How do I select a security assessment solution for my business?

A recent research shows high-risk vulnerabilities at 84% of companies across finance, manufacturing, IT, retail, government, telecoms and advertising. One or more hosts with a high-risk vulnerability having a publicly available exploit are present at 58% of companies.

Publicly available exploits exist for 10% of the vulnerabilities found, which means attackers can exploit them even if they don’t have professional programming skills or experience in reverse engineering.

To select a suitable security assessment solution for your business, you need to think about a variety of factors. We’ve talked to several cybersecurity professionals to get their insight on the topic.

Gary Merry, CEO, Carson & Saint

select remote workforce protectionOne of the things I say to customers when discussing security assessments is: “Cyber tactics without cyber strategy is the breeding-ground of breaches.”

Performing a security assessment should bond the security tactics such as vulnerability scans (internal and external) and overall cybersecurity strategy for a comprehensive view of preparedness, maturity, strengths, and weaknesses.

The net result of any tool or process you select needs to be the binding of your tactics to your strategy. Starting with a goal of showing corporate risk teams that by joining their standards, methodologies and desires to make their organization safe with more than just the output of the product, but the meanings, implications and application of the assessment product responses and risk vectors, they have the ability to create a single, seamless, solution to their cyber risks.

If you get an assessment that is not seen, and understood, outside of IT, it is ineffective.

No organization is run without risk. Along with the ability to see the bare-metal view of vulnerabilities, you must be able to score your risks in such a way that you can effectively match them to the overall organizational risk tolerance and priorities.

Cybersecurity is a team sport, if you don’t make your organization part of the solution, you make them the problem.

Dux Raymond Sy, Chief Brand Officer, AvePoint

select remote workforce protectionThe best way to evaluate security solutions is to identify where your greatest exposure or highest risk level is. You must also consider how these risks may impact your business.

Once identified, you can prioritize the needs of your organization and eliminate any solutions that don’t protect those key areas. There are, however, a few things everyone should look for in an enterprise security solution.

With COVID-19, many organizations have seen their information risk profile change dramatically without corresponding mitigations. This has occurred as usage has spiked across new digital collaboration technologies with users that have not been fully trained.

Many times, training that many new users at once is impractical, time-consuming for your IT team and doesn’t happen overnight. To meet compliance demands soonest, automating these processes is crucial.

The collection, storage, access, usage, and disposal of information is a breeding ground of risk. And just like our current public health situation, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment. Enforcing automated data governance tools can ensure organizations prevent data leaks and improper exposure that leads to costly fines.

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