These six coaching tips will help develop the peace of mind that comes with a solid IT security strategy.
Vince Lombardi once said “hope is not a strategy.”
From his relentless coverage of the fundamentals to implementing his infamous “Packers Sweep,” the legendary football coach relied on preparation, practice, and developing a proper game plan for his team. It worked. He won five NFL championships, including Super Bowls I and II, and compiled a remarkable 89-29-4 regular-season record.
Words need action. Ideas need careful planning. A strategy never sees the light of day with hope alone.
This is certainly true when it comes to today’s tumultuous cyber security climate. Whether your SMB “hopes” a breach doesn’t happen to you or “hopes” that years-old infrastructure will continue to safeguard your data, in 2022, hope alone will not suffice. As your organization continues to make plans for the coming year, has IT Security come up? If not, these six coaching tips will help develop the peace of mind that comes with a solid IT security strategy.
6 Coaching Tips for Your 2022 IT Security Plan
1. Huddle up with your team.
A sound strategy starts with people and planning. Time to huddle up?
Good IT security practices require more than just a bundle of technology tossed at a potential problem. When executives and key stakeholders become involved with the conversation, cyber security is likely to become a holistic priority and an organization-wide best practice.
And why should it? Because the stakes are only getting higher, with Ransomware reigning supreme. In the first six months of 2021, global ransomware volume reached an unprecedented 304.7 million attempted attacks — already eclipsing the 304.6 million ransomware attempts logged for the entirety of 2020 (SonicWall).
And these conversations shouldn’t exist merely among C-level executives in lofty, oversized boardrooms. The SMB is just as vulnerable. According to Datto, 43% of data breaches target SMBs, most SMBs will not be able to recover from a cyber attack, and 60% of SMBs don’t have a cybersecurity policy in place.
2. Evaluate your current lineup.
Adversaries are always adapting game plans and creating sophisticated counter schemes. A firewall, an active antivirus solution, and a strong company password policy are traditional placeholders here. But there’s more.
To start, all organizations should use an Advanced Threat Protection solution for email. Email remains the most common threat. According to the 2021 Business Email Compromise Report from GreatHorn, of all security incidents suffered by organizations last year, BEC attacks accounted for 50%.
In addition to email, the risk of cyber threats being delivered and spread via other collaboration tools is constantly growing. Ideally, you want to use a security solution that protects different channels but is managed from one place. This will ensure your SMB is protected while reducing overhead and costs on your end.
A trust Managed Service Provider (MSP) can provide a thorough list of proactive steps and solutions to help secure the needed hardware and software for your organization.
3. Be mindful of potential blind spots.
What blind spots exist in your plan? Example A: The office copier, the workhorse of any organization, is more of an elephant in the room when it comes to IT security.
According to Canon, only 21% of IT decision-makers, influencers, and users have security features in place on their printers. MFPs today are sophisticated, connected devices that can transmit and receive information over a network, store information, and connect to cloud services. With such capability comes security vulnerabilities.
4. Coach up your entire roster.
In football, every position must do its part. In cyber security, your end users are just as crucial. According to Verizon, 85 percent of breaches involved a human element of some sort.
This means, simply, that your end users are likely your weakest link in IT security protection. More than any line of a sophisticated technical lineup of security solutions, your users need to be educated on what a malicious email looks like, the lingering threats of social engineering, and the steps to take to mitigate attempted phishing attacks.
A trusted MSP can help facilitate such training.
5. Prepare for the unexpected.
If a breach occurs … what’s your backup plan?
Successful backup is the foundation for disaster recovery and business continuity. Without it, recovery and continuity cannot exist. Technologies that were created decades ago to store data are simply not enough. Antiquated methods, like tape backup, don’t lend themselves to the rapid recovery of business operations in a crisis.
When choosing a backup solution, growing businesses should look for these six things:
- Comprehensiveness
- Ease of use
- Recoverability
- Performance and reliability
- Affordability
- Scalability
6. Consider hiring a consultant.
It’s a question more SMBs are asking themselves as threat vectors become more sophisticated and vulnerability awareness widens: Should we outsource IT?
As organizations huddle up on IT security initiatives and consider a game plan moving forward, it’s a viable consideration: “ Is outsourced IT a viable option for us?”
At Datamax, we’ve heard the objections. We understand your concerns. That’s why created the eBook, “7 Reasons Not to Outsource Your IT.” We discuss the sentiments of those who have said things like “Outsourcing is too Expensive” or “A breach won’t REALLY happen to me,” and we help better define what a Managed Service Provider IS, and what it ISN’T. Click below to get your copy!
