People making cybersecurity and disaster recovery (DR) decisions today often operate as if they’re in a vacuum. Their company has a need – perhaps they have to create a copy of data to comply with regulations, for example – so they purchase a product for that specific purpose.
But they and their suppliers don’t think about the specific requirements of their business or the sector in which they operate. Nor do they explore the full capabilities of the tools in which they’ve already invested and how they can use those capabilities to reduce costs and add value.
That leads to less-than-optimal results at time when ransomware attacks are on the rise and threatening the viability of today’s enterprises, organizations are struggling to meet compliance requirements, and it takes an average of 20-22 days from the time of discovery to remediate a cyberattack. Clearly, businesses need a better way to approach cybersecurity and DR.
Here’s how to get there.
Shift from a reactive, product-based to a strategic, solutions-based approach
Most teams involved with cybersecurity and DR are stuck in reactive mode. A very specific need arises, and they address it by investing in yet another tool. As many companies are painfully aware, this can lead to too many tools, which can actually introduce more risk rather than reduce it.
Before rushing out to buy yet another tool, businesses should start by taking stock of what they’ve already got. Many companies working to meet regulations, address long-term retention and disaster recovery, or attend to other business requirements have products they’re not using to the full extent. You may find that you can enhance and expand the use of the existing solutions you already have.
Utilizing a product’s end-to-end capability may seem expensive, but what it delivers to you as a business based against the requirements of being operational can actually reduce your costs. A look at this statistic from Oxford Economics’ The Hidden Costs of Downtime report illustrates why: Downtime from cyber incidents like ransomware costs Global 2000 companies an estimated $400 billion – or roughly 9% of annual profits – yearly, a staggering financial impact.
Break down silos and create alignment – and a holistic plan – across your key teams
Infrastructure, network, and security teams are typically siloed. Departmental silos can make it difficult to recognize when current cybersecurity and DR plans need to be modernized. Silos can result in cyber resilience and cybersecurity plans that aren’t in harmony with one another. That lack of harmony can lead to conflicting priorities in incident response, gaps in coverage, incompatible testing, lack of integrated tools and teams and an array of other problems.
Break down silos by bringing these teams to the table for an open discussion on who does what and why they do it, and align on an overall strategy so your company is ready to protect against, respond to and recover from any form of attack that might happen to the business.
Make sure your plan looks at likely problems, identifies who is responsible for those problems, specifies what they will do first when those problems arise and details what your company’s overall procedure for that problem should be. None of us know for sure what to expect next, but analyzing and strategizing will enable you to shift from a reactive to a predictable stance.
Leverage the cybersecurity, resilience and sector-specific expertise of a trusted partner
Invite to the table a trusted partner that is focused on delivering outcomes rather than selling products, understands cybersecurity, has deep sector expertise, knows how to build resilient businesses and can help you build strategies and reinforce your infrastructure to deliver predictable outcomes.
A partner with deep experience in your sector can be extremely valuable since what’s viewed as acceptable risk, and the focus of cybersecurity and DR efforts, are different for every business and sector. Companies in the financial sector tend to focus most on the threat to data and how data leakage or loss could impact them financially, for example. Meanwhile, healthcare organizations typically worry most about the sensitivity of their data and how to secure it.
Continue to analyze and test your cybersecurity and disaster recovery capabilities frequently
Threats, technologies, requirements and the goals of your own business change over time. So, once you have a strategy in place, set a schedule to regularly check that it’s still working well. If your company doesn’t yet have such a schedule in place, figure out when you last tested your recovery or other processes and dedicate the time and resources to do these internal fire drills.
New regulations make this more important than ever. For example, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) calls for annual penetration testing on critical systems and applications. Other regulations expect businesses to run quarterly checks and have the audit trails to prove it.
Testing and frequency are also critical considerations amid a cyberattack. You’ll want to be able to test against the data set that’s been attacked to determine your recovery point.
Introducing automation into IT infrastructure is critical to optimally manage IT, streamline procedures, deliver more consistent results, and create an audit trail to ensure compliance.
Cyberthreats and IT complexity are putting enterprises under extreme pressure. Alleviate the pressure and make your business stronger and more predictable by leveraging available expertise, creating a holistic cyber resilience strategy, regularly testing the processes involved in that strategy and modernizing your IT infrastructure with a unified and automated approach.
About the Author
Chris Millington is the Global Solutions Lead, Data and Cyber Resilience at Hitachi Vantara. Chris is a seasoned veteran with 35 years of experience in the IT industry. Throughout his career, he has held various roles, including channel theatre lead, specialist SE, technical expert and global solutions lead. Chris has been instrumental in bridging the gap between field organizations, product management and engineering teams. His efforts have significantly contributed to mentoring the technical community, partner community and customer engagements. In his current role at Hitachi Vantara, Chris provides global coverage for products and solutions within the Hitachi Data Resilience and Compliance portfolio. His deep insights into current trends, regulations and compliance associated with modern infrastructure and processes make him a valuable asset to the organization.
