If you are an entrepreneur based in Essex, you might not need reminding what makes this East of England county a great place to run a business. As Essex is one of the Home Counties, it is conveniently close to London. Other plus points of Essex as a corporate hub include its:
- Highly skilled workforce
- Connections to major highways
- Respected universities and colleges
- Affordable office spaces
However, if you do run a business in Essex, you also need to be careful not to let complacency set in. After all, in our highly digitalised, online-connected world, companies based anywhere in the world can face a wide array of shared risks — many of them potentially arising from lax cybersecurity.
In recent research, 94% of UK-based CIOs cited cybersecurity as a significant and close threat to their organisations — with malware, spam, phishing, and ransomware singled out as particular worries.
Unfortunately, though, the challenging economic picture, along with the ‘hybrid work’ model left over from the COVID-19 pandemic, have seen UK businesses struggling to bolster their cybersecurity.
If your Essex-based company is in this same situation, you could find that outsourcing many of your team’s cybersecurity responsibilities proves to be a cost-effective way of tackling the problem.
Here are several types of cybersecurity solution you would be able to source from an external company…
Cybersecurity Audits
In a recent report, 67% of UK businesses said that customers, investors, and suppliers were increasingly seeking proof of security and compliance.
Nonetheless, while the research revealed that 37% of the surveyed UK companies provided internal audit reports and third-party audits and 39% filled in security questionnaires, 12% said they didn’t or weren’t able to give evidence of their security and compliance when requested to do so.
One major obstacle to proving and demonstrating security turned out to be a lack of staffing. However, if you lack employees that are ready to assess your Essex-based company’s cybersecurity efforts, you could arrange a free audit with an IT services provider such as the local Ghost Enterprises.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
If a cyber-attack does strike your business and disable any of its online systems, it could potentially take time for you to get those up and running again. Adverse effects of this downtime could, in turn, trickle down to the quality of service you provide to customers or clients.
For example, if members of your team find themselves temporarily unable to access online tools that are vital to their work, some deadlines may need to be renegotiated and shifted.
It is therefore a good idea for you to plan in advance how your business would react to a cyber-attack. Through partnering with consultants, you can ensure that if a cybersecurity incident does later bring down any of your online infrastructure, it will soon be restored to full working order.
IT Security Monitoring
Of course, how quickly you bounce back from a cyber-attack will very much depend on how long it takes for you to realise such an attack has even happened.
You could naturally feel dispirited if, for one practical reason or another, you are unable to assign any of your in-house workers the job of monitoring your corporate IT systems like a hawk.
It is worth highlighting, however, that Ghost Enterprises offers a wide range of cybersecurity services in Essex. This means you would be able to offload many of your workforce’s cybersecurity duties — yes, even IT security monitoring — to this highly regarded company.
Cybersecurity Training
Many cybersecurity breaches can come about simply due to slip-ups by well-meaning employees. Would many of your employees know how to spot a scam email or detect when a co-worker may have been surreptitiously siphoning ‘confidential’ company data for nefarious purposes?
Fortunately, a specialist provider of cybersecurity training could educate your staff on dos and don’ts of how to keep cybersecurity defences tight.
24/7 Emergency Care
Sometimes, a cybersecurity incident isn’t just a blip; it is an emergency. The incident will count as an emergency if it significantly risks any of the following:
- The company’s financial prosperity
- The public’s health, safety, or security
- The environment
Since you can never be certain when a cybersecurity emergency might occur, you should think about drawing upon a 24/7 emergency IT support service from an external company.
If you do go down this route, you can feel confident that in the event of an actual cybersecurity emergency, IT support staff will quickly spring into action to put in place urgent measures. It is a safety net that you will hopefully never need as you pursue your entrepreneurial adventure in Essex.
