As a business, cybersecurity is definitely something that’s important to spend your time working on. Building a strong cybersecurity strategy will help protect your business from any threats your company might be subjected to over its lifetime. With cybercrime becoming more rife, the changes and improvements you can make to your cybersecurity strategy the more it benefit your business. In this guide, you’ll get a better understanding of what a cybersecurity strategy is and why it’s important. After which, you’ll have the 6 steps required to implement an effective strategy for the sake of your online security.
By Team Savant
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What Is a Cybersecurity Strategy?
A cybersecurity strategy is a plan of action that’s designed to help maximise the security of your business so that it doesn’t fall victim to the threats out there. Using a top-to-bottom approach, a set of objectives and protocols is established to help keep you, your staff and your business safe.
As part of the strategy, individuals are assigned their duties and thus define a certain degree of accountability and responsibility towards the security of the business. It’ll also let everyone know what to do and whom to reach out to when a cyber threat is very much present or in progress of success.
As well as all that, it should aid the business in taking proactive action against those who might have been neglectful with their efforts to protect the company.
The Importance of a Cybersecurity Strategy
Cyber attacks can prove devastating for some companies, whether it’s the financial loss incurred or the loss of trust that can happen, even when a business has done everything it can to protect customer and client data.
A strong cybersecurity strategy in place will do everything possible to greatly lower the chances of the business falling victim to cybercriminal efforts.
Not only that, but if a cyber attack were to be in progress, then the strategy and protocols in place might be effective and quick enough to stop the attack before it does irreparable damage.
How Do You Develop a Strong Cybersecurity Strategy?
If you’re looking to develop a strong cybersecurity strategy, then there are many ways in which you can do this successfully. Here are several ways to develop a strong cybersecurity strategy for your business this year.
1. Perform a Security Risk Assessment
A security risk assessment is the first step in sorting out your cybersecurity as a business. With risk assessments in general, they’re helpful to get a detailed view of what possible cyber threats are apparent to your business and any protocols that are in place to mitigate those risks.
Risk assessments are also good for assessing overall risk and putting in place the relevant processes to ensure the threat of attacks is minimised wherever possible.
2. Understand What Issues Need Addressing
What issues are prevalent in your business when it comes to cybersecurity? Is it a lack of strong passwords across the workforce or perhaps a knowledge gap within employees that needs addressing?
It could be the level of security you have in place currently when it comes to firewalls and various network encryption and protection. Whatever the issues are, they’ll need highlighted before finding the various solutions required.
3. Assess What Technology and Security Are Available
It’s good to take a look at what technology and security you currently have in place and whether both are adequate in complying with industry standards. If not, then changes need to be made to help strengthen your security as a business.
Assess what technology and security are available for the business and what can be afforded. You’ll want to get the best technology money can buy when it comes to your cybersecurity defences. As part of this, you’ll also want to onboard and train your staff to use all of this technology in the correct manner.
Thankfully, there are plenty of great cybersecurity services available to benefit your business and its success.
4. Choose a Cybersecurity Framework That Works For Your Business
A cybersecurity framework is a system of standards, best practices and guidelines required to help manage the risks that crop up in the digital world.
There are a number of frameworks that you can implement into your business so that you can guide your cybersecurity strategy in a successful manner. Depending on your business, some frameworks might be mandatory, so it’s essential to ensure your business complies with whatever standards are necessary. Otherwise, non-compliance might lead to legal problems or financial repercussions.
5. Review Any Existing Policies and Create New Ones
Finally, you’ll want to review any existing policies that your business has in place when it comes to your cybersecurity. For some businesses, the policy in place might not be too bad in terms of how well it protects your company.
However, an outdated policy is only going to be problematic for the business as it continues its existence in a dynamically changing online world.
A security policy is a document that states how the company plans to protect itself from threats to its IT and physical assets. This should be amended whenever there are any changes within the business, or the potential vulnerabilities that might now be present that weren’t there before.
One of the biggest cybersecurity risks is that of your own business. Therefore, any negligent behaviour needs to be addressed and stamped out so that it reduces the risk of data breaches in general.
These policies should be enforceable for each and every employee within the organisation. That then means should any negligence be found, the employee or employees responsible can be held accountable accordingly.
As such, these policies need to be regularly maintained and updated as the business continues to exist and the world of cybersecurity continues to change. Vulnerabilities will always emerge, so your teams or individuals responsible for managing these policies should always be aware of the risks present to the business.
6. Build A Strong Cybersecurity Strategy For Your Business In 2025
It’s now more important than ever to build a strong cybersecurity strategy for the sake of your business. Annual cybersecurity risk assessments are helpful to identify any vulnerabilities that are new to the business and that can therefore be addressed.
Feedback from both employees and external services you might use for the purpose of cybersecurity should also be welcome to address any issues that might otherwise go unnoticed by those responsible for keeping the business safe.