Cybersecurity is one of those topics that is continually on the minds of business owners and enterprise technology officers alike. There’s no business that is too big or small to be attacked.

The proliferation of threats like ransomware, phishing, and supply chain attacks have put data breaches and malware-caused downtime at the top of the list of things that can severely impact a company.

Approximate 66% of small businesses are concerned about the security of their data and technology infrastructure, and costs are steep when it comes to recovery.

Threats Are Varied and Sophisticated

Just one type of IT security measure is not typically sufficient. FutureRange experts take a multi-layered approach that covers security from all angles for this reason.

For example, multi-factor authentication is an excellent tool to protect your cloud accounts against fraudulent sign-in attempts. But it can’t be used to detect and repel a malware attack.

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A local office firewall will help keep threats out of your business network. But it’s powerless to protect an employee’s work smartphone when they’re traveling.

How do we know all the layers to put in place? We conduct a cybersecurity audit to get the “lay of the land” and see where vulnerabilities need to be addressed. We then help you put security standards in place, such as the CIS Controls™.

Why Every Business Should Consider a Cybersecurity Audit

There are an ever-growing number of threats facing businesses, and many may have put their IT security in place piecemeal. This means they can easily have holes in their security plan that could leave them vulnerable to an attack.

Some of the common threats being faced daily by companies are:

• Phishing attacks by email
• Phishing attacks over SMS and social media
• Man-in-the-Middle attacks over non-secure Wi-Fi
• Ransomware
• Other types of malware (viruses, spyware, trojans, etc.)
• Malicious mobile apps
• Drive-by Attacks through phishing sites
• Credential compromise (now the #1 cause of data breaches)

What a cybersecurity audit does is take a hard look at those threats and your company’s ability to defend against them. The audit report then acts as a roadmap that lays out the upgrades you should consider putting in place to shore up your IT security.

Without the cybersecurity audit, it’s a bit like trying to find your way home in the woods without a map or torch.

Once the audit roadmap is ready, the next step is to apply a comprehensive layered IT security framework called the CIS Controls.

What Are the CIS Controls?

The CIS Controls™ is a set of security best practices that help businesses mitigate and protect themselves against the most common cyber attacks and threats out there. This set of best practices comes from the security experts at the Centre for Internet Security (CIS).

These controls encompass 18 actions you can take to mitigate cybersecurity risk and fortify your IT infrastructure from a data breach or malware infection. These are more than just suggestions, they come from a bunch of IT security experts with decades of experience fighting cyber threats.

The CIS Controls can sound a bit complicated at first. However, they’re actually designed to be a scalable set of things companies can do that fit any type of IT budget or level of security need.

Within each of the 18 CIS Controls, there are 153 different safeguards or actions you can put in place. These 153 safeguards are divided into three groups. These groups are:

• Implementation Group 1 (IG1): 56 safeguards
• Implementation Group 2 (IG2): 74 safeguards
• Implementation Group 3 (IG3): 23 safeguards

You can think of each group as stepping up to a higher level of security. So, if you’re in group 1, you’re putting in place 56 best practices to safeguard your technology infrastructure. If you want to go to the next level of security, you would move to group 2, and add in 74 more recommended safeguards, and so on.

Here’s a breakdown of the implementation groups:

• IG1: Usually used by small to medium-sized businesses and includes basic cyber hygiene.
• IG2: Usually used by an IT managed services provider and those companies with many different risk profiles.
• IG3: Usually used by dedicated security experts and those organisations dealing with sensitive information subject to regulatory oversight

The types of things included in the CIS Controls are best practices that you may already be using or may have been considering. Just a few of these would be things like securing passwords, managing mobile devices used for work, and ensuring all your applications and operating systems are kept updated.

Request a Cybersecurity Audit Today

You can take the first step on a path to a more secure IT infrastructure by having your current cybersecurity plan audited by FutureRange’s team of security experts.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Call +353 1 2960 560 (Dublin) +353 6140 0230 (Limerick) or reach us online.

Photo: FutureRange directors Michael Rooney (left) and Mark Butler