The Advanced Cyber Security Tools Your Business Needs

April 28, 2022 Jason Hardy

It’s time for business leaders to start planning to implement another, more advanced, layer of tools to protect their assets from cyberattack. Why?

It is estimated that 43% of cyberattacks are targeted at small and mid-sized businesses.
At the same time, only 14% of SMBs are prepared to defend themselves.

It’s an unfortunate fact that SMBs are often easy targets for cyber criminals. Many assume they can fly under the radar of hackers and ransomware. And, until recently, advanced security tools and methodologies were out of reach for those in the SMB space.

Thankfully, the tide is turning. With the right approach SMBs can now protect themselves effectively from a wide array of attacks. And one crucial layer of protection is advanced cyber security tools meant to detect intrusions and threats before they cause damage.

Advanced Cyber Security Tools

SIEM and EDR: A Security System Against Cybercrime

For a long time, the focus in cyber security measures has been on preventing access to protected systems. Firewalls, password policies, segmented networks, patching strategies – these are all akin to the locks we put on the doors of our house. Like locks, they are essential to preventing intruders.

Like locks, they can’t do much once an intruder breaks in.

Just like your home, your network and your devices need a security system – tools that monitor for intrusion and alert you so that you (and the necessary authorities) can take action.

This is where advanced cyber security tools such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Security, Information, and Event Management (SIEM) come in. On different levels, both of these advanced tools apply artificial intelligence to detect and alert to signs of intrusion. An EDR tool works at the level of endpoints – think of all the workstations your employees use – to detect and respond to signs of malicious software or activity. And an SIEM performs a similar function at the level of your entire network, scanning logs and traffic to spot potentially threatening activity.

Like security systems, many EDR and SIEM tools go beyond AI and automation to provide a team of IT security experts to review activity flagged by the software and determine whether the authorities (in this case, a company’s IT department or MSP) should be notified. They combine machine and human intelligence to sniff out and respond to malicious activity on endpoints or the network.

Another Essential Layer in a Layered Security Strategy

As with other kinds of security, solid cyber security is all about layering safeguards, which are all by themselves to some degree fallible, to reduce the overall risk. Again, the analogy to a house remains true – locks, doors, and windows can be breached. So, in a neighborhood with increasing crime, a security system becomes essential.

In the world of business technology, crime is most certainly on the rise, making EDR and SIEM tools a necessary layer in a continuum of safeguards. Modern firewalls are essential. As are password policies, multi-factor authentication, spam filtering, solid patch strategies, and employee awareness training.

But cybercrime is lucrative. Like other lucrative industries, it attracts talented individuals who can deploy both technical and social engineering to breach even the most well-protected networks. An extra layer of detection and response, then, has become essential for the modern SMB.

Driving Up the Percentage of SMBs Protected Against Cyber Threats

The current number of SMBs properly defended against cyberattack may be 14%. But Affinity is dedicated to doing its part to drive that number up in the Greater Nashville community and beyond. EDR and SIEM tools are one component to the cyber security strategy we bring to businesses and organizations who value technology’s role in their growth.