Buckle down and get used to it, there simply is no silver bullet. I remember being a child and thinking once I get done with high school. I am done with school forever. No wait then there is college, maybe even post-graduate work. Ok, now I am done with it. Nope wait hold on just a minute. I start my first regular job in my career field. And I was expecting a collegial and accepting atmosphere of equals. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, I was treated by my “peers” like I did not know anything. And they were right I had no experience to speak of. So, I had to as they say, “pay my dues.” This meant more hours and years of work learning struggling. Well, I am now well into my fifties and I still haven’t managed to get to that magical point of finding the silver bullet to show me I have arrived. It just does not end.
Ongoing Struggle
Cybersecurity is exactly like this. It is an ongoing struggle that will never end. I have been asked many times by business executives “I don’t want to know about any long-term plans. I don’t want to have to keep revisiting this problem every year. Tell me what I can do now to remove and eradicate this problem I will pay the money and make it go away.” The problem is that there is no silver bullet. It never ends, it is an ongoing and continuous process.
You are never going to get to that endpoint. Because the cybercriminals are not going to stop. They keep trying new and innovative ways to break into your system. And when they can’t come up with innovative ways they try brute force. If that does not work, they recycle old methods until something works. Or until they get discouraged and move on to the next guy.
Mindset
Cybersecurity is an ongoing process that originates at the top and filters down to the rank and file. I have talked about security mindset many times. It is the mindset that I as the executive is responsible for what happens to my company and not the IT guy. I am the one that is going to motivate my employee base to stay ever vigilant. I will be the leader and the force for good in my cybersecurity pursuit. I will not pass off this ever more critical function to a subordinate.
The good news is once this mindset has been inculcated in your company culture. Then it starts to take a life of its own. Start today and don’t stop for any reason. It will get better. Remember the alternative is much worse.