Why Should You Get a Cybersecurity Vendor for Data Protection?

With the increased internet use, the world has significantly changed. The rise in cyberattacks and threats has led to high demand for cybersecurity vendors.

One major cybersecurity culprit is known as ransomware. It’s a type of malicious software that can cause great harm. It often denies you the right to access your data. These attacks are usually deployed through social engineering tactics.

And, as soon as you fall victim to the attack, your data is encrypted. Statistics reveal that over 18 million websites are usually infected with malware at a given time every week.

It’s not a surprise why the global cybersecurity market is now booming. Small, medium, and large organizations are continually investing in cybersecurity. Research indicates that cybersecurity-related spending is projected to rise beyond $133 billion by 2022.

Furthermore, security departments continue to expand  in size and budget. And, cyber security vendors are gaining respect now, more than ever before. Larger entities like the European Union have now initiated the NIS cybersecurity strategy.

The European Commission initiated the first proposal of the EU NIS Directive in 2016. It was the first setup of EU global cybersecurity legislation. The Directive’s enforcement was on 9 May 2018. It’s aim was to come up with robust cybersecurity levels amongst the European nations.

It allows the Member States to consider their national circumstances openly. This includes the capacity to reuse existing organizational structures. It also involves aligning the structures with the present national legislation.

The NIS Directive insists on the need for the EU Member States to have national cybersecurity capabilities in their specific countries. For example, they need to have a national CSIRT.

The EU Member states should also oversee the cybersecurity situation of the key market operators in their countries. For example, they need to supervise significant sectors like:

• Energy
• Health
• Finance
• Transport
• Water
• Digital infrastructure (online marketplaces, cloud, and search engines)

Why the Need for Cybersecurity Vendors?

Cybersecurity vendors help guard against organizational data threats. Authorized third parties usually pose such threats. And they may have either direct or indirect access to your data.

Risks associated with such threats may include:

• Data breaches
• Unauthorized use or disclosure of private information
• Corruption or loss of important organizational data

So, appropriate vendor management is necessary to protect organizations from losing critical organizational data. They also help guard against unauthorized data use.

Cybercrime is a threat facing every organization that operates internet-linked devices. Without the help of cybersecurity professionals, it will be hard for organizations to prevent data breaches. This is because of the present transnational nature of cyberspace.

Take the example of the global WannaCry attack that happened sometime back. It paralyzed business operations across the world and the U.K.National Health Service fell victim to the attack.

After the incident, the U.K health service said they had yet to fully implement all the necessary cybersecurity measures. They did this to prevent a similar incident in the future if an attack were to strike again.

Later, a report was established from the U.K. Commons Public Accounts Committee. It outlined how unprepared their health system was before the attack occurred.

Its clinics and hospitals were shut down. They also had to cancel 20,000 important appointments. And, for some of the operations, systems never went back to their normal services for several weeks.

Indeed, cybercrime incidents might have a significant personal and societal impact. Some of the common issues often include:

• Fraud
• Identity theft
• Privacy breaches

There’s a great need for cybersecurity vendors to defend organizations from cyber attacks.

This is the way forward to maintain a robust and resilient society.

To ensure the security of an organization, cybersecurity vendors might work in different areas, including:

• Software development
• Network testing
• Incident response
• Policy development

Now, let’s look at specific reasons you need to get a cybersecurity vendor for data protection.

1.  To Ensure Your Systems are Compliant

When it comes to cybersecurity compliance, organizations can get too overwhelmed. Thousands of security controls are difficult to handle.

Compliance requirements always vary and are usually imposed by different authorities such as:

• The law enforcement
• Regulatory bodies
• Private industry groups

Cybersecurity compliance is about meeting different controls enacted by the law, regulatory authority bodies, or industry groups. Cybersecurity vendors come in to help your organization maintain the needed culture of compliance.

They are meant to protect the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of your data. Compliance requirements will vary depending on the type of industry and sector. But, generally, the data controls come from sources such as:

• CIS
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• ISO 27001

Typically, compliance involves using a wide range of organizational processes and technologies to protect your data. So, cybersecurity vendors will help bring together technical, legal, and business operational staff. They’ll all sit to discuss the various resources needed to prevent cybersecurity issues in your organization.

2.  To Help With Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability management is a cyclical practice that involves identifying, classifying, remediating, and mitigating security vulnerabilities.

The major components of vulnerability management include:

• Vulnerability detection
• Vulnerability assessment
• Vulnerability remediation

Cybersecurity vendors often use different vulnerability detection methods such as:

• Vulnerability scanning
• Penetration testing
• Google hacking

Whenever vendors detect a vulnerability, they carry out the process of vulnerability assessment as follows:

●     Identifying the Areas of Vulnerability

The process here includes the analysis of pen test results, firewall logs, network scans, and vulnerability scan results. It helps establish the anomalies indicating that a cyber attack might take advantage of a vulnerability.

●     Verifying Vulnerabilities

It involves deciding whether the established vulnerability could be exploited. The vulnerability’s severity is then exploited to understand the extent of the risk involved.

●     Mitigating Vulnerabilities

This involves the countermeasures and how to determine their effectiveness if a patch isn’t available.

●     Remediating Vulnerabilities

It entails updating the affected software or hardware where possible.

3.  Conduct Continuous Monitoring of Possible Cyberattacks

The phenomena of cybersecurity threats have evolved immensely over the last few years. Hence, traditional network security protocols like firewalls and anti-malware tools aren’t enough to stop intelligent cybercriminals.

Furthermore, installing data security software alone isn’t enough to fight modern cyber threats. In the present day, you need to get cybersecurity vendors to monitor your organizational environment.

They’ll help you see an attack coming before the attack breaches your operating system. They do this through continuous monitoring.

So, implementing continual security monitoring as part of your cybersecurity plan is critical. It’ll help reduce cybersecurity risks and any associated harm. It also lowers the chances of data breaches if such events occur.

Constant security monitoring by cybersecurity vendors also helps you attain real-time visibility into your IT security data. Thus, it offers your organization advantages like:

• Prioritizing and managing cyber-related risks continuously and across the entire organization
• You attain cybersecurity metrics that help to assess the state of security at every level of the organization
• Continued monitoring of the effectiveness of every security control in place
• Assurance of a reliable backup team who have understanding and control of the operational system and environment changes

Key Takeaways

Cyber attacks are continually evolving. With the ever-changing cybersecurity risks and regulations, it’s evident that there’s an increased need for data protection.

Hence, the process of identifying, monitoring, and managing cyber-related vulnerabilities should be a continuous practice. That’s why you need cybersecurity vendors to ensure your organizational data is always protected.