Cybersecurity Best Practices: Safeguarding Your Business in the Digital Age

Three pillars of cybersecurity best practices

The IBM and Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 reported that the average cost of a data breach went up 10% to $4.88 million for all industries. By implementing comprehensive cybersecurity best practices, businesses can significantly reduce their risk exposure and build resilience against cyber threats.

Adopting cybersecurity best practices is a strategic business decision that will mitigate cyber risk and strengthen cyber resilience. From establishing a robust security culture and implementing strong access controls to ensuring network security and developing incident response plans, each of these practices will provide more security to your business from cyber threats. A proactive defense is a competitive advantage.

According to the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, there are three key pillars to cybersecurity that large organizations should consider:

• ‍Understanding your organization’s risks
• Implementing appropriate mitigations
• Preparing for cyber incidents

The NCSC then breaks down the pillars into ten components. There isn’t one pillar that is more important than the other, rather they work in a cycle of improvement.

Understanding your risks enables you to identify appropriate mitigations that lead to more effective preparations in the event of a cyber incident.

In this article, we will explore the following best practices that fall under the three pillars outlined by the UK’s NCSC:

• Governance and Risk Management
• Knowing Your Assets (data and infrastructure)
• Control Access Management
• Regular Backups
• Implementing Vulnerability and Patch Management
• Monitor and Analyze Logs
• Develop a Response Plan to Recover from Incidents
• Educate Employees and Third Parties on Safer Digital Practices

Understand your organization’s risks

Governance and risk management

Effective cybersecurity begins with governance and risk management. This belongs to the NCSC’s pillar Understanding your organization’s risks. A company with a comprehensive governance and risk management framework will be able to identify and address enterprise-wide cyber risks more effectively. Cybersecurity is not only an issue for the IT department. The digital transformation has made all business processes more vulnerable to threat actors.

CISA, the Cyber Defense Agency in the US, defines cybersecurity governance as “a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that integrates with organizational operations and prevents the interruption of activities due to cyber threats or attacks”. This includes mitigation plans, decision-making hierarchies, accountability frameworks, and understanding risks as they relate to business objectives.

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Cyber risk management is a critical part of governance and allows business leadership to understand risks related to digital processes, critical assets and systems, and third parties. According to ISO 27005 and other risk management frameworks, risk management includes risk assessment, risk treatment and risk monitoring. These three sub-categories are necessary to identify assets, scope risks, measure control efficacy and make recommendations. A data-driven approach to risk management will provide defensible data to critical stakeholders for effective decision-making.

Implement risk mitigations

Maintaining the CIA triad – confidentiality, integrity, and availability – is the objective of the infosec team. There are many controls that can be implemented to reduce the risk of a threat actor gaining access to your data. Below are a selection of  

Strong credential management

Credential management is the process of creating, storing, managing and protecting digital credentials by only allowing authorized users to access sensitive information and resources.

Zero Trust is a security framework that limits system or information access based on a user's role, and continuously verifies credentials before granting access to a user. Zero Trust also includes continuous control of who has access to data and denying access to users who no longer require access to perform their job.  

MFA or multi-factor authentication is a critical step to improving credential management. MFA requires users to provide two or more verification factors to access a network, system or account. MFA used a combination of the three ways to verify a person’s identity:

Something you know – this can be a password or PIN you have memorized

Something you have – this is using a smartphone or other device

Something you are – this can include biometric data like a fingerprint or facial recognition

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Backup and recovery strategy

Both businesses and individuals can protect their data by implementing a backup and recovery strategy. Backup and recovery ensure that data and systems can be restored in the event of cyberattacks, such as ransomware, data breaches, or system failures, increasing cyber resilience against these threats.

• ‍Duplicate your data backups: you can follow the 3-2-1 strategy, that is one primary copy and two backups.‍
• Use multiple storage types: It’s best practice to store each backup in separate locations, for example, one backup in the cloud and one on local storage and not connected to your network.‍
• Frequent automatic backups: Regular backups help to minimize data loss in the case of ransomware.‍
• Encrypt your data: Encrypted backups prevent unauthorized access and potential breaches of sensitive data.‍
• Test your backup and recovery procedure: Regularly test the restoration process to ensure backups can be successfully retrieved and that critical systems can be brought back online. This ensures data hasn’t been corrupted or altered.

Vulnerability and patch management

Organizations without patch management leaves the door open to malicious threat actors looking to exploit vulnerable systems. Vulnerability and patch management is a continuous, proactive process. Security teams that implement patch management continuously check for patches and updates and then deploy the remediations to systems, networks and computers in a timely manner, so that productivity is uninterrupted and data and systems are protected.

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Log monitoring

Log monitoring is essential for maintaining the security and availability of systems and applications. Logs provide valuable information on system events, errors, user activity, and performance metrics. By continuously monitoring these logs, security teams can detect anomalies that may indicate security threats or performance issues. Log monitoring tools automate the process – scanning and analyzing log data to alert teams to potential risks or patterns, helping them quickly respond to incidents and optimize system performance. 

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Prepare for a cyber incident

Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are the first step towards preparing for the eventuality of a cyber incident.

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IT Disaster Recovery Plan

An IT Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is an internal business document that outlines procedures and resources that your company needs to get IT systems back online after an incident. When developing the DRR it is important to consider:

• impact of any cyber crisis
• how you will protect critical data and systems in the event of a disaster or cyber incident
• steps that will ensure the continuity of your company’s activities
• your backup system to resume critical IT applications.

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Cyber awareness training

Your employees are your first line of defense against cyber threats. They open hundreds of emails every day, access company IP and interact with third parties. The rise of generative AI has made it harder to spot phishing emails – the language in the emails is more convincing with fewer grammatical errors.

Prioritizing employee awareness training on cybersecurity is a critical line of defense. By educating employees on recognizing and avoiding phishing attempts, creating and maintaining strong passwords, ensuring their devices are secure, and promptly reporting any suspicious activity, organizations can significantly reduce their vulnerability to cyber threats. This proactive approach protects sensitive information and builds a culture of security awareness within the organization.

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Data-driven cyber risk management as a best practice

An organization’s security controls and cybersecurity best practices are a vital component of risk management.

Integrating Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) into your Risk Management process is an important step in identifying, measuring and mitigating potential threats. CRQ involves assessing the potential financial impact of various cyber threats, allowing organizations to prioritize resources and response strategies effectively. By quantifying cyber risks, businesses can make informed decisions about investments in cybersecurity measures, insurance policies, and resource allocation. 

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Cyber Risk Quantification contextualizes cyber risk

Before launching an extensive Identity and Access Management (IAM) program or a new control as part of cybersecurity best practices, CRQ provides quantified insights into the most critical vulnerabilities, allowing organizations to prioritize their resources and controls effectively, addressing the most costly risks first.

C-Risk works with CISOs in integrating CRQ into their cyber risk management processes. Our CRQ as a Service can help you operationalize quantification. If you have any questions or would like to discuss a comprehensive cyber strategy that includes CRQ, book a call with a cyber risk expert or write to us here.