How to Create a Cyber-Resilient Company Culture to Protect Sensitive Data and Reduce Cyber Risks
The cyber-threat landscape constantly evolves as cyber criminals discover new methods to access sensitive information and put companies at risk. The EU published surveys showing the dynamic relationship between cybercrime and SMEs, revealing that 28% of SMEs experienced at least one type of cyber incident in 2021.
Meanwhile, 32% of SMEs are worried about online bank account hacks and phishing attacks, while another 31% are concerned about identity fraud, and 29% worry about malware and viruses, some including ransomware, where cyber criminals hold sensitive data hostage until companies pay large sums of money to release the data.
A culture of vigilance is the best technique companies can implement to ensure a strong cybersecurity culture to deter the risks involved with a dynamic threat landscape to protect daily operations and sensitive data. Discover why a strong cybersecurity culture matters and how to implement one to reduce potential risks.
Future-Proofing Digital Assets: Why Is a Cyber-Security Culture So Important?
Evolving cyber threats expose company documents, data, and operations and could lead to stringent penalties. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) suggests that a breach of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) can result in companies paying excessive fines of up to £17.5 million (€21 million) or 4% of the annual global turnover.
The failure to follow GDPR guidelines in the UK or EU has immense consequences, making a strong cybersecurity culture more attractive than ever. Digital defense strategies to ensure security in the dynamic cyber-threat landscape are vital to effective risk management, ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.
A strong cybersecurity culture plays a central role in risk management, enabling business leaders to minimize the potential impact of risks related to the human element of error, cybercrime dynamics, and cyber risks that make a company vulnerable to regulatory fines.
How to Build a Cyber-Resilient Organisation: 8 Steps to Cyber Resilience in Any Company
A resilient culture is the best defense mechanism against cyber criminals, guiding online behavior among employees and using effective cyber-security techniques to improve your security posture. Implement the steps of cultural cyber resilience.
Step 1: Gain Cyber-Security Buy-In Among C-Suite Executives
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) documented common challenges to an effective EU cybersecurity policy, one of which is a lack of meaningful evaluation and accountability. One of the key aspects of cyber resilience is to gain c-suite executive buy-in to ensure leadership commitment and accountability.
The role of leadership buy-in is to adopt a holistic approach. Gain executive buy-in by building a business case that shows the costs of potential impact breaches, phishing attacks, weak passwords, external threats, and other complex threats. The European Council of the European Union lists the top cyber threats in the EU.
Some common threats include phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, and social engineering threats. Outline the potential vulnerabilities for a business operation or critical vulnerabilities that may pose costly security risks to assume a proactive approach with the leadership team to gain commitment to a cyber-resilient culture.
Step 2: Initiate an Organisation-Wide Cybersecurity Resilience Culture
The entire organization needs cyber-security knowledge to raise organizational security awareness and adopt a strong cybersecurity culture. Still, the mindset among employees and commitment to security may not be at the desired level. A recent Science Direct article found that information security awareness (ISA) can reduce risks based on a human factor.
Safe habits begin with security awareness programs, but employee engagement starts by involving staff and assigning roles and responsibilities. Assign chief information security officers and a dedicated incident response team to initiate the robust incident response plans your organization will develop in step three.
Never underestimate the people aspect. Involve teams in planning online defense strategies and researching the market for cybersecurity products. Empower an entire organization with a cyber-resilient culture with awareness and accountability. Consider project management support services to start an organizational shift today.
Step 3: Introduce Clear-Cut Cyber-Security Policies and Frameworks
The World Economic Forum's Principles for Board Governance of Cyber Risk recommends that every business worldwide institute a company-wide cyber-security framework for risk management. Human error is inevitable without well-defined cybersecurity policies or frameworks intended to protect the entire employee or leadership team from potential attacks.
The EU Cyber-Resilience Act outlines effective frameworks to ensure a solid cyber-security culture with proactive measures and an emphasis on vendor security. A strong security culture begins with effective incident response plans to protect company documents and data and the use of cyber-resilience tools for strong security habits.
Some cybersecurity initiatives include multi-factor authentication, using strong passwords, and implementing advanced tools to enhance a company's approach to cybersecurity. Regular cybersecurity briefings and updates to incident response plans are also essential. Research in the German FinTech market report can provide more valuable insights.
Step 4: Implement Cyber-Security Awareness and Training for Staff
Raising awareness and implementing cybersecurity training is another challenge leaders can overcome to create a cyber-resilient culture, according to the ECA documents. Creating an organizational culture of cyber-resilience requires employee engagement, cyber-security training sessions, and security awareness programs.
Use reliable business consultancy services for employee training, continuous learning, and security awareness programs to ensure strong security habits. Regular security training programs improve security awareness through micro-learnings and reinforce a strong security culture, even when companies face ambiguities in employees.
A recent article in Science Direct also shows that comprehensive training programs can empower employees by improving end-users security behavior. For instance, providing regular training to employees can ensure efficient password management or improved online behavior.
Step 5: Use Penetration Testing & Real-World Cyber Threat Simulations
Cyber threats constantly evolve, and security measures must adapt to a new potential threat more often than companies realize to ensure fewer security incidents. A UK cyber-security breaches survey shows that half of all businesses reported cybersecurity threats in the past year. Businesses don't necessarily fail to implement security measures.
Instead, a resilient company requires an effective cybersecurity program with dynamic cyber-resilience frameworks and robust incident response plans with cutting-edge cyber-resilience tools to ensure continued resilience against cyber attacks and phishing attempts. Companies also institute the latest endpoint security software to prevent phishing attacks.
However, positive security actions that protect companies from the latest phishing emails and ransomware attacks include using phishing simulations to detect new email threats and testing whether the authentication protocols are effective. An effective cybersecurity program reduces issues using frequent penetration testing and cyber threat simulations.
Step 6: Streamline Cyber-Security Communication and Reporting
The ECA documents define a strong need for improved information exchange, reporting, and coordinated response protocols. An informal communication structure without a coordinated response and reporting framework can undo security measures in a cyber-resilient organization and fail to meet regulatory requirements.
The best cyber practices for security resilience require a commitment to security authentication protocols and communication protocols. Our FinTech experts can guide leaders and chief information security officers through effective communication protocols to institute positive security actions for a strong security culture.
For example, we may recommend multi-factor authentication for access management, which is a powerful tool to protect a business, communications, users, and reporting. Multi-factor authentication can make accounts 99% less likely to be hacked, including communication and reporting channels between internal teams.
Step 7: Understand the Legal Environment for Cyber Risks
The GDPR data privacy laws and regulations are a good source of compliance requirements information to reduce potential risks related to cybercrime, including artificial intelligence threats, credit card fraud, and the impact of breaches, such as financial losses. However, addressing potential security incidents requiring best cyber practices depends on the scale of operations and the specific sector.
Regulatory requirements outline governance practices for multiple industries to reduce potential issues, whether related to the protection from interactive elements or phishing emails. Understand the EU Cyber-Resilience Act and other cybersecurity laws and regulations in Germany based on specific sectors to ensure compliance with regulations.
Alternatively, discuss regulatory compliance requirements with a team using the Legal Techbook to ensure compliance with regulations, especially in high-risk industries like FinTech, LegalTech, HRTech, BaaS, RegTech, and AdTech.
Step 8: Monitor and Assess Cyber Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Reduce cyber incidents and improve security measures with continuous monitoring to enhance the culture of cybersecurity practices and initiatives in a business. Regular cybersecurity briefings ensure excellent security posture and an entire culture of cybersecurity among employees, even those with ambiguities.
Regularly monitor cybersecurity issues, measures, and incident response plans to ensure compliance with regulations. However, risk assessments should be conducted on a regular basis to identify critical vulnerabilities to new cyber threats. Our teams can use the AI Book or PayTech Book to help businesses streamline monitoring and risk management in FinTech.
Still, assessing risks associated with critical vulnerabilities makes all the difference, particularly in high-risk sectors. Use a risk assessment matrix regularly to allocate the likelihood and impact of each vulnerability and associated cyber risk before adopting risk mitigation strategies based on the cyber-security hierarchy of needs.
Empower Cyber Resilience With An Effective Cybersecurity Strategy Tailored to Business Needs
At Contextual Solutions, our FinTech experts engrave security awareness to design a robust security culture in a high-risk business. We can provide regular security training programs and proactive business consultancy services to reduce security issues by developing a strong cybersecurity culture in a dedicated incident response team.
Alternatively, speak to a cybersecurity professional on our team to discuss your German market entry, whether you need to instill a cyber-resilient culture in a startup or intend to develop cyber-resilience tools for other businesses. We can even develop a go-to-market strategy for the EU as the market for cybersecurity products is ripe.
Summing Up the Core Pillars of Creating Cybersecurity Resilience in a Company
A strong cybersecurity culture begins with a commitment to cybersecurity, which requires all team members, leaders, and employees to engage in cyber-resilient awareness and training programs. An efficient organizational security culture is possible with guidelines.
Adopt a secure culture for shared organizational cybersecurity efforts and strong security habits when using the 8 steps to create a cyber-resilient company culture. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you develop resilience in the EU or implement effective risk management against cyber threats.
