As organizations increasingly move their assets to the cloud, cybercrime has continued to mature, and the prominence of cyberattacks has grown. For example, check out our recent blog post on some of the biggest payouts from ransomware attacks in 2019.

Cybersecurity, once a niche faction of a few forward-thinking organizations, is now a central pillar of the modern enterprise… or at least it should be. We read some statistics recently that shocked us.

“To uncover how the world’s leading companies are leading by example to deploy cybersecurity initiatives, Bitglass researched the organizations in the 2019 Fortune 500 and analyzed public-facing information (from what is available on their websites). Here are the Bitglass report findings summarized the 2019 Fortune 500 companies:

• 38 percent of companies are operating without appointing a CISO in position.
• Only 16 percent (of 38 percent) have another executive listed as responsible for cybersecurity strategy, such as a VP of security.
• 62 percent majority do have CISOs but merely 4 percent of them have listed it on their company leadership pages.
• 77 percent of companies have no mention of any individual on their website responsible for security strategy.
• 52 percent of companies do not have any language relating to customer or partner data protection.”

Read again that these are “leading companies” on the Fortune 500. What does that mean for companies all the way down to America’s small business core? The outlook is not rosy.

Frankly, these statistics highlight how behind the times many companies are from an organizational standpoint and highlights the lack of priority security maturity holds within their organizations. Let’s face it, cybersecurity isn’t always the flashiest part of an organization, nor is it viewed as a revenue generator, which often means it becomes an afterthought to businesses with growth on their minds.

Fortunately, many organizations are quickly realizing the truth: the lost time, effort, and money spent fighting trench warfare battles with malicious actors using outdated technology is a much greater growth risk than the upfront cost of ensuring that the solutions are in place.

The choice is clear – prepare wisely and allow your teams to devote their energy into building your business, or fail to plan and risk everything fighting an uphill battle.

Our resolve to help lead organizations to a more secure future has never been stronger. Cybersecurity should NOT be an afterthought, especially in 2020. Having high-level leadership in your company that is responsible for security strategy is vital for long-term growth and success.

The COVID-19 crisis has brought a wave of cyberattacks with it, and unsuspecting companies are really paying the price. Here’s one of our recent blog posts surrounding phishing attacks that are leveraging anxiety around the COVID-19 crises to distribute malware.

As the situation surrounding COVID-19 evolves, and companies continue to find ways to effectively work from home, we suspect we will continue to see a rise in attacks like these, with companies paying hefty prices if they fall victim.

How many sales are now needed to offset the cost of incredibly pricy cyberattack remediation? The cost of preemptive cybersecurity solutions looks like small potatoes in comparison.

Many of these solutions should be getting put in place from the top, but when leadership is not in place to set strategy, as seen in the statistics above, disastrous opportunities arise. So, what can be done?

Apart from recognizing where growth needs to occur within your organization, partnering with a cybersecurity solutions provider can help provide a jumping off point on how to make cybersecurity a more central part of your organization.

Gap assessments are a great place to start. Essentially, these assessments can help identify areas in your organization that may not be fully mature, or spots where you may be more vulnerable. Being able to identify the areas in which your organization is lacking can help to guide strategy moving forward by more effectively focusing on problem areas, rather than on cybersecurity at large.

Secondly, Fishtech Group offer services like “Virtual CISO” through our Strategic Staffing services. Strategic Staffing services provide long-term, skilled resources to help organizations fill in any gaps they may have in their organization’s security team.

With “Virtual CISO” your organization can gain valuable resources like access to experienced cybersecurity and business professionals to bolster your staff for a pre-determined amount of time.

This service can quickly provide vetted leadership to bypass the hurdles that hiring in-house security leadership can bring to the fore. No need to worry about competing with other organizations for low-availability, high-demand, qualified cybersecurity professionals to make sure you can fast track your company to cybersecurity maturity and have confidence as you continue to build out your processes and your team.

There’s too much at stake in the modern business landscape to let cybersecurity and security leadership be an afterthought. Download our fact sheet on our Strategic Staffing services, or fill out the form below to get in contact with our team so we can start having discussions on how we can make cybersecurity a main focus for your organization.

Navigate the troubled waters of 2020, and beyond, with confidence.