Defining the resilience of cybersecurity

Issue 6 2022 Information Security, Security Services & Risk Management


Henk Olivier.

For a long time, cybersecurity was something that only kept the security professionals awake at night. They would wave red flags, alert decision-makers and generally annoy people with their rules, regulations and ongoing training. Now, the landscape has changed.

Now, the chief security officer (CISO) and security professionals are sitting at the table and playing a significant role in decision-making and cybersecurity investment. Why? Because cybercrime has become so prevalent and sophisticated that it’s hitting every bottom line and business, and regulations and legislation are fining companies that aren’t paying attention.

The awareness that every company is at risk and that no business is absolutely protected has seen a shift in focus from cybersecurity towards cyber resilience. The former is the training, the technology, the firewalls and the services put in place to protect the organisation and its people from the cyber onslaught. The latter is the ability to not just protect against cybercrime, but to anticipate attacks, adapt to attacks, resolve compromises and respond to uncertainty with agility. It is the organisation’s ability to bend and flex against the cybercrime current and find its feet in the aftermath of an event.

Steps to resilience

“There are a few things that need to be in place to ensure that a company is fully cyber resilient,” says Henk Olivier, managing director at Ozone Information Technology Distribution. “First, you need to undertake a basic risk management analysis that allows you to unpack how your organisation and its employees will react, should an event take place. This ensures that if X happens, then everyone knows that they need to do Y to ensure that the business is capable of undertaking normal operations while the incident is resolved.”

Having a clear ‘if this, then that’ plan in place ensures that high-risk and high-priority operations are shut down or protected instantly, and that any attack focused on these systems is resolved as a matter of urgency. This process also ensures that the business knows exactly which systems are the ones that will effectively bring the company to a stop if they are attacked. Undertaking this analysis should also include unpacking the customer interaction levels to determine any vulnerabilities or risk factors, and the user and employee touchpoints that can put the company at risk.

Do the basics first

“There are also several different aspects of any cyber resilience programme that should always be in place,” says Olivier. “Basic security hygiene is a must. This includes keeping all operating systems and devices up to date with the latest patches, having firewalls in place to control internal and external traffic and provide visibility into network traffic, and putting strong passwords and policies in place.”

Training has to be ongoing. Employees need to constantly be reminded about ransomware, malware, phishing and viruses, and know how to detect them. These attack vectors have become so sophisticated that it’s increasingly hard for even the most alert user to identify the fakes and not make a stupid mistake. Add to this some other essential steps, like avoiding the use of company email addresses on public networks and ensuring that there is clear reporting and insight into the firewall and devices.

“Cyber resilience is also defined by the plans you have in place should the attack succeed, and it will succeed, at least once,” says Olivier. “Have a data recovery plan and process in place and always have backups – plural. You need more than one backup and you need to keep one set offline so that any ransomware doesn’t have time to populate a backup.”

Cyber resilience is no one single solution or platform, rather it is a network of cybersecurity technologies, methodologies, policies, frameworks and behaviours that work collaboratively and cohesively to create a security posture that’s agile, flexible and, most importantly, prepared.




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

Highest increase in global cyberattacks in two years
Information Security News & Events
Check Point Global Research released new data on Q2 2024 cyber-attack trends, noting a 30% global increase in Q2 2024, with Africa experiencing the highest average weekly per organisation.

Read more...
Upgrade your PCs to improve security
Information Security Infrastructure
Truly secure technology today must be designed to detect and address unusual activity as it happens, wherever it happens, right down to the BIOS and silicon levels.

Read more...
Open source code can also be open risk
Information Security Infrastructure
Software development has changed significantly over the years, and today, open-source code increasingly forms the foundation of modern applications, with surveys indicating that 60 – 90% of the average application's code base consists of open-source components.

Read more...
DeepSneak deception
Information Security News & Events
Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis researchers have discovered a new malicious campaign which is distributing a Trojan through a fake DeepSeek-R1 Large Language Model (LLM) app for PCs.

Read more...
SA’s strained, loadshedding-prone grid faces cyberthreats
Power Management Information Security
South Africa’s energy sector, already battered by decades of underinvestment and loadshedding, faces another escalating crisis; a wave of cyberthreats that could turn disruptions into catastrophic failures. Attacks are already happening internationally.

Read more...
Almost 50% of companies choose to pay the ransom
News & Events Information Security
This year’s Sophos State of Ransomware 2025 report found that nearly 50% of companies paid the ransom to get their data back, the second-highest rate of ransom payment for ransom demands in six years.

Read more...
Survey highlights cost of cyberdamage to industrial companies
Kaspersky Information Security News & Events
The majority of industrial organisations estimate their financial losses caused by cyberattacks to be over $1 million, while almost one in four report losses exceeding $5 million, and for some, it surpasses $10 million.

Read more...
Digital economy needs an agile approach to cybersecurity
Information Security News & Events
South Africa is the most targeted country in Africa when it comes to infostealer and ransomware attacks. Being at the forefront of the continent’s digital transformation puts South Africa in the crosshairs for sophisticated cyberattacks

Read more...
SIEM rule threat coverage validation
Information Security News & Events
New AI-detection engineering assistant from Cymulate automates SIEM rule validation for SecOps and blue teams by streamlining threat detection engineering with automated testing, control integrations and enhanced detections.

Read more...
Cybersecurity a challenge in digitalising OT
Kaspersky Information Security Industrial (Industry)
According to a study by Kaspersky and VDC Research on securing operational technology environments, the primary risks are inadequate security measures, insufficient resources allocated to OT cybersecurity, challenges surrounding regulatory compliance, and the complexities of IT/OT integration.

Read more...










While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.