Five steps businesses need to take to become cyber robust in 2014

One of the biggest challenges for businesses in the New Year is to become ‘cyber robust’ – according to a leading cyber security expert.

Jan Veldsink who consults to businesses on IT security and has developed the Business and Cyber Robustness Executive MBA module at Nyenrode Univeriteit in The Netherlands, says that managers from all business units need to be able to predict threats and have strategies in place to deal with IT security breaches.

He says that in order to become cyber robust, a company must take five steps:

1. Communicate cross departmentally within the organisation on issues of cybersecurity
2. Get more information on the defence strategies from the companies they outsource to
3. Put in place a cyber-threat response plan for staff, customers and other affected parties
4. Adopt strategic disorder within the ICT architecture
5. Review company defence strategies on a monthly basis

Jan says: “I believe the word cybersecurity provides a false impression. It promotes the suggestion that if you pump enough money into firewalls and good ICT systems, you’ll be safe. That’s not the case. Dealing with cybercrime is not just a problem for the IT department. You have to train every part of your organization. Cyber-crime is a fast-growing problem for businesses around the globe and as the CEO and CIO of an organisation you are increasingly faced with strategic cybersecurity issues. Simply leaving them to be dealt with by the IT department could have far-reaching consequences for businesses.”