Dennis Lindström, Security Expert for Swepo Security, explains to Security on Screen how everyone can be more resilient when it comes to security
The word resilience seems to have become a buzzword that more and more people are using, but everyone seems to have their own interpretation of what it means or implies. How then are the rest of us to understand what it means?
Resilience to risks and vulnerabilities
So what do resilience and security really have to do with each other?
Security, or risk management, is about identifying risks and vulnerabilities in an operation or process and assessing how serious the consequences would be and then taking measures to reduce the most serious ones.
The measures we implement are meant to prevent the identified risks and vulnerabilities in order to limit the possibilities for them to be able to affect the business negatively.
Which measures are chosen depends entirely on the risk or vulnerability, but can range from physical measures such as replacing windows, doors or other structural reinforcements. But it can also involve technical measures such as alarm systems with area detection or camera surveillance.
Among the more cost-effective measures we find training efforts for those who are active in the business.
By working in a structured way with your risk management, or Risk Management process, you will give your business resilience against the risks and vulnerabilities that you have identified and chosen to protect your business against.
The blade of grass is a simple way to describe resilience in an image
Resilience can most simply be compared to the resilience of a blade of grass where it stands up to the wind and bends with the wind without breaking. But at the same moment that the wind stops, the straw recovers and stretches again towards the sun.
Resilience is critical
How serious would the consequences be for you if part of your business stopped working?
How would it affect you if your POS system could no longer collect payments from your customers or if your production facility burned down?
It is not always about cyber attacks, hackers or a coincidence that causes a disaster, it can be about the small everyday events that depend on the “human factor”. A misplaced USB stick with company documents or customer documents, an operational disruption in a subcontractor’s production line can also create a disruption in your production or operational activities.
Working in a structured and systematic way with your risk management, or risk management process, also means that you develop plans to be able to limit the extent of negative consequences for your business in order to be able to return to normal, or improved, operational activities as soon as possible after an incident, which gives your business a resilience.
Resilience is for brave leaders
No one ever said building resilience was easy. It takes a brave leader!
The work needs to be communicated throughout the organisation, everyone needs to accept the new way of working and be committed to participating in the work so that it becomes a joint, and comprehensive, process that leads to resilience and resilience in the business.
