…It is an architecture. The above quote from George Gilder pretty much sums up the issue we are dealing with in cybersecurity today. And within this simple but incisive quote is also the answer. Let’s look at how we deal with cybersecurity today and we will see why this is so true.
Let’s say you are a responsible leader within your company and you build out an ok cybersecurity system. That is a big if. But you are one of the few. Now you think you are ready for the next attack. You wait. You keep updated, you do the drills and the training, and you wait some more. One fateful day the attack comes. And you find out you are not quite as ready as you thought you were. But you survive and you make the changes from the last attack with updates and better protections.
The Game Never Ends
You then wait for the next attack. It inevitably comes and you adjust again and again. Years go by. Costs mount up. You hire and fire a string of CISO’s. And you keep going knowing that you are taking cybersecurity seriously. Just like a video game. A game of cat and mouse and unfortunately you are not the cat. Where was your cybersecurity posture? How about your cybersecurity architecture?
But in reality, you never really took it seriously in the first place. You never installed in the first place the architecture that would have more adequately made your company safe. You build in controls and ad hoc fixes along the way. You hired help after a crisis. You spent money after there was a problem. You responded and you cleaned up the mess afterward using your client’s data and your company’s money as bait.
Where Was Your Architecture?
Where was your plan? Where was your architecture? Where was your strong cybersecurity posture? It never happened. You reacted you recovered but you never built the posture, to begin with.
This is the difference between a strong cybersecurity posture and a weak one. Which posture are you ready to build? What plans have you put into place today? What cybersecurity philosophy have you employed? These are the questions you need to be asking yourself now. Not tomorrow and not next week. But now. Get in front of this mounting problem today. Cybersecurity is an architecture and you are the architect of your company.