The Do’s and Don’ts of Securing Your IT Infrastructure
Written by Drew Lydecker, President and Co-Founder of AVANT
An influx of traffic coupled with additional access points outside the corporate network have made it tough to keep cyber criminals on the outside looking in. As a recent AVANT survey of technology leaders revealed, most decision-makers admit their infrastructure is not ready for a cyberattack – even while acknowledging such an incident could cost them their job.
Preventing potential damages and ultimately protecting your IT infrastructure includes finding the right experts to fight cybercrime. However, skilled security professionals – such as penetration testers and security auditors – aren’t always easy to track down, let alone hire. This can leave companies highly vulnerable, especially where under-funded IT departments are relying on outdated infrastructure.
Instead of struggling to compete with industry leaders for the best available candidates, consider some of the do’s and don’ts of keeping fraudsters at bay.
Approach security as a specialty. Companies often hope network engineers can assume the infrastructure responsibilities of traditional security experts. However, with the emergence of new security threats and accelerating pace of change throughout the IT industry, such an approach can quickly prove problematic. A recent Gartner study found seven out of 10 employees admit lacking the expertise needed for their current role. Unable to get up to speed on the skills required for their own position, chances are employees will struggle to handle new responsibilities related to reducing cybercrime.
Meanwhile, don’t spend time and resources recruiting experts you likely won’t be able to retain. There will be 3.5 million job openings in security by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, with cybersecurity unemployment rates near zero. With that in mind, it’s easy to wonder whether highly recruited security experts would be willing to manage your organization’s security maintenance and mitigation or instead opt to work with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). Given the wide range of benefits MSSPs can offer – including an existing security culture, available training, and a clearly outlined career path – there’s no point in battling them for top talent. Thus, there’s a good chance you’ll face difficulty retaining candidates, even if you find the right one.
Enhance your security posture by leveraging MSSPs who are focused on security and have a deep bench of experts who will offer sound advice and services. Partnering with trusted advisors who guide customer technology decision making can help you find the best MSSP to enhance your security posture. With multiple 24×7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs) and security experts who scour the web for the latest security threats, MSSPs can support you in ways few companies can on their own.
Acknowledge that regardless of your investments, or the skill level of your staff or Trusted Advisors, bad things will inevitably happen. IT security never comes with guarantees. It instead reduces the risk, which means that successful attacks should happen less frequently. Therefore, effective disaster recovery also deserves a place at the focal point of your security strategy – no matter how much you hope your company will never be victimized. Like many other important facets of technology, Disaster Recovery can be acquired as a service.
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) can back-up your data in the cloud and can even be used in conjunction with virtual machines to pinch-hit for your primary network during downtime, or after an attack. Because your data lives at multiple points across the network, it becomes much more difficult to lock down or otherwise corrupt. Take DRaaS seriously upfront. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself empty-handed, after the fact.
With next-gen cloud solutions replacing legacy technologies faster than ever before, now is the time to consider outside help. Companies that feel they are ahead of their competition in innovation are twice as likely to use the resources of a trusted advisor. Doing the same will ensure you keep pace in an evolving enterprise climate.