Owning and operating a business of any kind can be challenging nowadays. Demands are high, with many factors to juggle. From growing revenue and minimizing expenses, to managing investments and cash flow, to retaining and growing the client base and hiring and firing staff, the list can seem never-ending. In addition to complying with government regulations, managing benefits, and paying your taxes- work as a business owner is never finished.
Along with these challenges and others, add cybersecurity as another demand that has become increasingly important for businesses of all sizes in all industries. Cyber threats have continued to evolve and increase in frequency and the damage they cause. In fact, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates than in the five years ending in 2021, more than $1 trillion will have been spent on cybersecurity products and services.
A Business Owner's Role In Cybersecurity
While business owners can delegate authority, they should take an active role in securing their business online because low security can take such a devastating toll. Owners or top-level managers should be directly involved in:
● Setting rules and regulations for online safety and consistently enforcing adherence to policy
● Providing the necessary training for staff
● Hiring an IT team and security team, if possible
● Investing in the right kind of cybersecurity software
Cybersecurity is a balance between people, processes, and technology. The business owner must manage risk and reward, making tradeoffs on where to invest. Still, they are ultimately responsible for protecting sensitive and customer personally identifiable information (PII).
The Best Enterprise Cybersecurity Software
Cloud-based endpoint detection and response (EDR) is the future of cybersecurity. EDR solutions collect, record, and store large volumes of data from endpoint activities to provide IT and security professionals with the comprehensive visibility they need to detect, investigate, and mitigate advanced cyber threats.
EDR is often equated to highly-skilled security professionals or security operations centers (SOCs), who use their exceptional experience and knowledge to navigate the EDR data stores to uncover subtle activities that indicate compromise. Endpoint Protection Endpoint security protects the corporate network when accessed by in-network and remote devices like laptops and mobile platforms. Each remote endpoint connecting to the network creates a potential external threat to the system, and endpoint protection is designed to secure each of those devices. By controlling the parameters on edge or outside the network, enterprises can better and more safely deploy "bring your own device" (BYOD) or work from home programs.
EDR And Application Control
No discussion on EDR is complete without a look at application control. Providing ransomware protection and app control, EDR platforms can block or restrict unauthorized applications from executing in ways that put data in jeopardy. By whitelisting or blacklisting applications, end users will know what apps and executables they can trust. In an EDR environment, IT and security teams can manage endpoints and applications from a single platform and single pane of glass across the entire enterprise.
Optimizing Application Control
Companies are becoming increasingly dependent on stand-alone applications in daily business operations. The main objective of application control is to ensure the privacy and security of data used by and transmitted between applications.
Application control is optimized by managing the following attributes:
● Completeness Checks– Ensure records processing from start to finish
● Validity Checks– Ensure only valid data is processed
● Identification– Absolute identification of users
● Authorization– Ensures users are approved
● Forensics– Controls are in place to scientifically verify correct inputs, outputs, and traceability of activity
Optimized application controls also provide for:
● Automatic identification of trusted applications
● Preventing the execution of unauthorized applications
● Protection against exploits of unpatched OS and application vulnerabilities
● Reduced exposure and risk from malware
● Improved network stability
The Responsibility Of Cybersecurity
Owning and operating an enterprise-size organization comes with a variety of responsibilities, but none more important for long term success than protecting the vital data that is the lifeblood of the company. Cloud-based EDR and application control provides advanced protection against threats like ransomware, which comprised nearly 152 million attacks in 2019.
All business decisions come down to risk and reward and investment and return. The question every business owner must answer is what tradeoffs need to be made to invest effectively and defend against the very real threat of cyber attack.
