Most organizations make cybersecurity overly complicated because “you need cybersecurity either way.” We don't think this is a valid argument. Business owners have tons of “have to” being thrown at them every day. It’s extremely difficult to cut through the fluff and identify what is critical and what is just nice to have.
We take the approach of educating the community on cybersecurity to help owners make an informed decision for their business. See our guide How To Protect Your Business From Cyber Security Threats in 2024
This guide breaks down exactly what kind of threats a business faces and which of the many cybersecurity layers address each one. We kept it short because we know you’re busy.
Once you know which layers are recommended and WHY, it’s important to realize the three primary factors you should be evaluating when choosing the right fit for each of these layers. This information is important to review so you can identify why prices may be higher/lower, how your employees are impacted, and whether these layers are effective or not.
The three factors we will be reviewing are effectiveness, user impact, and price.
Effectiveness
This is the most important aspect to consider. Is the layer effective at doing what it says it’s going to do. For instance, is the spam filtering service catching spam? If so, at what rate?
Here is a good example of this: Microsoft 365 has a built-in spam filtering, so why would a business invest in an additional spam filtering?
The answer is effectiveness.
The built-in spam filtering does stop some spam, but it may not be as effective as your IT provider is comfortable with. That is why we may recommend an additional layer of protection. It’s not to sell another service, it’s because it is our job to protect your business. Read about Built-In Spam Filtering here Anti-Spam Protection
We go through a standard checklist and review process for every recommended layer to ensure the layers are effective in the current environment. I say current environment because cybersecurity changes very quickly. So, we must continuously repeat this process to ensure our recommendations are the latest and greatest!
User Productivity
Productivity does not get talked about enough but is oftentimes the main pain an organization feels. What is the point in being hyper secure if it causes multiple roadblocks that slow your employees down and ultimately cost more money than not having the layers in place at all.
A good IT provider must evaluate the impact on your staff. However, this is often not the case. Again, they may default to “but this is the only way to be completely safe!” but that’s just not the case. At iMedia we make as effort to ensure our clients are secure without roadblocks that inhibit workflow and productity.
In some cases, there is no getting around the thought of security at all costs.
For instance, multi-factor authentication is a layer that requires a second form of authentication or “login” to gain access to an account. MFA can be cumbersome for the end user, but it truly is an important layer.
So, we identify how to make this easier. A couple of quick ways we can make this easier for our clients:
- Authenticator app – this will send a quick push notification to your mobile phone. All you must do is click “Yes” rather than remembering and typing in a code
- Safe devices – We set devices you log in from often as safe devices. This will limit how often you are asked for a second form of authentication.
User impact is huge and if you are feeling the pain of an IT provider that has not considered this, please reach out today so we can get you working securely AND fast.
Price
Another topic that many IT providers will shy away from is price. We serve small and medium-sized business space. Ensuring that our clients can afford our recommendations is critical, because affordable and implemented is better than expensive and avoided.
When evaluating the best cybersecurity package for our clients, we must ensure the price is one of the factors to ensure we can roll it out to all our clients to protect them. It’s not reasonable to assume our clients can pay for the same service as a publicly traded company for instance.
However, that does not mean they are less secure! Oftentimes big price tags are associated with additional reporting, ability to customize at great lengths, and number of users. Since we can purchase with economies of scales, we can provide enterprise level security at a reduced rate.
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read this. You obviously take cybersecurity very seriously if you are willing to get educated on how it can protect your business. We would be happy to provide a free evaluation of cybersecurity at your business and review these 3 important factors to ensure you are in the best possible situation. Reach out today at iMediaTech.com
