5 Ways Advanced Consulting Boosts Cybersecurity

It is nearly impossible to overstate cybercrime’s threat to global economic growth and stability. Recent research from the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and others suggests that cybercrime now costs the world more than $11 million per minute! Threats are being compounded by the increasing involvement of organized crime groups, who have made cybercrime more profitable than illegal drug trafficking.

Skyrocketing cybercrime — much of it perpetrated by sophisticated hacking groups backed by state actors — is driving record spending on security solutions. Forbes Business Insights predicts that the information security market will exceed $366 billion by 2028. Despite these investments, businesses of all shapes and sizes are finding it increasingly difficult to stem the rising tide of attacks.

The accelerated adoption of cloud, mobile, edge and wireless technologies to support mass numbers of remote workers has dramatically expanded the attack surface. The continuing skills gap is making it hard to find, hire, train and keep qualified cybersecurity specialists. In a recent Sophos survey, 54 percent of respondents said their organizations’ IT departments are unable to handle today’s sophisticated attacks on their own.

Many companies are turning to experienced cybersecurity consultants to help them address these challenges. Consultants with security-specific expertise can provide valuable insight into the technologies, controls and assessment processes required to plan and implement multilayered solutions that help ensure cyber resilience.

Here are five ways DeSeMa’s advanced cybersecurity consulting services can benefit your business:

Educate Employees

Many data breaches result from employees who click on infected links or emails, unintentionally mishandle sensitive data or commit policy violations with “workarounds” to make work easier. Consultants can help you design workplace education programs to make employees more conscious of security issues.

Reduce Risk

A knowledgeable consultant can help you improve your overall security posture by providing qualified advice and guidance in creating multilayered defenses against growing numbers of threats. This approach is designed to ensure network security, Internet protection, secure remote access, virus protection, email security and more. In addition, consultants provide practical advice about product updates and patches and will help ensure there are no configuration errors that malicious actors can exploit.

Reduce Complexity

The need to safeguard increasing numbers of users, devices and applications operating outside corporate headquarters complicates security for most organizations. Industry analysts report that organizations commonly use more than 100 different security solutions, many with overlapping features. The manual effort required to track, investigate and resolve the thousands of security alerts these tools generate on a daily basis is more than most internal IT teams can reasonably be expected to handle. Security consultants can help you consolidate these tools into a more manageable environment. Most can also monitor your security devices and systems to reduce the load on your staff.

Bridge the Skills Gap

According to ISACA, a nonprofit information security advocacy group, there are now more than 4 million unfilled cybersecurity positions across the world, and 61 percent of organizations say their cybersecurity teams are understaffed. Top consulting organizations have deep benches of specialists with certified expertise across a broad range of security products from a variety of vendors. That gives them the flexibility to select best-of-breed solutions that meet the unique security needs of customers.

Introduce New Technologies

Cyberthreats are becoming more sophisticated, stealthy and capable of circumventing many conventional security measures. For example, polymorphic and fileless malware doesn’t have any of the identifiable features of typical malicious software, which allows them to avoid detection by signature-based antivirus tools. Knowledgeable consultants can guide you toward advanced tools that combine both signature-based and behavioral-based scanning to identify and block all types of malware.