Ronald Megaughin: Focus on security is paramount
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
We are living through an age of remarkable technological and business innovation. Businesses are finding new, better and more efficient ways to operate and find success in an often challenging environment. However, businesses in Scotland are also facing an unprecedented level of external threat to their operations and existence.
There has been a significant rise in cyber crime and a corresponding increase in the number of threats to the safe running of businesses of all sizes. This underlines the importance of not only ensuring that your business can flourish but ensuring that good work is not undone by the activities of an unsavoury few looking to target and sabotage the success of others for their own gain.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad
Too often we see the brightest and best create incredible opportunities and realise them only to be levelled by a security lapse – one that, with the right prior planning, could be avoided.
A wholesale move towards IT in the form of paperless tech and a much increased reliance on computer systems compounds this issue and it is now easier than ever for information to fall into the wrong hands. Add into this the overwhelming volume of advice out there and SMEs can be put off by confusing and, all-too-often, conflicting advice from making proper arrangements for dealing with the threats to their business. Businesses should place an even greater importance on security in their day-to- day operations – in fact it should now be considered alongside revenues, overheads and the core business matters.
It can be easy to put this off thinking that you must build before needing to protect whereas the reality is that cyber criminals will target companies and trades of any size and type.
However, the best way to combat this threat is to practise resilience from the very beginning – making sure that staff of all levels understand the potential pitfalls for your operation. Self-assessment can form the basis of this early on - and the recent launch of SBRC’s free-to- use ten steps tool will help companies tackle their concerns and implement appropriate security checks and balances.
Taking the time to map out your security can provide the bases for businesses to effect a change and move towards a more secure future. And it really is important to prompt internal thought about risk and risk appetite.
A quick and convenient completion will provide the user with an automated resilience report detailing proportionate level of operational risk and suggestions for mitigation of identified risks. An action as simple as this will relieve stress and ensure that business owners and innovators can concentrate on growing the backbone of the Scottish economy.
• Chief Inspector Ronald Megaughin is deputy chief executive of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre