If crime increased in your neighborhood, would you do something about it?
Of course, you would.
You’d make sure that all the doors and windows to your house were locked. You might even beef up your defenses and purchase a security system just to get the peace of mind that your family and property are safe.
The risk of a cyber attack in the internet neighborhood where you do business is increasing. Still, unfortunately, many organizations aren’t successful at locking the doors and windows to their data and systems.
Executives who understand that they need to manage cyber risks in order to truly manage their overall business risk are finding peace of mind by supplementing their IT department capability with outsourced cyber security services.
Here are 3 major reasons why:
- Access to Cyber Security Experts
- Access to Sophisticated Cyber Security Tools and Strategy
- Manage Business Risk by Managing Cyber Risk
Let’s dig in.
1. Access to Cyber Security Experts
IT is complex, and one person, or even a small team, can’t know everything.
Here at Accent, we have a team dedicated to cyber security. Much of the team leader’s time is spent keeping up with trends, cyber criminal tactics, and the security tactics needed to counter attacks.
What often happens with small IT departments is that attention is focused on what individual IT people do best. Your IT staff are also pulled in many different directions throughout their day, maintaining systems and taking care of issues so that staff can keep working.
Cyber security gets relegated to the back burner unless… something happens. When “something” happens, it’s bad.
When Cyber Security Contradicts IT Management
Cyber security is a discipline of its own, and it sometimes contradicts other things you’re doing in IT management. Think of the doors and windows that you’re locking with restricted access and passwords. When someone needs to open them, they need to have the key. Using that key means an extra step that users must take that they didn’t have to take before.
Your internal IT department might not be able to communicate the importance of security measures. As a result, they may cave to demands to remove the layer of security that’s causing annoyance. When you have outsourced cyber security services, your IT department gets backup to enforce security protocols and additional resources to help your employees understand the need.
Related: Get the Executive Guide to Cyber Security: Essential Information for Managing Business Risk
2. Access to Sophisticated Cyber Security Tools and Strategy
The business world has evolved with technology, and so has cyber crime.
You may not even know if a cyber criminal lurks on your network until damage has been done. In fact, it can take six months for a data breach to be discovered.
Network traffic analysis tools utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) can detect anomalies that signal a cyber intrusion so that you can stop a data breach in its tracks. Unfortunately, not every IT company has invested in these sophisticated and expensive tools for preventing, detecting, and stopping cyber attacks.
The most cost-effective way to access the capabilities these tools provide would be through outsourced cyber security services.
Cyber Security is a Process
The best cyber security strategy touches just about everything that you do, so it needs ongoing management to evolve with your changing needs and situation. Your outsourced cyber security vendor won’t let you forget about that. They’ll bring recommendations about how to control access to information that you may have never thought about, including cyber security awareness training for your staff.
3. Manage Business Risk by Managing Cyber Risk
The most important reason to outsource cyber security services is that you want a better outcome. The impact of cyber crime can be disastrous – lost productivity, financial losses, extra costs, and damage to your reputation. Many companies that experience a cyber attack never fully recover.
More Exposure Means More Risk
It’s a different world today than it was just five years ago, and blind spots in cyber security open up your organization to more risk exposure. Cyber attacks are increasing, and hackers don’t just want your data – they want access to your systems so that they can go after bigger targets, like your customers.
By outsourcing cyber security services, executives can become better managers of cyber risk, and therefore better managers of overall business risk.
Uncover Your Cyber Security Blind Spots
The best way to evaluate how your IT team is managing cyber security is to do a security and risk assessment. Learn about our 4-step assessment process, or contact us to have a conversation.
