Today, it is undeniable that cybercrime has gradually entered people’s lives and is valued by people. Whenever you browse the news, you can see the discovery of new vulnerabilities, or the leakage and theft of sensitive information. Therefore, any corporate board of directors should strengthen cybersecurity defense as early as possible.
However, even though cyber threats are now raging, cyber security defenses are still insufficient. Generally, when best security practices have the potential to disrupt business efficiency or overall productivity, business priorities tend to be higher than security priorities. For many CSOs and CISOs, insufficient funding is another issue that deserves general attention. The board is simply not ready to provide them with the budget and resources they really need to ensure their business security.
Businesses need long-term thinking
In the short term, reducing security funds to promote other areas of the business may seem like a good idea, but it is a big risk, and once executives are also attacked, the consequences are even more unimaginable. For example, although it may not be feasible to allocate an additional £ 500,000 as a new security resource investment during the annual budget cycle, this appears to be in comparison to the multi-million pound fines, legal fees and mitigation costs faced after a data breach.
British Airways was fined 183 million pounds by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after claiming “complicated malicious criminal attacks” on its website, as more than 500,000 customers had details during this period Give way.
Such examples underscore the importance of ensuring long-term security and compliance through the implementation of cybersecurity practices. The first thing these practices can do is to prevent such data leakage. Another, more proactive approach is to integrate cybersecurity practices into broader business strategies, which can greatly reduce data loss and enable security teams to respond more quickly and accurately to any real threat.
As more organizations rely on software applications to grow their business, protecting these applications becomes essential. Therefore, a systematic, risk-based approach is used to assess and resolve cybersecurity vulnerabilities early in the software development life cycle (SDLC), rather than after vulnerabilities appear.
Business and security goals must be aligned
Security methods are most effective when combined with those of the entire organization. But in many cases, once security is included in SDLC, it will be reconsidered when it will adversely affect development time or release windows. When the time required to remediate a vulnerability threatens the release of a critical application, the security team is under pressure. If the release cannot be postponed with a compelling business case, and security issues are addressed, the rumors will spread.
The role of risk in effective security decisions
In these cases, the security team needs to be able to quickly make senior decision makers aware of the risks involved and the potential consequences of failing to fix the vulnerability. This requires both a solid understanding of the intended business goals of the application and the ability to form an argument in a way that decision makers can understand, rather than giving them a bunch of security terms. One of the best approaches is a risk-based approach, which has two main phases.
The first phase includes a comprehensive assessment of all web applications currently in development and a rigorous monitoring process to quickly identify vulnerabilities. A thorough inspection at this stage is critical because if only an application is missed or a system is not securely protected, it will create a new potential risk for cybercriminals.
After completing the first phase, you can begin the second phase, incorporating business impact into the strategic planning process. By properly defining the potential losses that a particular vulnerability can cause, and helping senior managers understand these losses in a plain and easy-to-understand manner. Not only can it help meet the need for effective security, but it can also fine-tune activities based on the level of risk across the organization.
Application scanning using SaaS-based methods
Using a SaaS-based approach to application scanning throughout SDLC, security teams can continuously assess risks in the production process, not just a few key points. Therefore, when reasonably combined with the priorities of business activities, a more accurate risk profile can be assessed and acceptable at all levels of the company.
With regard to effective security, it is important for the security team to understand the entire organization. This can be done with a risk-based approach, which often translates complex vulnerabilities and analyses into terms that are meaningful to everyone, especially senior managers, to help them understand. Then appropriate discussions take sound, right decisions that benefit the entire company and protect it from numerous cyber threats.
