Things That Cybersecurity Experts Should Never Do

Cybersecurity is a very sensitive area, one small mistake and it could lead to grave consequences and big losses. Thus it needs to be pointed out that the cybersecurity professional’s job is a very challenging one. There are lots of manuals prescribing the duties, roles, and responsibilities of a cybersecurity guy. Here’s a look at certain things that cybersecurity professionals should refrain from doing…

Never bypass corporate controls, they are critical to cybersecurity…

Agreed that corporate controls would seem to hamper the work of cybersecurity guys. They may find it a bit difficult to work smoothly and efficiently, and would most of the time tend to bypass such corporate controls. They’d disable or remove protections like antivirus, two-factor authentication, network security protocols etc to make things smoother and easier for them. The result would be an exposed system or network with bypassed corporate controls and unencrypted data. Any hacker, waiting for a chance to sneak in, can make use of this and get away with critical data. A click on a phishing link during that gap could prove disastrous for the entire organization. Thus, though it would be rather difficult to work with protection protocols in place, it’s always advisable to let them be…

Never ever be overconfident! Confidence is good, overconfidence is not…

This applies not just to this one profession, but to many things. You could end up spoiling things with overconfidence…In fact overconfidence, combined with a false sense of security, happens to be a besetting vice for most cybersecurity guys. They think they are above and beyond the reach of hackers, they feel they can do with just a few layers of protection. The fact is that they are as vulnerable as anyone else and hence they should always go for multilayered security, like anyone else.

Never forget to apply security patches on time…

Applying security patches in the right way and on time is key to cybersecurity. Many companies today find that their security systems get breached despite spending big money on security solutions, simply because they tend to be negligent as regards applying patches on time. Hence it’s important not to apply security patches on time.

Never disregard the user…

The user is one of the most important aspects of cybersecurity. There are many security professionals who tend to disregard user as part of the security solutions. Training the user and ensuring that the user does all the things that are important for securing systems/networks are important things and should in no way be overlooked. Remember, a minor mistake, a silly lapse from the side of the user can lead to a massive cyber attack.

Never depend too much on third party vendors for security

Security hardware or software solutions provided by third party vendors are of course useful and important, but never depend too much or entirely on them. They are just a part of an enterprise’s security system or security environment and hence it’s not advisable to depend too heavily on them for protection. Make sure you yourself do all those things that you need to do and keep yourself updated as regards the trends and happenings in cybersecurity.

Never forget that you need to address security in business terms too…

For any enterprise, business is the most important thing. Security is needed to make the business go smooth and be successful. Hence it’s important that whenever security is discussed, it’s addressed in business terms. When discussing with decision makers, the C-level, it’s really important that their business interests are to be taken into account; they need to be convinced that what they are investing in security is important for the business as a whole. In short, it’s important for all security professionals to have a wider understanding of an enterprise’s business needs as well.

Never let your skills lapse, they are your assets…

For any security professional, his skills are his primary assets. So it becomes important for any security guy to not let his skills lapse. He should never be under the impression that he has all the skills that are needed in the field. Refreshing skills is vital, or else it could lead to a security professional falling behind and causing errors one after the other.

Never get affected by alert fatigue syndrome or show negligence towards false positives…

Alert fatigue syndrome- security analysts not responding to certain security alerts when they are flooded with so many alerts. It’s important that security professionals don’t get affected by alert fatigue syndrome. There can be a system of filtering and prioritizing alerts and then forwarding them to analysts for taking actions. Similarly, false positives, a term that refers to security solutions labeling some benign files as malware and blocking them, too could cause issues for the smooth running of an enterprise. Hence cybersecurity professionals should never show negligence towards these too.