The following is a quick, simple list of must-dos to help businesses of all sizes protect themselves against cyber threats. 

• Vulnerability Scanning

• Doesn’t actually fix anything, but...

• Shows “bad spots’”

• Good services will show a plan of remediation

• If subject to compliance (HIPPA, PCI, etc) recurring V.Scans are required

• Do it at least  annually, quarterly is common for many businesses, monthly “managed” services best, but more costly

Think of it as a home inspection.

• Penetration Testing

• Different than a V.Scan but related

• Considered “white-hat” or “ethical” hacking

• Attempts to actually hack into your network

• Should come after a V.Scan and initial remediations steps to test efficacy

• Most Pen Tests will deliver a detailed, lengthy report of findings and remediation suggestions

• Usually done annually. Should at least be done every couple/few years.

• Endpoint Security

• Mobile Security;

• increasingly important and often overlooked window in to the network

• proprietary and cloud apps.

• corporate or employee owned mobile devices (BYOD)

• Anti-Virus

• Firewall, go with a Next Gen FW (NGFW). Best would be a managed Firewall solution. Depending on your situation also look into a cloud firewall solution. 

• Employee Education

• Email phishing; train employees to recognize bad, phishing emails by using mock emails

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• Direct cost – the direct expense outlay to accomplish a given activity, such as engaging forensic experts, outsourcing hotline support and providing free credit monitoring subscriptions and discounts for future products and services.
  
• Indirect cost – the amount of time, effort and other organizational resources spent in the aftermath of a breach, such as in-house investigations and communications. This category also includes the extrapolated value of customer loss resulting from turnover.
  
• Opportunity cost – the cost of lost business opportunities resulting from negative reputation effects after the breach has been reported to victims and publicly revealed to the media.
  

A recent report from Deloitte says the costs of a cybersecurity breach could be higher than most data shows as the costs can rack up for many years after the initial incident. The firm identified 14 cyberattack impact factors, including seven it claims are hiding beneath the surface and account for 95 percent of the financial impact. (see chart below).