Increasing cyberattacks has been a matter of concern for agencies and businesses alike. In that context, you may hear the term ‘proactive cybersecurity’ time and again. Security experts may recommend that your company focuses more on proactive cybersecurity, but what does that mean anyway? In this post, we are discussing the basics of proactive cybersecurity. 

Knowing the outline

The main idea of proactive cybersecurity is to take a preventive approach. In other words, you are not trying to react after a breach has occurred, but trying to prevent a breach in the first place. The first step in this is to identify the various threats that your company may be facing. While no two companies are same, their cyber security concerns are often similar. Phishing scams, malware attacks, network scanning, & password hack and theft are good examples. In case of proactive cybersecurity, these threats are reviewed every year. 

Steps that follow

Besides finding threats, proactive cybersecurity also focuses on how these threats can be managed. For instance, if your company is more concerned about malware attacks, you may want to train your teams and people on phishing attacks, or install premium antimalware software. The next step is to outline proactive cybersecurity protocols. From telling employees to report suspicious emails, to recommending use of password management tools, your security team can outline what can be done to counter and detect these threats. 

Does reactive cybersecurity still matter?

Yes, absolutely. Experts will tell you that both reactive and proactive cybersecurity measures matter. Sometimes, even with the best of proactive measures, a breach may occur, and in such times, action must be taken immediately, so as to reduce the damage and consequences. This is reactive cybersecurity. To supplement a proactive cybersecurity plan, you need an incident response plan, which is about reactive security. 

Advanced proactive cybersecurity

Many companies are now running bug bounty programs, engaging ethical hackers to ensure proactive cybersecurity. The idea is to find and fix all kinds of security issues right away, instead of just being in the ‘wait & watch’ mode. Your company will also need a team of security experts, either in-house or outsourced, who can get the teams ready for proactive cybersecurity, and there should be clear guidelines on the dos and don’ts of how networked devices, networks, systems, and IT environments are handled. 

Check online now to find more on how other businesses are doing proactive cybersecurity. 

Hemant Kumar