What is proactive vs reactive cyber security?

Proactive cyber security involves identifying and addressing security risks before an attack occurs, whereas reactive cyber security involves defending against attacks that have already happened.

When we hear about hacking in the news, the cases that typically get the most attention are the ones that affect huge corporations or government bodies, such as the Yahoo Mail data breach or the ransomware attacks across Louisiana. Given the media’s focus on larger cyber attacks, it’s not surprising that small and medium-sized businesses wouldn’t consider themselves to be at risk.

But this is an error! In reality, smaller businesses and organizations are targeted just as frequently as larger ones, if not more so.

At the end of the day, should your company choose proactive or reactive cyber security techniques?

The short answer is: both.

You need to understand the differences between them and why both are crucial to your company’s defense against hackers.

What is Reactive Cybersecurity?

There are some very good chances that your company is already having a reactive cyber security strategy in place.

Reactive strategies focus on bulking up your defenses against 'common attacks' and tracking down hackers that have broken through your security measures.

Your company’s reactive cyber security tactics might include:

1. Firewalls
2. Antivirus or anti-malware software
3. Password protections
4. Spam filters
5. Ad blockers
6. Disaster Recovery Plan
7. Reinstallation Procedures

Reactive cyber security methods are excellent at preventing 'known' malware from entering your network and corrupting your business databases. And if a virus does slip through, these reactive methods help you catch the culprits.

The problem is that many businesses use these reactive strategies as their ONLY cyber security measures. In reality, reactive cyber security methods should be JUST ONE component of your overall defense against hackers.

Just as security technologies are constantly evolving and getting better at preventing and detecting malware, so too cyber criminals are getting better & better at evading detection and breaching our cybersecurity systems. That’s where proactive cyber security comes into play.

What is Proactive Cybersecurity?

Proactive cyber security refers to methods used to prevent cyber attacks from happening. When your business takes a proactive approach to cyber security, you attempt to locate and correct your system’s potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by criminals.

Proactive cyber security tactics include:

1) Threat hunting

2) Ethical hacking

3) Proactive network and endpoint monitoring

4) Staff training

1. THREAT HUNTING

Threat hunting puts your company on the offensive. It involves stepping into the MINDSET of a cyber criminal. Security experts PRETEND that they have broken through a company’s defense system and try to predict a potential cyber criminal’s plan of attack from that entry point. This process often involves correlating data from a variety of sources in order to analyze the system’s weakest spots and most valuable data.

Once the possible threats have been identified, you can implement defensive steps to make it more difficult or even impossible for malicious parties to execute those attacks.

2. ETHICAL HACKING

Rather than attempting to mimic the mindset of a cyber criminal in a theoretical exercise, ethical hackers perform ACTUAL attacks with the intention of helping these companies. Ethical hackers can help identify a network’s weaknesses by actually exposing them. These “white hat” hackers use a variety of methods, such as social engineering and utilizing their own hacking software.

3. Proactive Network and Endpoint Monitoring

To truly be proactive with your cyber security, it is crucial that you monitor your network 24/7. An automated program checking for system irregularities can tell your team instantly about potential problems that could become worse if left untreated.

Endpoint monitoring is another important component of this strategy. This involves monitoring the security of remote devices with access to your business accounts, such as smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, laptops, and servers. Endpoints are often the easiest way for a hacker to gain access to your network.

Most of these endpoints already have antivirus software installed, but there is more to proactive endpoint monitoring than just that. An effective endpoint monitoring strategy typically involves a variety of security tools, performing tasks such as monitoring business-related logs, ensuring patches are updated, and detecting hidden threats like memory-resistant malware.

4. Staff Training

Nearly 90% of cyber attacks are caused by human vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities range from staff members giving out domain credentials during phishing scams to using weak passwords.

All members of your staff, not just your IT department, should therefore be trained in security precautions. Everyone at your company needs to be taught how to create strong passwords, report and delete suspicious emails, use a VPN if they need to access company data on a personal phone, and more.