When it comes to cybercrime, small and medium-sized businesses have turned out to be hot spots. they would be targeted due to limited resources, no skilled security personnel, very little IT, and now-majored assets with worth valuable information have customer details, payment numbers, proprietary business information, and a deep well beyond this – all of such information which can hold great value for a cyberattack.
It may not be that surprising as out of all the cyber breaches around 46% are affecting businesses with 1,000 or fewer employees.
SMBs must Build Their Cyber Resilience. This does not mean just investing in the latest and greatest security technologies; it signifies that small companies should test their resilience in cybersecurity infrastructure and defenses proactively, before a real attack strikes.
Security testing does provide it all.
How Security Assessments Enhance Cyber Resilience For SMBs?
Security testing shows strengths and weaknesses in a company security setup, which may remain unobserved or unverified. This is why such testing is most practical for SMBs in securing their systems from genuine assaults.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, around 60% of small businesses are aware of the threats they face. Phishing, malware, and ransomware are among the top concerns, while 73% believe they will be able to respond to the threats of cybersecurity.
But can they truly do such things? Less than half of all businesses have trained their workforce in cybersecurity procedures during the past 12 months; fewer still have built up any formalized plans for tomorrow’s threats.
That’s the reason security testing is so critical. Assessments can allow an SMB to evaluate its security setup and make changes to improve its cyber resilience. And that ought to be done because, by the Chamber’s account, 27% of small businesses say they are just “one disaster or threat away from shutting them down.”
3 Security Assessments All Companies Must Explore
No doubt, security tests come in foreign forms and under varied dimensions. But there is no way an SMB would have to go through the process alone. Cybersecurity testing services can help identify which tests should be conducted and help organizations chart their way forward based on the results.
Here are three security evaluation services that almost all small and medium businesses must seriously consider to be cyber resilient:
Rapid maturity assessment
The best starting point is nearly 90% of organizations that now have begun to embrace zero trust. The rapid maturity assessment, which is similar to a penetration test, gives a more comprehensive view of vulnerabilities within an organization and includes directions for the incident based on frameworks from the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. For example, CDW’s rapid zero trust maturity assessment assesses an organization’s IT environment against CISA’s Zero Trust Maturity Model and offers four weeks of workshops hosted by security experts to help teams shape their zero trust strategy and prioritize cybersecurity projects.
Incident response testing
It is often performed in conjunction with penetration testing and measures how well the organization bounces back from an attack. Incident response tests can help small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) ensure all the key components of an effective IR program are in place and make adjustments to fill any gaps in that program. This goes beyond peace of mind alone; according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, businesses with higher levels of incident response planning and testing save nearly $1.5 million after experiencing a data breach.
Penetration testing
A rigorous approach to assessment where the target is not the efficiency of the organizational network alone but how malicious actors would attack that network to exploit its systems. This is usually done by a team of trained cybersecurity experts, who employ several tools and techniques to locate vulnerabilities. This is the best way SMBs can know what to do on and how as regards the different systems-which may be many. The top threats identified during the pen testing process are password weaknesses; gaps in the multifactor authentication system; unpatched vulnerabilities; issues with privileged access; and misconfigurations in Microsoft’s Active Directory.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is cyber security testing?
Virtually all the world’s IT corporations employ penetration testing to identify weaknesses, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities in software, servers, and networks.
What are the seven types of cyber security?
Operational security, IoT security, Zero trust, end point security, cloud security, information security, app security, and network security.
