Cybersecurity has to be a top priority for businesses in 2021. The importance of this cannot be overstated better. Even after all the preventive measures and precautionary steps, there is always a chance of your business getting attacked by cybercriminals and hackers. A study by SIA in association with Wall Street Journal shows that there has been more than 200% increase in cyberattacks on businesses in the last two years, mainly through vendors, customers, and partners. In this post, we are discussing proactive & reactive cybersecurity in detail.
The need for proactive stance
Eventually, you would want to avoid a security breach, or cyberattack, in the first place, and that’s where proactive stance matters. In simple words, proactive cybersecurity is about taking steps to minimize the risks and threats, and there are varied ways to do the same –
- Installing firewalls on networked devices
- Using antimalware and antispyware software
- Training employees on the best cybersecurity practices
- Using multifactor authentication and lockout feature
- Recommending password protection tool to employees
- Hiring ethical hackers
In the nutshell, anything that helps in preventing data theft, security breaches and minimizes concerns is a part of proactive cybersecurity. This approach matters because you don’t want to deal with the consequences of such a breach, which often extends beyond financial losses.
Reactive cybersecurity is as important
Just because you are proactive and have taken steps for better cybersecurity doesn’t mean your company is entirely immune to such incidents. Things may go wrong at some point, and in such circumstances, one of the key concerns or goals is to minimize the impact. Having an incident response plan is a part of reactive cybersecurity. In case of disaster recovery plan, your business will outline the steps that the cybersecurity teams need to follow, after an incident has been reported.
To sum up
Both proactive and reactive cybersecurity matter for businesses. It is important to have employees trained for both, because they are your frontline defense against hackers and scammers. Cybercriminals don’t necessary try to “hack” into systems or networks, but they only exploit the existing flaws and vulnerabilities. Ensure that your company spends time in finding such flaws and bugs, and don’t wait for an incident to happen to take cybersecurity seriously. This is an ongoing aspect that needs continuous monitoring, and every business has to spend on cybersecurity in a planned manner without operational disruptions.
If needed, consider hiring cybersecurity experts, to train your employees.
