Cybersecurity Risk Management for Business Protection

Threats tend to arrive where businesses tend to thrive. The cheeky rhyme is unfortunately true. For a physical business, physical security was needed. A gate, a security guard, alarm systems, and cameras, you get the gist. Now, when most businesses operate either partially or fully online, security must go digital.

Cybersecurity is something every business, small to large, must worry about. Small to medium-sized businesses may assume they’re safe due to bigger targets, but that isn’t the case. They are often prime targets because attackers assume they have fewer defenses. A single mishap can mean financial or reputational ruin, or both.

Let’s talk more about it and find out how you can protect your business.

What is Cybersecurity Risk Management? (and why it matters)

Cybersecurity risk management is the process that identifies, assesses, and responds to any threats to every piece of equipment or informational asset you have. It is like physical security management, but on the digital plane.

Cybersecurity threats aren’t a rare occurrence. In fact, they’re quite a common sight. Sources show how they’ve actually been on the rise post the COVID-19 pandemic. Every organization must put up its defenses, as all of them, for all practical purposes, rely heavily upon technology. In this Internet of Things era, tech is everywhere, especially at the workplace.

You use email to communicate with clients, accounting software to track finances, and cloud applications to store files. Each of these systems carries risk. An employee could open a ransomware-infected email, an outdated application can be broken, or a security camera can be compromised.

Risk management gives you a strategy to deal with all these hypothetical but very possible, and often true, scenarios.

Why it Matters for SMBs

It is a myth that hackers are only interested in large enterprises. Think of it, again, in a physical business sense: Do only large businesses get attacked or is the local shop often just as likely, or more, to get attacked?

This very misconception is the reason why small and medium-sized businesses are attacked frequently because they are seen as easier targets, and indeed, many lack proper security measures.

Here’s why cybersecurity risk management should be a priority for any business:

1. Save Your Money: Data shows that the average cost of a breach, globally, is a massive $4.4 million. The number varies, but such damage can be extremely difficult to recover from unscathed.
   
   
2. Reputation, Integrity, and Compliance: It isn’t just money one has to worry about. A business cannot run without trust, trust that customers and clients put in it when they share personal information. One incident can undo years of relationship building. Plus, industries such as healthcare, finance, and retail face strict regulations, which often coincide with practices that maintain trust, and failing to meet them will result in penalties and lawsuits.
   
   
3. Business Continuity: A cyberattack won’t just be an annoying bug, no pun intended, you can ignore. They’ll shut down all tech-related work (depending upon the type of cybersecurity threat, of course). This is unplanned downtime, and that’s never a good thing for any business.

Cybersecurity risk management is a must for any business, especially SMBs. It is as fundamentally important as, say, closing the front door. The threats are real, and the consequences of ignoring them can be devastating.

The 4-Step Cybersecurity Risk Management Process

Risk management is an extremely technically challenging task, but just like maths, if we break it down to its fundamentals, it becomes easier to understand. Each step builds towards the next, and together they form the process that is applied to protect your business, now and in the future. It goes like this:

Step 1: Identify Risks

The very first step is determining everything that needs protection. This list usually contains all your digital assets, servers, laptops, databases, smartphones, IoT devices, and so on. Once you have the list, all the things that can go wrong are mentioned, such as:

• Malware infections
• Phishing emails that steal login credentials
• Weak or reused passwords
• Misconfigured systems that expose data
• Insider threats, such as disgruntled employees

Seeing your equipment and all of its vulnerabilities can be rather shocking, and many SMBs are surprised by how many assets are at risk and the sheer number of potential entry points that exist within their tech ecosystem.

Step 2: Assess Risks

Not every threat deserves an equal amount of attention, and determining that can be complex, but necessary. Critical risks must be addressed first, with the rest being lower in priority. Risk management service providers look at two key factors, namely:

• Likelihood: How probable is it that this threat will occur?
• Impact: If it does happen, how damaging would it be?

A useful tool here is a risk matrix, which plots risks on a grid based on likelihood and impact. For example, an employee losing a company laptop might be highly likely but have low impact if the data inside is encrypted or well-protected, simply put. On the other hand, a ransomware attack on your customer database would have a high likelihood and devastating impact.

Step 3: Mitigate Risks

Now, it’s time for action. Mitigation strategies fall into three broad categories:

• Technical Controls: Firewalls, antivirus software, encryption, multifactor authentication, and intrusion detection systems.
• Administrative Controls: Policies, procedures, and training programs that guide employee behavior.
• Physical Controls: Locking server rooms, securing devices, and restricting physical access.

The goal isn’t to eliminate every single risk out there, as that is an impossible task, but to reduce them to an acceptable level. Spam emails will eventually find their way into the mailbox of one employee or another. Training employees to recognize them and implementing email filtering to catch most of them is a much more logical area to direct resources towards than simply trying to eliminate all spam emails.

Step 4: Monitor and Review

Let’s circle back to our physical store example. When key locks were broken into, other forms of locks emerged: fingerprint, number lock, iris scanners, and so on. The point is, threats keep evolving, and so must cybersecurity.

Being static is a mistake. It’s essential to evolve with the threats and adopt new technology as it comes around. To do that, ongoing monitoring and regular reviews are crucial. Constantly updating mitigation strategies is the way towards safety. It’s best to have a feedback loop that keeps your risk management process relevant and effective.

10 Cybersecurity Risk Management Best Practices

Now, with a solid understanding of the process, you’re going to need to take some real actions in order to actually strengthen your defenses. If you’re an SMB, we recommend adopting the following 10 practices:

1. Conduct Regular Risk Assessments

Your operations aren’t stagnant, technology isn’t either, employees often leave, and their replacements are recruited. Treating risk assessment as a one-time thing means relying upon outdated data.

Risk assessment should be a regular thing, so schedule it, at the very least, annually. If you handle sensitive data, such as the data in the healthcare and finance industries, the assessment should absolutely be performed more often.

Even a simple checklist-based assessment can reveal outdated software, weak passwords, or unused accounts that create unnecessary risk.

2. Keep Software and Systems Updated

A weak wooden door is easy to break into. It is a vulnerability, and a modern-day equivalent of that is outdated systems and software. It is best to deal with the inconvenience of patching and updating software. Also, this applies not only to operating systems but also to applications, plugins, and even network equipment like routers.

3. Implement Strong Access Controls

Apply the principle of least privilege and provide access to only what is necessary to employees, as that reduces the chances of risks that arise due to human error. To take things a step ahead, make sure only strong passwords are used (something like “myname123” should be banned) and make multi-factor authentication a necessity. For SMBs, this single step significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

4. Train Your Employees

Human error is a major contributor to security risks, and most employees are simply unaware of the cybersecurity threats out there and how to counter them. This is a rather fixable problem, as all it takes is regular training.

This will help them spot phishing attempts, avoid suspicious downloads, and understand why keeping the password “myname123” isn’t the best idea. Also, the training doesn’t have to eat up their entire day. It can be held in quick, engaging sessions followed by simulations to give them hands-on experience.

5. Backup Your Data

Accidents can happen if a single weak link in the chain is left untreated. So, it is best to have automated, encrypted backups stored both onsite and in the cloud to ensure you can recover quickly in case of an attack. Also, making it a practice to check the integrity of the backups every day is important in order to confirm they work as expected.

6. Encrypt Sensitive Data

The aim isn’t just to protect the bad characters from getting to our safe, but instead, it is to make sure they do not get hold of the contents inside. If data is stolen, but it was encrypted well enough, it is as good as nothing. So apply encryption to data both at rest (stored on servers or devices) and in transit (moving across networks).

7. Develop an Incident Response Plan

As discussed before, accidents can happen. So, it’s best to have an incident response plan ready to go on command. It should outline basic protocols such as who to contact, what steps to take, and how to communicate with stakeholders. Practicing the plan reduces panic and speeds up recovery.

8. Monitor Your Network

Consider these the security cameras for your tech. Monitoring tools will help detect unusual activity, and early detection and immediate intervention often result in canceling out the snowball effect of minor issues.

9. Secure Third-Party Vendors

Your business might rely on cloud providers, payment processors, or IT contractors. If they are not secure, you are not secure. Review vendor practices, ask about compliance, and include cybersecurity requirements in contracts.

10. Test Your Defenses

Assumptions about your defense systems aren’t good enough because you need hard proof. Treat your defense like a science and not faith. Conduct penetration tests, vulnerability scans, and simulated phishing campaigns. These tests highlight weaknesses so you can fix them before real attackers find them.

Applying all of these can seem like a lot of work, but it is all for a good cause and can be implemented gradually. Start with the basics like training, backups, and software updates, and build up from there.

How Cortavo Helps You Stay Secure Without Lifting a Finger

Building an in-house IT team that handles cybersecurity risk management can be quite an expensive ordeal. Many businesses cannot afford that, and asking employees to wing it or learn and juggle security tasks with their regular work is unrealistic and unsafe.

That is where Cortavo steps in and provides SMBs with the IT support they require. We provide fully managed IT and cybersecurity services at the level that enterprises expect, and make them accessible for SMBs.

With us, you get:

• Proactive Monitoring: Our team watches your systems 24/7 and responds to threats before they escalate.
• Risk Assessments, Cybersecurity and Compliance: We conduct regular assessments and make sure you meet regulations, such as those of the construction industry, whether it is HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or GDPR. In addition, we keep your defenses up, protecting you from any cybersecurity threats, current and upcoming.
• Employee Training: We provide your staff with the training required to protect themselves and the organization against threats. They, too, are a line of defense.
• Backup and Recovery: We set up automated backups and manage recovery processes so your data is always safe, just in case things go wrong.

With Cortavo, you get IT support, cybersecurity, and compliance in compact plans. No surprise bills for repairs or replacements at the end of the year. Make your IT expenses predictable and get the peace of mind that comes with knowing your IT is managed properly. You can focus on growing your business, serving your customers, and building your future, while Cortavo takes care of the technology behind the scenes.

Contact us today to explore a plan that fits your needs and helps your business grow.

Closing Thoughts

Cybersecurity risk management is about keeping your business alive and trusted. The formula is simple: identify risks, cut them down, and stay proactive. Do that, and you protect cash flow, reputation, and growth. Ignore it, and one breach could undo everything you’ve built.

FAQs

What is cybersecurity risk management?

Cybersecurity risk management refers to the process of identifying, analyzing, and mitigating risks that threaten your digital assets, systems, and data with the goal of reducing risks to the level that they don’t negatively impact the business.

What are the five elements of cyber risk management?

The five elements are identifying assets, assessing threats, evaluating vulnerabilities, implementing controls, and continuous monitoring.

How to get into cybersecurity risk management?

From a business perspective, the first step is conducting a risk assessment to understand your exposure and moving forward from there.

What are the 5 C's of cybersecurity?

They usually refer to Change, Compliance, Cost, Continuity, and Coverage. These are the five dimensions businesses should consider to ensure strong and sustainable security practices.