A cyber strategy is a plan of high-level actions intended to improve the resilience and security of your IT. We go into more detail in our blog, What is a Cyber Security Strategy, and practical examples in our white paper, How to Write a Cyber Strategy.

Decide what needs to happen urgently and what can be an ongoing project.

Do you have out of date software that needs critical patches? Fix it now.  Is your IT infrastructure coming to its end-of-life? Get it sorted.

These are critical issues that a cyber criminal will waltz all over, whereas other issues can be saved for another day.

A perfect example of an ongoing priority is our next point... 

Human error is the most common reason breaches occur. Knowing this, cyber criminals openly prey on human vulnerabilities.

The best way to stop breaches due to a simple human mistake is to educate your team and build company-wide resilience. Read our blog for easy tips on Promoting Cyber Security Awareness in your business.

If your team has a strong understanding of cyber security best practices, they are less likely to fall prey to human error and your business is better protected against cyber crime.

Investing in cyber security specialists could save your company a lot of time, money and, ultimately, protect your reputation.

Whether this is an in-house team or an outsourced specialist, you need to have their cyber security expertises on your side.

Make sure your cyber security experts are:

• Monitoring your systems
• Updating software
• Completing annual cyber security audits.

Although cyber strategy is about developing a proactive approach towards cyber security, you'll need to be reactive too.

Why? Your business will be attacked at some point. Whether this is phishing, social engineering or a full-blown malware or ransomware breach, you will be the victim of some form of cyber crime.

Being ready and maintaining company-wide vigilance is the best defence for your organisation.

So, the inevitable has happened: Your company has fallen prey to a major cyber incident.

You need to pick up the pieces as quickly as possible. Not only to save on business downtime but also to prevent damage from spreading or corrupting more of your business.

The best way to get your business back up and running is to plan a detailed business recovery. We'd also recommend testing various cyber incident scenarios to ensure your entire organisation knows the recovery drill.

This is our version of lather, rinse repeat! The cyber threat landscape is constantly changing, as are the advances in modern technology.

Your cyber strategy needs to be flexible and ready for whatever appears on the horizon, even the completely unexpected!

Be prepared to learn, revise and repeat your cyber security strategy annually or as often as you need to meet the current threat level.

Don't wait for a cyber incident before implementing a proactive cyber security strategy across your business. Waiting could cost you far more than money or time, it could permanently damage your company's reputation.

With a strong cyber strategy, not only will your business have a fast recovery time, it will also be forewarned and forearmed for any cyber incidents in the future.