Battling cybercrime is an ongoing effort for every organization. It requires vigilance and attention to detail to maintain defenses against enemies looking to exploit every chink in the armor to penetrate corporate networks and do bad things. 

SMBs are particularly susceptible to cybercrime because of their limited resources and more casual approach to security. While enterprises might make for more lucrative scores, cybercriminals are happy to feast upon the low-hanging fruit of smaller, more weakly protected firms and “make it up in volume.” 

A framework for addressing cybersecurity 

With so many potential paths for the bad guys to break in and cause havoc, organizations must approach cybersecurity as a holistic exercise and not a patchwork of point solutions against specific threats. To ensure companies are adequately assessing and addressing their comprehensive security needs, National Institute of Standards and Technology developed the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. 

The five key phases of the framework are: 

• Identifying risks
• Protecting systems and networks
• Detecting cybersecurity events
• Responding to cybersecurity events
• Recovering from cybersecurity events

For many of these phases, there are corresponding tools that can simplify and automate the steps. Relying on these solutions greatly decreases the chances of a cybersecurity event – and mitigates the related harm that firms might suffer. 

Identify 

The objective of this step is identifying what information is stored and used, assessing its value, and building out an inventory. With this in hand, companies can understand their vulnerabilities to potential threats and create policies and procedures to ensure information security. 

Network Detective Pro can address these needs by conducting automated data collection and then generating reports on risks, assets and configuration. It also features a personal data scanner, as well as internal and external vulnerability detection. 

The detailed reports give a top-down view of everything in the network, including the ability to export information about those assets to other tools. It calls out specific vulnerabilities that can be examined during business reviews along with data breach liability reports. 

Protect 

Phishing is a common point of entry for cybercriminals looking to penetrate a corporate network and gain access to valuable data. All it takes is a careless click of a link to turn an innocent email into the start of a crisis. 

BullPhish ID from ID Agent helps organizations prevent employees from falling victim to phishing scams by simulating phishing attacks. These tests help gauge how susceptible each individual is to click on suspect emails and entering credentials on fake web fronts. 

This is a powerful assessment of an organization’s readiness and an effective education tool. Follow up video training and reporting gives organizations another line of defense against falling prey to these scams. 

Detect 

The next phase is dedicated to spotting problems within the network. Even though these bad elements have gotten through the gates, there’s still an opportunity to sniff them out and minimize the damage. 

Cyber Hawk helps address this phase by showing companies what they don’t know is happening within their own networks. It’s on the lookout for a variety of suspicious behaviors, including employees accessing inappropriate systems, after-hours logins, unusual granting of administrative rights, and employees running software that creates vulnerabilities. It also scans the network for credit card information, social security numbers of other personal information being stored on end-user systems, along with malware.   

By providing an ongoing scanning, detection and alerting service, violations of security policies and unusual or unauthorized behaviors get flagged immediately so companies can take action. Cyber Hawk also helps organizations create and enforce security policies that restrict access, control user management and ensure patches and security updates are promptly applied. 

VulScan is another exceptional tool for detection. It offers features you need for both internal and external vulnerability management. VulScan identifies network and computer vulnerabilities and generates alerts for each client or site. Drill into the interactive, web-based dashboards to identify issues and obtain recommended solutions. If you have Network Detective Pro, the seamless integration makes it easy to generate enhanced vulnerability assessment reports using data collected from your last vulnerability scan. Use the reports to justify the need for additional paid security services. 

Recover 

Once the attack has been thwarted and the damage repaired, it’s essential to get the business back online and restore operations as quickly as possible. This is where recovery solutions can literally save the day. 

And, if businesses were smart enough to protect themselves with cyber risk insurance, ensuring they can successfully complete their claims requires an extensive amount of documentation. To prove that all possible steps were taken to adopt best practices and defend networks and systems from common cyberthreats, companies need a “paper trail” highlighting what was done when to guard against attacks. 

Compliance Manager GRC helps clients accurately complete their cyber risk insurance applications – where the devil is in the details – and then automates the entire compliance process. The generated reports provide sufficient documentation to ensure claims get paid instead of denied on a technicality or missed provision. 

Gear up for the game 

The NIST framework is a fantastic playbook for MSPs to follow. It creates a comprehensive and consistent approach to cybersecurity and, with its government pedigree, serves as an independent level set on best practices and scope. 

Covering all the bases is a big ask for MSPs, who have more than just cybersecurity to worry about. But with tools like these at their disposal, MSPs can develop automated, programmatic solutions to safeguard their clients and increase the value of each relationship. 

Request a demo today to learn how your MSP can get into the cyber insurance compliance game and help customers get the most out of their insurance policies and protection.