It is a common situation. Organizations become aware of cybersecurity from peers, the news, legal requirements and/or auditors. The response is rapid and haphazard: the purchase of several solutions that paint broad swaths of comfort over the perceived risk. A pile of misspent funds. A hoarding nightmare. Underneath this mega-mound of invoices, logs, alerts, audit reports, red flags and “technology stacks” is a missing treasure chest: the data we are attempting to secure.
The forgotten purpose of information and cybersecurity is in our core assertions:
The confidentiality of information,
The integrity of information,
The availability of information.
Each year we spend more investment and venture capital on trendy silver bullets that focus on the activity happening on our IS components (Hardware, Software, People, Networks) but pay little or no attention to the fifth component, the one the other four exist to serve: data. The result is the historic loss of information and ever-increasing scale of breaches. 2023 was no exception, up 78%!
If the IT Security industry was responsible for our financial health, we would be bankrupt in a year because it would focus on the number of vaults we had and the length of their combinations, but it would never consider counting the cash.
The top-of-the-mountain-shouting-to-the-heavens-fists-to-the-sky principle during my career has been the focus on data. It is THE thing we are attempting to protect. It is THE asset at the core of all new laws and regulations. It is THE effort that will reduce our audit spend and our investigative response times.
It is THE asset your business relies upon. Lose laptops used to run your business? Replace them. Lose the servers that run your critical apps? Replace them. Lose your most significant vendor? Replace it. Lose buildings? Move or rebuild them.
Lose data? Pull up a wheelbarrow of cash and hope you survive.
If you need help on how this is accomplished, or guidance on partners who can help, please reach out.
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