Setting up any form of enterprise system security must begin by acknowledging that cyberattacks of various forms happen thousands of times a day to businesses of all types and sizes.
Many cyberattacks have as their objective stealing data for ransom or identity theft purposes. Others attempt to get unsuspecting users to visit unsecured websites and submit their personal information. There are plenty of other scams and schemes that can cause havoc for any business, large or small.
As a business owner, you need to make sure that your enterprise system security is as strong and air-tight as possible. The costs of a data breach or a phishing scam can be immense. Some businesses have failed because of cyberattacks that either cost too much money to repair or because of an irreparable blow to their reputation.
One way to make your security apparatus as strong as possible is by automating as much as you can. Automation can keep your costs at an affordable level and reduce human error, among other things.
There’s a good chance that you already automate several things in your business, such as your phone-answering system. Automating your enterprise system security may provide the biggest benefit of all since it can help prevent major security issues. Listed below are five things to guide you through the process.
1. Reduce reliance on humans.
Your employees are important. You need your team to be working on things that will help grow your business. That could be administrative, sales, production, or any other function. You may also have a team to deal with cybersecurity issues, such as prevention, repair, and investigation. Depending on the size of your business, you may have one or several people handling those jobs.
However, relying on humans becomes more difficult and time-consuming every day. There are more cyberattacks than ever, meaning that your system security must be at its best at all times.
By automating certain routine tasks and functions, you can make sure that your system remains strong, and that employees are able to focus on other things to protect your system. The more you automate, whether it’s an endpoint protection platform or something else, the more they can focus attention on the jobs that need human intervention. Let’s face it, humans are fallible, and anyone can make mistakes. With automation, human error can be removed completely.
2. Improve your incident response time.
When you have staff members monitoring security issues, there may be a lag when they respond and investigate enterprise system security incidents. This means that they have to monitor IP addresses, run and analyze reports, and cross-check data to pinpoint where the issue originated, among other things. This can be a slow process that can only speed up if more people are working on it.
Automation can speed up a lot of the processes involved with security event responses. Not everything has to be automated, but anything that can will help minimize response times and provide answers sooner. The sooner you have that information, the sooner you can be protected against that weakness. Your goal should be a balance between automation and human intervention that leads to efficient responses and accurate data.
3. Maintain compliance with all laws.
There are laws and regulations related to data storage and management. These standards can be especially strict in certain industries. If people are responsible for ensuring compliance, things can get missed or delayed. These in turn can lead to compliance issues with the appropriate authorities. If there is a data breach, businesses need to be accountable and provide certain information to authorities.
With automation, all or most of this work can be handled without the need to lift a finger. Your business can be in compliance 24/7 and you can have data instantly when requested by authorities. Not being in compliance can cause serious issues for your business. It’s best not to take any chances.
4. Keep security scalability in mind.
At some point, leaving your enterprise system security to in-house staff may become unsustainable. As your business grows, you will have increased security needs. To manage these, you will need to hire more staff, train them, and get them up to speed. They will need to be able to quickly adapt to your compliance regime and then do the job for which you hired them.
An automated system does not require training and does not require you to recruit and train new hires. Automation can grow with your business, meaning that you don’t have to worry about scrambling to fill gaps. Your system will do that for you, and handle any updates and upgrades you might require.
5. Seek to reduce false positives on cyberattacks.
False positives can cause massive issues for your data security team. For some enterprises, false positives can quickly overwhelm the personnel assigned to monitor them.
For each false positive attack, someone must investigate fully to make sure that there truly is no security issue. This can take a lot of time. If your team is investigating a lot of potential issues that turn out to be nothing, they will not be spending their time efficiently.
The best automation tools for enterprise system security can be more reliable when it comes to identifying problems. That way, your team does not have to worry unless they get an alert. At that point, they can then investigate. By reducing false positives, your data security team can focus on more important tasks that require human intervention.
No matter the size of your business, having an enterprise cybersecurity system is a great investment. While you will be paying for it upfront, you will more than make up the cost in staff hours and the damage that a data breach can do. By automating some of your security processes, you can save time and money, all while being better protected at all times.
