What Is Security Posture?

Is your company prepared enough to face evolving security threats? From proactive security measures and controls to threat response and recovery planning, your ability to spot, assess, and respond to cyberattacks define your security posture.

The definition of security posture remains the same regardless of your industry and the data you process. However, the way you secure your information, systems, and infrastructure against evolving threats may vary – and, readiness against unknown threats is increasingly important.

Regular penetration testing services help identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, making them a key part of any adaptive security strategy.

Without a robust security posture, you’re at risk from attackers using advanced technologies – such as GenAI, which is affecting 97% of companies surveyed in a recent study – putting your customers and your reputation at risk.

Let’s dig deeper into why your security posture is so important.

Importance of Security Posture

There are several crucial reasons why your company needs a firm security posture:

• You’ll be prepared to fight against anything that dares to attack you: A carefully designed security posture will ensure your infrastructure is ready to fight back against ransomware, phishing, code injections, brute force attacks, and more.
• You’ll adapt well to future threats: Cyber threats are always evolving – and with a robust prevention, response, and recovery system in place that you’re continually maintaining, you can keep up with the latest vectors.
• You’ll save face with customers: Data breaches can cause companies serious reputational damage, and therefore loss of business.
• You’ll save money: According to IBM’s research, the average cost of a data breach is around $4.88 million. With a strong security posture, you can avoid losing money through remediation costs and loss of business.
• You’ll be able to react quicker and more effectively to attacks: In the event that cyberattacks do get through, a strong security posture will help you recover quicker. That means you can limit downtime and financial loss.

And, there are broader benefits to maintaining a firm security posture:

“An organization that can demonstrate an infrastructure protected by robust security mechanisms can potentially see a reduction in insurance premiums being paid.

A secure organization can use its security program as a marketing tool, demonstrating to clients that it values their business so much that it takes a very aggressive stance on protecting their information.”

John Mallery, Computer and Information Security Handbook

Key Components of Security Posture

A strong security posture requires clear policies, compliance, risk management, incident response planning, and the right technology to prevent, detect, and respond to threats. Technology plays a crucial role by enabling tools like firewalls, vulnerability scanners, and endpoint protection to proactively defend systems and support response efforts.

We recommend that our customers have a number of key components and technologies to make sure their security postures are strong, proactive, and responsive. Here are the crucial elements broken down:

A Risk Assessment and Management Program

Risk management and monitoring help you understand how unforeseen threats could affect your systems and data. These procedures can therefore help you prioritize certain security activities.

Clear Security Policies

Your security posture is only as strong as your personnel’s understanding and respect for the policies you have in place. Setting up clear security policies helps to standardize protection, threat response, and remediation standards across the board. What’s more, personnel can use them to guide decision-making.

Similarly, it’s also important to include accessible, regular training and support for your employees so that they can recognize the telltale signs of malware, security flaws, and social engineering attempts.

Compliance

All businesses handling and storing personal data must follow compliance standards, such as the GDPR for EU customers. However, businesses must also comply with cybersecurity standards or face heavy penalties and reputational damage.

Incident Response Planning

A key component of any cybersecurity strategy is understanding that incidents might still happen. Therefore, alongside preventive strategies, you must also have a clear response plan to limit data threats and protect your customers. Doing so can also mitigate the money you spend on remediation (something our customers often remark upon).

Effective Security Hardware and Architecture

Beyond planning, a strong security posture also needs effective defensive technologies, tools and platforms to help scan for and remove security threats.

For example, postures should involve vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, ongoing protective measures such as firewalls and access control strategies, and endpoint protection software. In some cases, businesses might consider segmenting architecture to prevent the spread of malware and other threats.

How to Assess Your Organization’s Security Posture

There is no single method to running a security posture assessment, purely because every business’s needs will differ vastly from the next. However, there are a few key steps to start assessing your security posture and protecting your systems against emerging threats.

After all, without a security posture assessment, you won’t clearly understand your current processes, potential weaknesses, and what might be required to improve your standards.

Here’s a suggested approach that we frequently recommend to our clients:

1. Create a clear inventory and breakdown of your hardware, software, and data held. Gather information on how your networks are configured, which security controls are in place, and when security incidents have occurred.
2. Build a clear idea or plan for how you intend your security posture to look. We recommend following popular frameworks such as NIST, for example, which works as a template for keeping businesses compliant and safe.
3. Create clear, actionable objectives for your assessment. Are you carrying out your audit to find weaknesses, rebuild your posture, or enhance your infrastructural compliance?
4. Analyze the data collected and note the differences between your posture and that of your ideal setup (e.g., with the NIST framework). Look for gaps in your posture and clarify where there are weaknesses and shortfalls. Then, break down the potential risks involved with said gaps, and work out what steps you can take to remedy them.
5. You could also use vulnerability scanning – or hire a team to scan your systems for you – to bring together the data you need.
6. Put together a report that offers clear steps on how to bring your security posture up to code. This process can be complex and time-consuming, which is why it’s recommended that you work with cybersecurity professionals.

Challenges in Maintaining a Strong Security Posture

Of course, creating a clear posture layout and action plan isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. Common challenges in planning that you may need to account for include:

• Hybrid infrastructure, where you may have components and data storage outside of your central framework due to employing hybrid or remote staff.
• Cloud infrastructure, where you may need to account for and map out systems and components stored in the cloud, or which rely on third parties.
• Widespread IoT, referring to networked devices that can increase the size of your attack surface, and can also be difficult to plan for and manage.
• Compliance juggling, referring to industries and niches where you need to keep aware of several regulatory guidelines at once.
• Cybersecurity skills gaps, where you might not have the in-house or outsourced talent available to maintain your posture.

The challenges you face will likely differ to those of the next company – which is why so many of our clients are thankful for the help we provide in breaking down their unique security problems.

Strategies to Improve Security Posture

As mentioned, we believe in supporting our customers on a case-by-case basis when it comes to improving security posture. However, you can implement some general strategies to strengthen your enterprise immediately.

Organize Regular Training

Regular employee training can ensure your company is always ready to thwart evolving threats and spot signs of phishing or confidence tricks. Ultimately, updating and refreshing knowledge can reduce your chances of getting attacked and suffering significantly in a breach. You could also run regular drills to test capability and knowledge.

Keep Security Policies Up to Date

Your security policies should always be fluid and ready to update with the evolution of new threat vectors. Doing so helps to support people with relevant information that’s dynamic to their changing work and any new threats that emerge.

Apply Advanced Technology and Work with Professionals

To keep your security posture robust and to be best prepared to fight evolving threats, you need to invest in advanced endpoint protection and malware security solutions. Plus, working closely with cybersecurity professionals will ensure you have expertise to keep your systems protected as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Double Up on Access Controls

Make sure you uphold strong standards for access controls and use multiple methods for authenticating users – in the sense that you should demand more than a password for someone to gain access to data. Consider multi-factor authentication (MFA), biometrics, and AI-driven authentication systems to fortify your networks as much as possible.

Contact VikingCloud today to learn more about how our experts can help improve your security posture.