Establishing a positive cybersecurity score

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We all have a credit score (whether we like it or not). It’s valued based on our debts and spending habits – good or bad. Obviously, the better the score, the better off we are when it comes to loans, credit cards, mortgages, and anything dealing with money.

On a related note, here’s another score to keep in mind: cybersecurity. While there’s not an official scoring system, exactly, not like you see with credit reporting, we believe that it’s just as important and worth considering. Like with the credit score, the higher the cybersecurity score, the better. Essentially, it’s a way to gauge how well your business is prepared to defend itself against different threats. A cybersecurity score is composed of multiple traits and is based on the effectiveness of those traits. We’ll get into them in this article.

Understanding the score
“Discovering” your cybersecurity score typically requires getting an assessment. Before you do, here are the reasons why it’s worth considering:

Insurance and related costs, anyone working with a company and providing insurance for cybersecurity will take the score into consideration in order to build a risk profile (lower risk the better, of course)
Reputation and partnerships are directly effected by cybersecurity scores, such as software vendors looking to work with businesses
Creation of the risk profile which is a determining factor in relationships with businesses, companies, and clients
It’s essentially the same kind of thinking which goes into financial ones. For example, a good credit score equates to higher loans, cards, and a willingness for financial/bank organizations to work with you.

Establishing a good cybersecurity score
A few things can be done to help your current score, or improve your risk profile:

Have a strong cybersecurity policy in place, including how you deal with threats, a backup-plan option, and established cybersecurity resources
Onboarding expert staff and specialists intermixed with skilled IT workers capable of managing multiple situations
Having a strong response time to cybersecurity threats and problems
Working with third-party providers to assist with weaknesses in current IT infrastructure
Once these are taken care of, you can conduct an assessment to see where your score is.