When it comes to cybersecurity, there’s a term that gets thrown around quite a bit, and that’s security posture. The term and what it represents should form a core part of any organisation’s cybersecurity strategy or framework, although for some, it’s hard to know where to start. As always, that’s where we come in.
So, what is Security Posture?
When we talk about security posture in general, it’s basically just taking a step back and looking at how secure your organisation is as a whole. It allows you to get an understanding of the bigger picture when it comes to the organisation’s ability to protect itself, pick out cybersecurity threats and respond decisively to any incidents.
Diving a little deeper, assessing your security posture gives you a good understanding of your organisation’s strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but also helps you identify opportunities for improvement when it comes to IT systems, software, hardware and more.
Why Strong Security Posture is Important
When your organisation’s security posture is strong, it tells us you’re as prepared as you can be to respond to any threats or vulnerabilities that exist. While there are a number of reasons this is important, there are three that we wanted to draw your attention to.
#1 Reduces the Risk of Cyber Attacks and Data Breaches
By reducing the risk of cyber attacks and data breaches, you could be protecting your organisation from considerable financial loss, loss of trust among clients and/or customers and issues with overall day-to-day operations.
In doing so, your organisation is also doing its best to safeguard assets, as well as any sensitive data that they may have on-hand, which leads us into the second reason a strong security posture is important.
#2 Insight into Organisational Data and Infrastructure
One way to understand exactly how cybersecurity threats could impact your organisation is to take a look into the data that you have available, and analyse the systems, processes and structures in place throughout.
This can be a pretty strenuous piece of work, but it’s one that will give you a truly holistic view of how everything operates within the organisation itself, and what it has access to. However, many businesses don’t have the means or the specialists available in order to get this type of work done on their own, and may need to engage a partner to assist with an IT systems audit.
Systems audits are important, and at Xenex Systems, our experienced team of IT consultants can assist in planning and implementing improvements to the security of your networks with a personalised approach – tailored to the requirements of your industry.
#3 Ensures Compliance with Industry Standards
A strong security posture that is informed by a systems audit will be grounded in compliance with the specific rules and regulations of the industry your organisation operates in. It ensures alignment with any relevant frameworks for risk identification, implementing the security measures required to adhere, as well as ongoing monitoring, reporting and further audits or assessments where needed.
Maintaining a Strong Security Posture
Through managed IT services, your organisation’s security posture can be assessed, recommendations can be provided and measures can be implemented. To ensure the longevity of these improvements, it’s important that your managed IT service provider continuously looks for opportunities to safeguard further, helps you put any incident response plans to the test, assists in keeping staff informed and educated, and finding ways to adapt the overall approach to different types of cybersecurity threats as they evolve.
If you’re keen to explore your organisation’s security posture, touch base with our Perth-based team of IT consultants and book a free, no-obligation audit. We’ll get to know you and your organisation a little more, chat you through your options, and help with any questions you might have.