A โbuzz wordโ being used more often within the Cybersecurity community has been โCyber Resiliencyโ – by no means is it a foreign term to the cybersecurity industry โ but rather the current threat landscape making the term more relevant. So, just what does it mean to be cyber resilient? According to Paul Grapendaal, Ncloseโs Head of Managed Security Services, โcyber resilience is a combination of cybersecurity and business continuity. It encompasses end-to-end security, IT and business operations under one roof, whether that be preventative measures, restoration of a business covering all cyber-attacks, improving incident responses for future compromises and lessons learned to overall improve a businessโs cyber dexterity.โย
Becoming Cyber Resilientย
We see more and more businesses investing in cybersecurity every year, but there are still many that do not see the importance or relevance of investing in cybersecurity. Can you as a business invest in your own cybersecurity or do you need the help of a cybersecurity partner to justify your investment? โItโs possible for a business to develop their own cyber resilient process but it would require a lot of time, investment, research, resource and skills allocation because cyber resilience deals with so many different elements that – with the current availability of skills in the cybersecurity industry – is a monumental task. This is one of the many reasons Nclose exists as a cybersecurity partner, to support, consult and/or provide a service for businesses who need assistance in becoming more cyber resilient, so they can focus on business operationsโ, says Grapendaal. The resource outlay for a business to have their own team to manage, detect, respond, and recover can be a challenging obstacle, and this is where cybersecurity partners play an important role in bridging that gap, making cybersecurity an affordable investment.ย
Grapendaal adds, โThe process of becoming cyber resilient is a business would need to embark on and have goals and strategies to achieve this. At Nclose, we assist in identifying those elements you as a business are falling short, and areas requiring improvement. You would not have to worry about resource and skills management, change in technologies, threat monitoring and so forth โ thatโs what the right partners are there for โ which importantly allows you to focus on your core business operations. Any business intent on becoming more cyber resilient, will do themselves no harm in investing in a cybersecurity partner, should they choose. Nclose acts as an extension of your own cybersecurity team without the con of needing to worry about agility, change and scalability as your business grows โ this is one of the steppingstones to becoming more cyber resilient.โย
Prevention, Detection and Recoveryย
Often when we speak about resiliency, itโs oneโs ability to recover and adapt to changes in order to progress. However, in cybersecurity itโs not solely about that, because protection, prevention and mitigation of your business risk is still that first line of defenceย Understanding that itโs not a matter of โifโ youโll be compromised, but โwhenโ youโll be compromised is a resilient mentality to have about cybersecurity. โA real mature cyber resilience program brings together all elements of cybersecurity and business operations into one seamless function. What this does is break the barriers to a businessโs specific security needs so that the business operations and cybersecurity services provided are working together in perfect harmony โadds Grapendaal.ย
This collaborative process allows Nclose and our clients to derive full value, because it helps a business identify which areas of their business they need to secure and make resilient. Being resilient means understanding that individual layers on their own are not sufficient, but rather the combination of preventative, detective and restorative measures is a more realistic approach to bridging business and security. This means when something goes wrong; the necessary and essential solutions and processes were in place to either efficiently or effectively prevent and recover.ย
Conclusion: The future of Cyber Resiliencyย
โWeโve seen over the past couple years with increased client breaches and this year cyberwarfare in the Russia-Ukraine conflict that the threat landscape in cybersecurity, whether that be new threats and/or prevalence of threats can change overnight. So, the dependency of businesses to approach continuity with security in mind has brought cyber resilience into the conversation. Cyber resilience is still relatively new, there is no set programme specifically designed for it, but there is potential for it to be something that becomes more relevant as business and security achieve closer alignmentโ adds Grapendaal. ย
โThis type of model is something that needs to be very intentional in order to be successful but is a logical evolution of BCP and security. It will be something that requires a mindset change and buy-in from DR, BCP and Security business units. The reality is as the world becomes more technologically driven and business becomes more reliant on the integrity and availability of systems and data, a cyber resiliency programme is extremely necessary.โ concludes Grapendaal. ย