How to plan your cybersecurity budget?
The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a global shift to a hybrid workforce demanding remote access to enterprise resources, forcing them to rethink their information security posture, and strategy and adopt enhanced security measures that they have not planned earlier. These changes to the global work environment have opened new hacking avenues for cybercriminals to exploit and plan astute cyber attacks. It has become pivotal for enterprises to focus on cyber-resilience by investing time, effort, and resources in improving their security posture to withstand this ever-evolving threat landscape. Adopting best cybersecurity practices and protocols can only save an enterprise from a data breach that can result in loss of time, confidential data, credentials, money, and reputation.
In such a scenario, cybersecurity should be a top priority of every business – be it small, medium, or large. No matter the size or the industry, businesses need to have a serious focus on cybersecurity to prevent breaches. Today, small businesses especially need to put cybersecurity practices in place as they are the target of about half of all cyberattacks. According to the US National Cyber Security Alliance, 60% of small businesses that suffer a cyber attack go out of business within half a year.
In this article, you will read about
What is the Cost of a Data Breach?
Why you should prioritize Cybersecurity in your Budget?
Considerations while planning cybersecurity budget.
Cyber Security is the foremost concern of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and IT security professionals globally. It is ideally the first and last thought on their minds during their working day when they strive for securing the data and assets of their enterprise.
What is the Cost of a Data Breach?
The United States ranked number one for the world’s most expensive data breach country in IBM and Ponemon Institute’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report for 2022. The report noted that the average total cost of a data breach in the United States is $9.44 million. The most expensive industry for data breaches in the US was the healthcare industry. The average time to identify and contain a breach is 277 days.
Cyber security measures and operations are an absolute must-have for any sized business. They can no longer be considered secondary in any company’s budget.
Why you should prioritize Cybersecurity in your budget?
It’s more important than ever before to prioritize cyber security in your yearly budget as the technology landscape continues to innovate posing threats and vulnerabilities for hackers to explore and exploit. Spending wisely can maximize the Return on Investment (ROI) for enterprises. However, an enterprise should identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current infrastructure and discover where cybersecurity posture needs improvement, which assets are worth defending, and the most effective way in terms of cost and resources to do so.
Considerations while planning a cybersecurity budget.
Here are some points to consider while planning your cybersecurity budget this year.
1. Assessing your cyber security risks
The first step in prioritizing your cyber security budget should be assessing the cyber security risks you face and the tools and technologies you’re currently using to mitigate them. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework explicitly states that cyber security risk affects a company’s bottom line and should be considered a vital component of overall risk management.
2. Third-Party Risk Management
Recent cyber-attacks have been targeted at third parties which have proven to be a weak link in the cybersecurity chain. Hackers are exploiting third parties to gain access to enterprise networks and critical data.
With this in mind, it’s imperative to allocate at least a portion of your cybersecurity budget toward third-party risk management. This involves knowing where your data lives, which third parties have access to your network and/or most critical data, and how to evaluate the security posture of third parties you’re doing business with before entering into a business relationship.
3. Endpoint Security
Employees in your organization all use laptops, desktops, mobile devices, and other endpoints that connect to your network and most of them have sensitive information on them. Therefore, it is important to include endpoint security in your cybersecurity spending. You need to monitor how endpoints are being used and disable them in case of compromise so data breaches can deviate from your system.
To determine how much of your budget to allocate to endpoint security, first identify what data is most critical to your organization, and what that data is worth.
4. Industry and Size Analysis
While cyber-attackers do not distinguish amongst enterprises based on the industry and/or size, there are specific types of risks that commonly affect a particular industry and particular-sized business.
According to the IBM and Ponemon Institute Cost of a Data Breach 2022 report Healthcare industry was mostly targeted for stealing private and confidential consumers’ data.
5. Readiness of The Enterprise
Every enterprise needs to probe its existing controls of cyber security and how good they are at defending its systems and data. This is a measure of the readiness of the enterprise to manage potential threats and attacks.
If it is not at an acceptable level, the enterprise needs to budget for and invest more in cyber security controls.
6. Cyber Security Operations and Activities
An enterprise should plan and budget for the operations and activities they need to undertake as part of its cyber security strategy. In addition, it should include activities like security training and awareness for staff, security tools and upgrades, policies, and procedures, etc.
7. Cyber insurance
Sometimes a company is unable to protect some assets cost-effectively or efficiently. In those cases, after evaluating the risks and the potential consequences of an incident, an enterprise can consider cyber insurance to protect itself from Internet- and IT infrastructure-based risks.
Cyber insurance can only help the company to defray the costs of a data breach. It cannot help with the damage to the reputation of the company.
It is also important to ensure investment in products that have a proper revision program. This is so you can deploy patches and updates quickly in response to the fast-moving IT threat world.
This list might not be the same for all or exhaustive, as it depends on your organization’s existing IT infrastructure and whether you plan to make any drastic changes in the coming year. To find out the exact list for your organization, contact Rainbow Secure and get the expert’s suggestion.
