Last Updated on 27 November 2023 by admin
Your security budget is critical if you want to succeed as a business. If you have a limited budget for cyber security, how should you spend it?
Should you protect your key assets, or thinly spread over an array of various assets?
Let’s explore your cybersecurity budget options and the security measures it will allow you to execute.
Table of Contents
How much does the average company spend on cybersecurity
The average cost of a breach of data security is $3.62 million according to the Ponemon Institute. Although breaches are on the rise, the percentage of companies that are spending more on security is growing, too.
Most large companies spend around $2.7 million on information security annually. That’s about 1.3% of their total annual revenue. The largest chunk is spent on people (48%), followed by technology (35%), services (7%), and facilities (6%). The biggest concerns are data loss and regulatory compliance.
The more money you invest into your security, the less you will have to spend on potential issues that may otherwise happen.
How to spend your cybersecurity budget wisely
Your business’ security is within your responsibility, so you must take action to prevent hackers from accessing your sensitive data.
These are some of the areas where your cyber security budget would be spent wisely.
Option one: protect your key assets
There are two obvious benefits to spending your allotted budget on protecting key assets. Firstly, it ensures that your business has a higher chance of survival should something go wrong.
The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure – CPNI – advises you to identify which assets are critical to your business success, competitive advantage, and continuing operation [1]. By focusing on your critical infrastructure, you can prioritize what is needed for your business and allocate your budget accordingly.
These will typically include:
- People
- Products
- Services
- Processes
- Premises
- Information
The second obvious benefit of protecting your most critical assets is that you are more likely to meet legislation and compliance. However, putting all of your eggs in one basket is often risky. It leaves unsecured assets more vulnerable to attack.
For starters, your key assets have to be accessed by something, such as a system outside of their immediate protection. If someone tries to hack your key assets, they may try and access them through a web of systems that you have failed to secure.
Do you know what systems have access to your critical assets? For example, the CPNI suggests you look beyond your organization to suppliers and contractors.
They argue that you should establish a full and accurate picture of the impact on your company’s reputation, share price, or existence if sensitive internal or customer information were to be stolen.
Wherever the data goes, those points need to be protected also. However, by not spending money on employee knowledge, you leave yourself vulnerable to being compromised by the small stuff.
Considering employee error accounts for most security incidents [3], you may want to think twice before you decide to skip over spending any money on user security awareness training and physical security controls, and your overall digital transformation.
Option two: spread your money
Option 2 is all about thinly spreading your budget across many areas. There are obvious benefits to this, including the feeling of being more secure by having all of the ground covered. At least at a baseline level.
However, this basic level may not be sophisticated enough to pick up the more complex security attacks and hacks. Additionally, you may not be fully investing in the best areas. You may not have fully assessed the risk of each area.
We suggest you spend some time mapping out where your assets are and any attack paths. Check whether your data is segregated and isolated properly and see whether they have adequate security controls applied.
Option three: Informer
Your third option is to use our very own Informer platform. This offers you peace of mind with its exclusive features, including:
- Round the clock vulnerability management
- Attack surface management. Results of discovered assets and vulnerabilities are all housed in one, easy to understand, report
- Clear data analysis through detailed dashboards
- Report creation and scheduling
Summary
The best way to spend your cybersecurity budget depends on your business, its priorities and key assets. If you’re a financial institution, protecting your data might be your top priority. If you’re a utility company, you may want to focus on securing your network, whilst a small business may want to use telematics to monitor your devices in real time.
Whatever your company size, take a demo of Informer today and see how Informer can transform your threat management. In the end, whatever option you choose, it all comes down to your risk appetite and what kind of data you’ve got to protect.
We’re always on hand to help guide you to your best cybersecurity solution.
[1] cpni.gov.uk
[2] cpni.gov.uk
[3] foley.com
