3 Reasons Why You Need a Cyber Resilience Plan to Secure IAM
As you are probably already aware, cyber resilience is a key component of any company’s overall cyber security defense strategy.
But efforts to bolster your organization’s cyber resilience will almost always prove to be ineffective or, at best, offer mixed efficacy without a cyber resilience strategy and tested plan. Because of the complex nature of the digital landscape in which cyber security and resilience apply, not to mention the costs associated with prolonged periods of data loss or access loss, having a cyber resilience program or plan in place before a breach occurs is now more important than ever.
Let’s dig a little deeper to explain why.
Data & Access Loss Could Cost You Millions
You’ve doubtless heard the maxim “time is money” before.It could not be truer when talking about breaches and disruptive cyber events.
According to a recent IBM Report on the Cost of a Data Breach in 2022, the average cost of a data breach in the United States is $9.44 million. Globally, the cost of a data breach is a still-staggering $4.35 million. Simply put, you cannot afford to not implement a cyber security plan — especially as threats from cyber criminals grow more and more sophisticated day after day and year after year.
You Need a Plan to Recover Quickly
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) & Return Point Objective (RPO) are key access continuity and cyber resilience measures for a reason.
That is, speed is essential when looking to recover access and bounce back from a disruptive event. Whether that event is a breach due to an attacker or an internal access control error, it can be costly either way. According to the same IBM report referenced above, the average savings of containing a data breach within 200 days or less is $1.12 million.
Furthermore, For 83% of companies, it’s not if a data breach will happen, but when. Usually more than once. When detecting, responding to, and recovering from threats, faster is better. Organizations using AI and automation had a 74-day shorter breach lifecycle and saved an average of USD 3 million more than those without. If you don’t have a plan in place and ongoing drills, how can you expect to bounce back quickly?
A plan on paper isn’t enough.
You’ll spend precious time and resources trying to find the way forward instead of implementing a preexisting cyber resilience strategy.
Cyber Security is No Longer Enough
In the blog post for MIT Sloan entitled “An Actionable Plan for Cyber Resilience”, authors Coden Reeves, Pearlson, Madnick, and Berriman note that too few companies pay attention to the growing importance (and complexity) of developing a robust cyber resiliency strategy:
Given that it’s impossible to protect against all new cyberattacks, it has become critical for companies to reduce the impact of cyber breaches by focusing on cyber resilience. Cyber resilience requires a systematic, structured, adaptive approach and cannot be relegated to the office of the CIO or chief information security officer. Because it potentially involves all parts of the business, it must be led by the C-suite and board.
Unfortunately (and understandably) many times, high-level C-suite executives don’t have the time or bandwidth to become cyber security and cyber resiliency experts. Therefore, more often than not, as MIT Sloan research on cyber security spending from the above-referenced article has alarmingly uncovered, “72% is spent on identification, protection, and detection, with only 18% spent on response, recovery, and business continuity.”
This not only leaves organizations like yours more vulnerable when an attack happens, but it could also leave you at risk of violating newly-proposed rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that, if implemented, would require companies’ SEC filings to include details on “business continuity, contingency, and recovery plans in the event of a cybersecurity incident”.
The Future of Cyber & Information Security is Resilience
There’s a reason that the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Security Strategy emphasizes cyber resilience: not only is it effective, but it’s also a key component to the future of business and everyday digital life.
But as EY’s security survey admits, all too often, companies ignore or don’t fully comprehend just how important having a cyber resilience plan in place truly is. Renowned cyber security leader Daniel Miessler goes so far as to put it this way in his blog post “When Companies Stop Caring About Data Loss, Risk Will Be Resilience-based and Focused on Business Disruption and Human Safety”:
“The future charge of information security will not be prevention, but resilience.”
Stay Resilient With Acsense
Acsense’s automated approach to IAM cyber resilience can help you save big by providing one-click backup & restoration, thereby enabling a cost-effective, seamless road to recovery.
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