Beyond Technology: Why Cyber Security Should be a Business Imperative

For many organisations, cyber security has long been viewed as a series of point-in-time investments in new tools based on emerging needs. Protections are implemented, compliance requirements are met, and, as a result, security is assumed. But this approach ignores ever-evolving cyber threats and means that as your business grows and ambitions change, potential attacks can easily extend beyond your defences, leaving you at increased risk. 

As new cyber threats have developed, the needs and demands of the business have also shifted. Clearly, achieving the desired commercial returns remains a high a priority, but this is no longer viewed solely through the lens of revenue generation and BAU activities.  

IT is now being invited to play a more prominent role in the pursuit of key business goals, and cyber security forms an integral part of this. Getting this approach right, however, represents a significant sea change for those organisations who have not treated cyber security in this way up to now. 

How cyber can play a bigger role in business strategy 

To better understand the role that cyber security can play in business strategy, it is perhaps easiest to consider another business area on a similar transition. Recent years have seen an attitude shift in how many organisations approach ESG initiatives, most notably environmental and sustainability goals. As the level of scrutiny on businesses has increased, the pressure to move sustainability from a “nice to have” footnote to the top of the agenda has also grown. As such, organisations are waking up the impact these initiatives can have on wider business success and are committed to including ESG considerations as part of their decision making. 

Cyber security can be considered in just the same way – not as an isolated initiative or a box-checking exercise for compliance, but as a fundamental part of your value proposition. After all, your customers and other partners expect a serious approach to cyber security, as it demonstrates you take protecting their data seriously. It also helps avoid potential PR issues that inevitably follow cyber breaches – especially in a day and age of intense scrutiny on data protection and identity control. 

By embedding security in business strategy, it becomes a part of your growth rather than an afterthought. New projects automatically include security assessments, digital transformations factor in protection from the start, and customer-facing innovations consider security alongside user experience. All these improvements ensure security as the business expands, ensuring ongoing compliance and avoiding unforeseen events or unexpected expenditure. This all contributes to an increased level of cyber resilience and a decrease in the chance of a breach, helping avoid the hefty costs associated with recovering from a successful cyber attack, which often run into the millions. 

The importance of proactivity 

Cyber security investments are often managed in a reactive way. Businesses respond to emerging threats or potential risks and make tactical investments in new tools. While this can offer some short-term relief, a more strategic, proactive approach is the best way to ensure cyber security remains aligned to the wider ambitions of the business. Crucially, making proactive investments can potentially reduce the overall level of investment required, especially if the right combination of versatile and scalable tools is deployed. 

For many organisations, this will also require the expansion of their cyber resource beyond their current internal IT team – either through the recruiting of cyber specialists, or the onboarding of an external Security Operations Centre (SOC) service, which can monitor and respond to threats on their behalf. These experts don’t just keep your business secure – they hunt down threats, research the wider cyber landscape, and can develop boutique protections for your company’s specific needs.  

This makes it easy to integrate cyber into your wider business strategy in a fashion that ensures it truly scales in line with your organisation. With the right capabilities and strategic oversight, ongoing cyber security efforts become a value-creating initiative rather than the ‘necessary evil’ cost centre it may be viewed as today.  

This also helps to ensure ongoing compliance and supports the achievement of industry cyber accreditation such as Cyber Essentials Plus, which can help to reduce business insurance premiums, amongst other benefits. 

Where to start? 

While truly embedding cyber security within your business strategy cannot be achieved overnight, there are some more immediate areas where positive action can be taken. 

As a starting point, consider an assessment of your current posture to identify gaps. A more reactive approach and the continual deployment of point solutions may have created unseen vulnerabilities that leave you at risk of an exploit. 

Doing so will not only reveal areas of weakness, but may help you to consolidate your cyber security strategy, reducing the number of tools deployed without compromising on protection, while also saving money and lightening admin burdens. 

Cyber awareness is also an important consideration. We’ve written recently about the importance of creating a cyber-aware culture, and this works hand in hand with the shift to cyber security as a business imperative. Phishing attacks, for example, consistently rank as the top method bad actors use to compromise environments to deploy ransomware and launch other attacks. These attacks are able to entirely circumvent protections, relying on human error as the route of exploit. An increased level of cyber awareness, coupled with regular and appropriate training for staff can help to reduce the level of risk, and allows you to scale readiness as the business grows. 

Conducting regular user awareness training and deploying phishing tests to assess cyber readiness across your team helps you continually monitor your current defences and identify and areas of strategic improvement. 

The biggest area for positive change, however, comes from business leadership. Those tasked with delivering on wider business strategy must take ownership over the need to incorporate cyber security as a part of this. Doing so means baking cyber security considerations into day-to-day business activities and no longer considering cyber as an IT-only discipline. Every area of the business must play its part and can positively contribute to business success through its cyber security actions. In turn, this executive buy-in also helps cement the status of cyber security as a field requiring continuous investment supporting ongoing strategic improvement. 

Time for Action 

FluidOne, together with our sister organisation CSA, helps organisations transform their approach to security. Whether you need SOC services, strategic guidance, or help building a comprehensive security programme, our partnership ensures your cyber security evolves alongside your business growth. 

If you need a helping hand to make security part of your business DNA, start with our cyber security maturity and gap analysis to understand your current position. Or, if you want to foster cyber awareness as a first step, we can offer a free trial of KnowBe4’s industry-leading cyber training. 

Don't wait for a breach to align your security and business strategies. Contact our team today.