line threats.   And quite rightly the stats for on-line threats, hacks, vulnerabilities continue to increase, the cloud can be an unfriendly place and small business is far from immune.

You should be taking pro-active steps to protect data, systems and in many cases the risky data they hold related to clients, staff and people.

 

“Small and midsized organizations (SMBs), defined as those with 100 to 1,000 employees, are hardly immune to cybercrime — actually quite to the contrary. According to Keeper Security’s “The State of SMB Cybersecurity” report, a staggering 50 percent of small and midsized organizations reported suffering at least one cyberattack in the last 12 months”

 

What is Cyber Security? 

Cyber Security is a very broad term and comprises technologies, processes and controls that are designed to protect systems, networks and data from cyber-attacks.

 

Effective cyber security reduces the risk of cyber-attacks, and protects organisations and individuals from the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies.

 

 

Creating a solid cyber security foundation

The most effective strategy to mitigate and minimise the effects of a cyber-attack is to build a solid foundation upon which to grow your cyber security technology stack.

Solution providers often tell their clients their applications are 100% compatible and will operate seamlessly with the current IT infrastructure, and for the most part, this is true. The problem arises when we start adding IT security solutions from different manufacturers regardless of the granularity of their configuration settings – technology gaps will always be present.

And technology gaps will always appear for one simple reason: developers will always keep certain portions of their code proprietary as part of their competitive advantage. Hence, true compatibility and interchangeability may only be 90%. These are known as technology gaps. It is through these gaps that attacks usually occur.

A solid cyber security foundation will identify these gaps and propose the appropriate action to take to mitigate the risk of an attack.

A solid foundation provides organisations the confidence to build their cyber security strategies.

We might not have a cyber essentials accreditation but we do ensure that our clients are cyber secure.