Augment Your Security Expertise with a vCISO

Small and medium-sized businesses rarely have a large C-suite, let alone an exec dedicated to security, but a virtual chief information security office (vCISO) is an affordable way to bolster your ability to deal with cybersecurity threats.

Tapping the expertise of a vCISO can complement your IT team, which is likely a small group of people who wear many different hats. As a part-time consultant with full-time security experience, a vCISO can work with you, usually via your managed service provider (MSP), and has a dedicated focus on improving and managing your cybersecurity.

An MSP with a focus on security will always start their engagement with a security assessment, and that’s where an vCISO can first step into their part-time role. The assessment by your MSP will help it find the right person to manage security in the context of your business, including your existing expertise and skills.

What makes a vCISO an affordable option for smaller, leaner organizations is that you can purchase their time based on your business needs. You may pay them hourly, or for a set number of days a week or month – like cloud services, a vCISO can scale their availability up or down as needed. They can be on-site or virtual, or a mix of both.

No matter how many hours they work, a vCISO always brings with them a great deal of cybersecurity expertise as well as knowledge from across different industries, which they can apply to the realities of your business. You get a fresh set of eyes assessing your security posture through the lens of risk management. A vCISO will spot issues that may have eluded your IT team because they’re busy in the trenches every day.

By engaging a vCISO, you have access to an experienced executive without the high annual salary of a full-time CISO. Working with your MSP to onboard a vCISO also eliminates all the time and expense of finding someone to take the role. Competing for cybersecurity talent is especially challenging today.

Most of all, a vCISO allows you take a long-term, strategic approach to your security so that you’re always re-evaluating your posture, oversee incidence response and disaster recovery planning, and adjust in response to a dynamic threat landscape.

There are many ways artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning already impact cybersecurity. You can expect that trend to continue in 2024 – both as tools for data protection as well as a threat.

Balancing Cybersecurity Innovation Amid Evolving Threat Landscapes

Even as you implement AI and machine learning into your cybersecurity strategy through the adoption of tools like Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR), so are threat actors. They will continue to update and evolve their own methodologies and tools to compromise their targets by applying AI and machine learning to how they use ransomware, malware and deepfakes.

With small and medium-sized businesses just much at risk as their large enterprise counterparts, SMBs must take advantage of AI and machine learning as mush possible. AI-directed attacks are expected to rise in 2024 in the form of deepfake technologies that make phishing and impersonation more effective, as well as evolving ransomware and malware.

Deepfake social engineering techniques

Deepfake technologies that leverage AI are especially worrisome, as they can create fake content that spurs employees and organizations to work against their best interests. Hackers can use deepfakes to create massive changes with serious financial consequences, including altering stock prices.

Deepfake social engineering techniques will only improve with the use of AI, increasing the likelihood of data breaches through unauthorized access to systems and more authentic looking phishing messages that are more personalized, and hence, more effective.

Countering Cyber Threats and Harnessing Innovation in 2024

If hackers are keen on leveraging AI and machine learning to defeat your cybersecurity, you must be ready to combat them in equal measure – just as AI and machine learning will create new challenges in 2024, they can also help you bolster your cybersecurity. While regulations are being developed to foster ethical use of AI, threat actors are not likely to follow them.

AI will also affect your cyber insurance as your providers will use it to assess your resilience against cyberattacks and adjust your premium payments accordingly. AI presents an opportunity for you to improve your cybersecurity to keep those insurance costs under control.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of doom being predicted around the growing use of AI and machine learning. And while it does pose a risk to your organization and its sensitive data, you can use it to bolster your cybersecurity even as threat actors leverage AI to up the ante. A managed service provider with a focus on security can help you use AI and machine learning to protect your organization as we head into 2024.

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