When thinking back to your professional or personal life, have you ever had a moment where you had to put into action a backup plan quickly? Having the ability to be able to prepare for, respond to, or recover from either a cyberattack or data breach and still operate effectively is being cyber resilient. Data breaches, frequent cyber-attacks, and other IT disruptions have attracted the media’s attention and created a new level of awareness among IT managers and business leaders. It is good that there is greater awareness of the need for increased security. That new level of knowledge is driving businesses to focus on protecting data as one of their primary business concerns. 

Organizations need to be thinking about security strategies in more holistic and innovative ways. Cyber resiliency is a term that applies not just to information security but to networks, business continuity, and organizational resilience. It is a comprehensive approach that allows an organization to detect unknown threats, respond to cyberattacks, protect against future attacks, and recover access to critical data. 

As we approach 2019, here are five areas where cyber resilience can play an essential role in helping organizations. Some of the vital roles are transforming the way they manage and protect their critical IT infrastructure to keep businesses up and running.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The IoT is transforming every industry by connecting devices, appliances, and vehicles to exchange and understand data. The number of devices connected will continue to grow. It will be more important than ever to build cyber resiliency into the development of new hardware and software. Then services can be connected to devices to make data more secure and available to help discover its business value.

Supply Chain

Industries rely on their supply chains. They are foundational. Organizations with a business continuity plan are more likely to report greater supply chain visibility and will likely insure for supply chain losses.

Blockchain

Blockchain technology drew a lot of interest among businesses and individuals, and it has an integral connection to cyber resiliency. Blockchain helps to remove some of the human element from sensitive transactions that are most vulnerable to hackers. Blockchain should become more significant in a company’s IT environment. Then a cyber resiliency strategy can ensure that those systems are protected and will interact with each other without disruption.

The one common element between all five of these areas is data. Data is the newest “natural resource” we have, and it requires safeguards to ensure it is being used for the right reasons. By building a foundation of cyber resiliency, you integrate solutions across different functions. These functions include security, networking, business continuity, and disaster recovery is the next step organizations will be prioritizing to deploy this year and in the future.