When it comes to data breaches, the numbers don’t lie. The most recent Cost of a Data Breach Report from Ponemon shows that the average cost of a data breach is $3.92 million, and the average size comes in at over 25,000 records lost.

SMBs are no longer safe from the crosshairs of cybercriminals, either. According to Fundera, 43 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses, and three out of four SMBs don’t feel they have the personnel to properly address IT security.

No matter the size of your organization or the industry you are in, you need to have an IT security strategy in place. Nowadays, it is essential for any organization. However, where do you get started if you are among those without the right personnel? These three tips will help.

Know the Battlefield

There are two truths in cybersecurity: You can’t win if you don’t know what you are fighting for, and you can’t win if you don’t know what you are fighting against. 

Knowing what you are defending is the first step to any security strategy. Start with an assessment of your assets and resources. Next, rank them by order of importance to your organization. If your website is critical for sales, then it should be high up there on the list. Does your sales team need the CRM to keep things moving along? That belongs up at the top. Any software, hardware, database, or XaaS solution that you need should be considered business-critical.

Next, start to know the battlefield. Understand your threat landscape. Do your people receive phishing emails? Is your website vulnerable to a DDoS attack? Is all your sensitive data encrypted? Answers to these questions will let you know where a possible attack may take place.

Also, be sure to know what the bad guys may be after. Financial records, network resources, proprietary information, documents on processes, and contracts are all things that an attacker can leverage for money in one way or another.

Build the Right Team

Security skills don’t develop overnight. Usually, they come from years of facing the malicious hackers of the world and dealing with all of the nuances that need to be addressed. If your team is not equipped with the knowledge and experience to adequately secure your organization, then you need to start thinking about:

• Getting people trained up
• Hiring new people
• Working with a managed services partner

Which route—or combination of routes—you take depends on your immediate needs and the amount of money you want to spend. Just know that every day that goes by without having the right people in place is a day that you are vulnerable.

Get the Right Solutions in Place

The right people will know what your threat landscape looks like. They will be able to point out the vulnerabilities that exist, will know how to test for those that they may not see on the surface, and will know how to address these potential exploits.

One thing a knowledgeable and experienced security professional will bring to the table is the ability to put the right security solutions in place. If you watch a lot of webinars or go to security trade shows, it seems like everyone’s product solves the problem. If that were true, you wouldn’t be reading this.

You need someone on your team to know what the best solutions are for your organization. They should understand the technologies you rely on, the common vulnerabilities they need to protect against, and how to configure these tools to stop the zero-day threats that we don’t yet know about.

Security is never something that you can afford to take lightly. “Good enough” is akin to leaving your front door shut, but not locked; it’s only going to keep out the honest people. 

If you know that you need help with it comes to securing your organization, then download our Essential Guide to IT Security. It will provide you with the foundational knowledge that will help you make the best decisions when it comes to protecting your organization and the assets that the bad guys are after.