Let us begin by defining what cyber policy means, a cybersecurity policy defines and documents an organization’s statement of intent, principles and approaches to ensure effective management of cybersecurity risks in pursuit of its strategic objectives. Now that we have a clear understanding of what cyber policy is, let’s discuss how it looks in practice and the most effective ways to do so.

In order to get the desired outcome of a system safeguard check point, there are various layers of protection levels to include, such as, Application, Email, Network, Endpoint, Memory. Thus, allowing organizations to manage security policy, compliance and enforcement to put strong security controls in place. Enterprises, mid-market organizations and small businesses all need to be aware of their vulnerabilities and have sound business continuity plans in place for when an attack occurs. Unfortunately, now days it is not a matter of if but when and businesses need to have sound disaster recovery plans to get back to full operations as soon as possible after the attack.

The most popular places that cybercriminals probe for weaknesses and target endpoints are those who are vulnerable to the outside such as coffee shops, airports and hotels. These situations result in the cybercriminal being effective too because the users are busy or lack situational awareness to pick up on a social engineering plot. It only takes one successful click, and the user is done from there. The scary part, the attacks are only building and accelerating.

Ransomware attacks are the most risks to companies and businesses. If you are unfamiliar with this term, a ransomware attack is where a business has its data held at ransom and are unable to access any of their files, data, or everyday work environment. The cybercriminal then posts a ransom to be paid, most popular form today is cryptocurrency, and until the business pays this their business is inaccessible. Unless, of course, they have backups in place that they can access. It is well advised that the business try not to pay the cybercriminal and wait until authorities can investigate.

One new way to protect endpoints and contains new antivirus capabilities, is automated rollback endpoint protection. This sets up attack vectors for roaming outside the enterprise walls. Some best practices that go along with this include layered policy, compliance and enforcement of layered security platforms including the layers mentioned in the start of the article. This level of protection automatically isolates infected devices and immunizes the remaining endpoint estate thus eliminating the need for manual restoration. Sounds rollback methods for endpoints is the most cost-effective measure to help combat compromises of end-user devices and extend cyber policy.

In addition to the above, below you can find a list of lessons learned to help create and implement effective cybersecurity policies. To find more in-depth details on this list, please refer to this helpful link: Nine Lessons To Create And Implement Effective Cybersecurity Policies (forbes.com).

1. Keep business objectives in mind
2. Balance policies between general and specific
3. Make the policy a comprehendible tool
4. Leave out the fine-tuning, cover the technical
5. Include the realistic do’s and don’ts of employees
6. Balance guidelines and technical control measures
7. Disseminate the policy properly
8. Develop policy enforcement mechanisms
9. Plan to audit and evaluate the policy regularly

Lastly, according to leaders within the cyber sector, there are 16 effective ways that tech leaders can increase cybersecurity standards. Please see this list below and this link for more details on the list: 16 Effective Ways Tech Leaders Can Increase Cybersecurity Standards (forbes.com).

1. Believe and share that it could happen to you
2. Conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment
3. Insist on Zero-Trust access
4. Automate daily security processes
5. Address security from the outset for custom code development
6. Invest in training and awareness
7. Have centralized endpoint management.
8. Invest in cyber-hardened storage solutions
9. Raise awareness of social engineering attacks
10. Shift cybersecurity left in the life cycle
11. Make passwords more complex
12. Implement a holistic security management system and continuously improve your SSDLC process.
13. Regularly review and deploy security patches
14. Be wary of open-source dependencies in code
15. Take full advantage of built in security features
16. Ensure complete visibility into all tech platforms in use.