Why Cybersecurity Shouldn’t Be Your IT Team’s Responsibility

IT management, passwords, dark web scans, and firewall settings are only a small part of cybersecurity. It’s a full-time, continuous, and important process requiring focused attention to ensure companies’ risks are mitigated. Placing companies’ cybersecurity on their internal IT team’s already overburdened shoulders is a precarious move with potentially disastrous consequences.

Companies may find it more challenging to meet their current IT needs and add cybersecurity responsibilities into the mix, especially with the increasing worker shortage. It’s impossible to ignore cybersecurity, however, it can be challenging to find security experts who have in-depth knowledge of the latest tools and threat tactics. According to cybersecurity experts, ransomware attacks will occur every 11 seconds (an increase of about 20%) by the end of the year. However, many companies attempt to retain cybersecurity in-house and hand the responsibility of mitigating their biggest threat to their own IT team.

Cybersecurity Isn’t IT Teams’ Responsibility

Having the proper plans, policies, and processes in place for their companies requires a huge amount of planning and preparation as cyber threats become more complex and sophisticated. Cybersecurity is different from IT, contrary to common belief. Whether it’s related to billing and invoicing, customer information, procurement, vendor management, or human resources, every aspect of a company contains multiple security components. Every department, client, and business line becomes vulnerable when companies experience a cyberattack, endangering companies and their future and the repercussions can be costly. According to a recent study, the average cost of a data breach is $4.24 million. The growing costs include the potential loss of a company’s reputation and the impact on its employees, clients, and partners. All the hard work companies and their team have put into building their organizations can all be gone with one click of a link attached to a malicious email.

People wonder why cyber criminals choose to target small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) in the first place: they only care about getting paid. If people leave doors open because numerous businesses that don’t prioritize security do, someone can walk in and steal their business-critical and sensitive data. A cyberattack will affect just about every business in some way. Though it might not happen today or tomorrow, it is as close to inevitable as possible, and people need to be prepared.

More than just having a firewall and anti-virus protection in place is required for cybersecurity. These fundamental security measures are crucial, but given the current threat environment, they are insufficient. No matter what you do or how long you’ve been doing it, cybercriminals work around the clock to find new attack vectors and hone new techniques. Their attack methods for targeting companies are malicious, intended to deceive people, and can get past traditional IT security practices, including firewalls and anti-virus. In-house IT teams are often not well enough prepared to train the rest of their staff in security procedures, monitor their environment for intruders 24/7, plan future security measures, or be cybersecurity specialists. Most internal IT staff find it extremely difficult to complete all these necessary tasks in addition to their regular technical duties. For a cybersecurity program to be successful, it needs a dedicated team, 24/7 monitoring, an expert foundation in security, and continuous training.

Leaders or business owners are responsible for cybersecurity and ensure that they have a strategy in place to protect their companies against one of the biggest threats. Being current in a rapidly evolving cybersecurity industry can be challenging, especially if companies rely on an internal IT team to handle routine day-to-day operations. Working with a team of cybersecurity professionals will provide companies with peace of mind that this is their only priority and focus.

At SpearTip, our certified engineers at our 24/7/365 Security Operations Center are continuously monitoring companies’ data networks for potential cyber threats and are ready to respond to events at a moment’s notice. Our IT remediation experts focus entirely on restoring companies’ operations, claiming their networks by isolating malware, and recovering business-critical assets needed to operate. Our ShadowSpear Platform, our cutting-edge managed detection and response tool, detects sophisticated unknown and advanced threats with comprehensive insights using unparalleled data normalization and visualizations.

If your company is experiencing a breach, call our Security Operations Centers at 833.997.7327 to speak directly with an engineer.