Don’t invite the cyber criminals in –make sure the doors are locked tight.

But the busier businesses become and the more customers and suppliers involved, so the need for robust cyber security becomes ever more important.

What is cyber security and why is it so important?

Cyber security is how businesses and individuals manage the risk and protect their systems, networks, devices, programs, and data from cyber attacks.  There are many types of cyber attacks, some of which make national headlines such as phishing, malware, social engineering, man in the middle attacks and many more, which are constantly evolving, so ensuring you have the right security in place is vital.  But how do you know if you are doing enough to protect yourself, your staff, your customers and meeting your obligations?  A cyber and data security assessment is a vital first step.

What is a cyber and data security assessment?

A cyber and data security audit or assessment is a thorough analysis, from top to bottom, of all of your information assets and business’ cyber controls and an essential first stage to identifying any vulnerabilities and risks that could make the businesses open to an attack.

Once an assessment has been completed the outcome will be a full picture of what is working well, what requires improvement and importantly will provide a roadmap of what needs to be done to make you hard to hack, resilient and to protect you from potential financial, reputational and legal damage.

But a cyber and data security assessment is not just about identifying your ‘weak spots’.

An assessment can identify products and processes that will improve your organisations overall resilience to cyber and data breaches

Are you aware of your regulatory and legal cyber and data obligations?  An assessment can test your levels of compliancy and bench mark your businesses security policies and processes against industry standards.

GDPR regulations continue to catch many businesses out, often unknowingly – are you in breach?

It can demonstrate your commitment to developing your data and cyber security credentials and often can act as a mitigating factor against enforcement if things do go wrong.

Your business has a supply chain – how compliant are your suppliers? An assessment can help find out – after all, a supplier with lax security can be a significant risk to you?

And, if you spend the necessary time in making your business hard to hack, it will be a more attractive proposition to suppliers and customers.

Cyber criminals are developing new tactics and new ways to harm businesses all of the time – after all, that is their ‘business’.   A cyber and data security assessment is a fundamental first step to ensuring you are aware, you can prevent damage, you can protect your business and fight back.