Cyber Attack Prevention Starts with Finding the Right Cybersecurity Service Provider

Answer this question honestly: “Are you prepared for a sophisticated cyber attack?” If you’re reading this as a C-suite member of a company, you should be able to respond quickly and with details as to why you are. 

Depending solely upon a CTO or CISO to worry about your cybersecurity standing is doing a disservice to your business and putting your organization at risk. 

Ensuring cybersecurity integrity is a top priority for businesses as we near the end of 2021. The research firm Gartner predicts that cybersecurity spending will pass $150 billion by year’s end — a 12.4 percent increase compared to last year. Part of this increased investment can be attributed to the major security breaches that dominated not just headlines within the cybersecurity industry, but national news. From the SolarWinds breach to the Microsoft Exchange attack to the Colonial Pipeline cyber shutdown, digital threats have been impossible to ignore. 

Not surprisingly, cyber attacks were found to be one of CEOs’ top concerns in a 2020 study. 

If you are a small business owner and think all these cyberattacks are only focused on large, multi-billion dollar companies, you’d be wrong. Most cybersecurity attacks are targeted at small businesses, with roughly 60 percent of small businesses not recovering after experiencing a data breach.

Investment in cybersecurity needs to start before an incident. Hiring a cybersecurity team or provider isn’t something to consider only when your data has been compromised. While a provider can eliminate the threat and regain control of your network, the damage most likely will have already been done. Prevention is the best solution to the constant, ever-evolving digital threats facing businesses. 

By being proactive in your security posture, rather than reactive, you are significantly reducing any possibility of potential costs, information loss, and reputation damage caused by a successful cyber attack. 

But maybe you’re already aware of this, and know cybersecurity is a necessary safeguard for any business in the 21st century. 

Now the question is: How do you go about picking a security provider, and what degree of services do you need? Will one of those well known anti-virus software products be sufficient?

That is of course a tongue-in-cheek question. There are countless cybersecurity providers, teams, and products out there that claim to be a one-stop solution — with the whole idea being, “buy and then kick back and relax.” 

But that’s oftentimes not the case. Businesses are being oversold and under delivered — and through this process, they are vulnerable to the increasing complexity of cybercriminal attacks. So this circles back to the problem many face today, “I need cybersecurity help, but I don’t know who to hire.” 

Knowing what you don’t know is the first step in getting your business properly protected. Cyberattack prevention starts with finding the right team. Here are four tips to help you discover the right cybersecurity provider for your organization. 

Tip 1: Prevention, Prevention, Prevention 

Hiring the right team of cybersecurity experts should begin with understanding and knowing their security philosophy. Their message should be loud and clear that a healthy cybersecurity strategy starts with prevention. That’s because on average it takes over 200 days for a cybersecurity breach to be identified. It is very rare that a breach or attack occurs and the target is immediately aware of it. Therefore, no matter how quick and efficient a provider’s incident response services are, the right way to approach cybersecurity is with a prevention first mindset. Determine what security perimeters, frameworks, and monitoring a provider deploys in order to stop an attack before it can ever actually begin. 

Tip 2: Look for an Outcomes-Based provider 

Cybersecurity should be an investment that adds value to your organization, and not serve as a cost center. This approach is illustrated through a cybersecurity provider’s mission statement or dedicated goals. These should not just be words that they preach, but guiding principles into how they go about doing their work for clients. A good service provider will be focused on delivering you results that showcase how your financial investment in security is helping yield a positive ROI for your organization. Look for a cybersecurity team that is concerned about your unique goals and needs, who is able to provide customized solutions to your individual problems. Finally, demand a level of transparency. Ask for the numbers of what is actually happening behind the scenes. Reporting is a critical component of knowing how your dollar is performing for you.

Tip 3: Are holistic services available?

Hiring the right cybersecurity team often means hiring a team that is multi-faceted. As a business owner or stakeholder, you want to know that your security provider can tailor a solution to you and not force a service just because that is the only specialization they offer. Even though cybersecurity is concerned with the same goal for every client, not every client can be treated through the same framework. When looking to partner with experts in the industry, ensure that they offer holistic services to a variety of modern threats. 

Tip 4: Is thought leadership present?

Finally, a quick litmus test to judge if hiring a specific cybersecurity provider could be a good decision, is if thought leadership is present. True innovators within the cybersecurity industry use their voice to provide insight and opinions that educate and inform both peers and potential buyers. Through a variety of content forms, a trusted expert in the field will produce original work that aims to leverage their unique solutions and perspectives on how to improve digital security from both the provider and consumer side of the issue. A trusted, capable cybersecurity team is going to make their presence known — because true knowledge surrounding the industry can’t be faked.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to move your cybersecurity program forward, Cyber Defense Group can help. We are shifting the cybersecurity consulting paradigm to address the needs of mid-market, cloud-native or cloud-reliant companies who are experiencing rapid growth.

Founded in 2016 by global security expert Lou Rabon, our nimble team draws on decades of experience and diverse technical expertise to deliver a full spectrum of information security advisory and implementation services on a fixed-cost basis. Our right-sized, results-driven approach will help you meet your immediate needs, but also ready you to navigate what’s ahead. Get in touch, and see what results are possible for your organization.