5 Steps to Create a Holistic Security Strategy

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A holistic security strategy aims to integrate all the elements in safeguarding a company or business. Various aspects such as physical, digital, and information security need to be seamlessly integrated for optimal protection.

The holistic approach provides a structure to your security strategy. It rejects haphazardly adding layers of security for its own sake, but rather, it ensures that all security systems are inter-connected and working together to reduce security risks or threats.

Here are five steps to creating a holistic security strategy for your business.

1. Create an Integrated Security Solution

An integrated security system involves establishing a centralized security platform in your business that combines various strategies. These strategies include perimeter walls, wireless alarm systems, video surveillance, video monitoring, video review and analysis, audio warning speaker, and access control. This integration helps manage the different components with ease, thus boosting the overall security of your business.

Integrating your security system has numerous benefits, such as reducing human involvement. Hiring security guards can be expensive, and you can’t rely solely on them to protect your perimeter. However, an integrated security system helps secure your premises efficiently. It also detects security issues with the use of smart identification devices. In the quest for a multi-layered security approach, it is crucial to include sophisticated alarm monitoring software to oversee designated areas and facilities. One such solution is Manitou, which stands out for its efficient handling of security alerts and incidents. Its seamless integration into existing security frameworks elevates the overall protective measures, ensuring rapid response and management of potential threats

The absence or lack of integration would make it challenging to achieve an overarching view and process threats quickly. Therefore, adopting an integrated security approach is highly advisable to protect your people, assets, and data. You may also want to check out security company Canada for integrated security solutions.

2. Develop a Physical Security Plan

Physical security is an essential element in creating a holistic security strategy. It consolidates procedural and physical measures that prevent threats to your assets, information, and employees.

To create a physical security plan, you need to consider the physical security lifecycle, which includes the following:

• Identify what you need to protect
• Evaluate the risks
• Determine suitable security measures
• Monitor the strict implementation of such measures
• Review the measures periodically
• Modify as needed

Implementing physical security measures helps keep your employees and customers safe as your business endeavors to deliver products and services without disruption, even in a disaster. Furthermore, it prevents unauthorized persons from entering your premises or accessing your assets and business information. You also earn the trust and confidence of your employees.

3. Have a Zero Trust Model to Defeat Threats

Hackers are aware that every organization has several entry points. So, they use diverse methods to breach your security, including malware and spyware attacks, phishing scams, social engineering, access through stolen devices, software exploits, and more. Fortunately, some tools help maintain an always-on security solution, although there are drawbacks as it focuses on prevention rather than reaction and detection.

To defeat threats, adopt the Zero Trust model. This approach assumes that a breach will occur soon or one has already occurred, making them look for ways to reduce the time needed to detect and respond to a breach. There are machines and analytics that analyze ways a hacker can gain access, and analytic solutions use these insights to detect such breaches automatically.

4. Move Your Workloads to the Cloud

Moving to the cloud isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. You may consider the hybrid cloud approach if you’re not yet ready for a full cloud transition. This approach allows you to securely store your data by keeping a section of the workload on-premise and moving the others to the cloud.

Remember that cloud security is a shared responsibility when considering the challenges of what workloads to move to the cloud or which Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) to choose. This means your CSP should have state-of-the-art security and encryption in place, and it’s also your responsibility to ensure the services are secure.

5. Adopt a Security Culture

Another critical step in creating a holistic security strategy for your business is building a security culture. This means employees are aware of the security policies, know how they should behave, and are keen to report security incidents and concerns. To create a security-conscious workforce, you need to conduct security awareness training and continuously educate and remind your employees about the security policy in frequent, brief, and focused ways.

Furthermore, you can improve your security culture by ensuring executive support and involvement. Management should lead by example by seriously participating in security awareness training and complying with the security protocol like everybody else. You can also assess the level of your security culture by determining the percentage of employees who have completed security training and the number of security issues reported via proper channels.

Conclusion

Described in detail above are the steps to follow to create a holistic security strategy for your business. The key is to integrate your security systems to optimize the protection of your employees, information, and assets. Another vital element to this holistic approach is adopting a security culture in your business, where everyone is aware of the security risks and never lets their guard down.

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Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations of all sizes across most industries. In the Digital Age today, technology creates new opportunities and fundamentally transforms businesses in all aspects—operations, business models, strategies. It not only enables the business, but also drives its growth and can be a source of Competitive Advantage.

For many industries, COVID-19 has accelerated the timeline for Digital Transformation Programs by multiple years. Digital Transformation has become a necessity. Now, to survive in the Low Touch Economy—characterized by social distancing and a minimization of in-person activities—organizations must go digital. This includes offering digital solutions for both employees (e.g. Remote Work, Virtual Teams, Enterprise Cloud, etc.) and customers (e.g. E-commerce, Social Media, Mobile Apps, etc.).

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