Proactive Cybersecurity: How to Stay Ahead of Today’s Threats

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For many organizations, cybersecurity is an overwhelming challenge. New threats emerge seemingly in the blink of an eye, and IT and security teams are constantly reacting to the moves of bad actors who always remain one or two steps ahead and get to dictate where and when their attacks are carried out.  

As you might expect, a reactionary approach to cybersecurity is not ideal. It’s typically borne of necessity due to undermanned teams or inadequate resources.

Ultimately, it is destined to fail.

What organizations need is a proactive approach that reduces the likelihood of attacks. Just like preventative maintenance keeps your car running more effectively and saves on overall repair costs—or preventative medicine keeps your body healthier and helps you avoid budget-busting healthcare bills—a proactive security strategy seeks out ways to eliminate gaps and vulnerabilities that attackers could otherwise exploit.

This closes the doors on attackers and reduces the time your security team spends chasing them down through your environment. It also relieves a good deal of stress from your team and allows them to take on new initiatives and become more productive.

The Proactive Cybersecurity Guide 

If your business finds itself in a reactionary position when it comes to cybersecurity, have a look at Arctic Wolf’s A Guide to Proactive Cybersecurity. The guide defines what constitutes a vulnerability, a threat, or a risk. And it explains why it is so critical that your organization understands the nuances between each of these terms and stays on the same page in how you refer to them.

More importantly, the guide provides detailed information on ways you can pivot your current strategy into a more hands-on approach that involves more effectively securing the assets in your environment and building an organization-wide security culture before threat actors strike. Discover what to do with regards to:

  • Pre-Work—Cybersecurity is about not only technology, but about people and processes too. Make sure all three are aligned strategically as the start of a proactive program. This includes technology areas like proper system configurations; the people element, including not just the security team but security awareness training for all employees; and helps ensure all your response processes are mapped properly and involve key stakeholders for when a security incident does arise.
  • Assessment—Define the attack surface during the assessment phase. To do so effectively, you’ll need complete visibility into your environment. This can be a real challenge for many organizations, but teaming with a security partner can help.
  • Vulnerability Management—Using the common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS), you can prioritize vulnerabilities that you discover according to risk factors. Determining those risks, however, depends on critical controls in place, the likelihood of becoming a target, the unique characteristics of your environment, and other factors.
  • Hardening—Once you’ve moved to the hardening phase, your organization must decide how to address the vulnerabilities in terms of remediation, mitigation, or acceptance. This is where you plan out and strategize patching schedules to address current risks most effectively.
  • Validation—The final leg of your proactive cybersecurity journey involves validating your work to ensure you have accomplished what you set out to achieve. This means rescanning your environment to confirm vulnerabilities are remediated, mitigated, or accepted as planned.

Start Your Proactive Approach and Immediately Boost Your Security Posture

Get started on the road to proactive cybersecurity and tighten up risks in your environment with A Guide to Proactive Cybersecurity. For even more insight, view our on-demand webinar

Depending on your budget and resources, proactive cybersecurity can be a significant undertaking. That’s why many organizations engage a managed provider as their security partner. Arctic Wolf is that partner for hundreds of organizations worldwide. Learn more about our proactive cybersecurity solutions like Arctic Wolf® Managed Risk.

Arctic Wolf

Arctic Wolf

Arctic Wolf provides your team with 24x7 coverage, security operations expertise, and strategically tailored security recommendations to continuously improve your overall posture.
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