What is the Cost of Security Assessment?

Cybersecurity assessment services are a type of service in which a specific system is checked for any security flaws. Professional cybersecurity services are not an option exclusive to large-scale corporations. If you:

• a) interact directly with your customers
• b) develop something unique
• c) have computers in an office connected to the Internet (you can’t be sure that someone won’t decide, at some point in time, to make a piece of your hardware a part of a botnet)

then you definitely should hire specialists to keep your company and employees protected.

Once configured by all the security policies, your network will be reliably protected from unauthorized access and harmful software. Now let’s consider – how much does a security risk assessment cost?

WHY ORGANIZING Cybersecurity ALONE WITHIN A COMPANY IS NOT A GOOD IDEA

When you are trying to single-handedly (or with the help of a staff system administrator), provide a sufficient level of cybersecurity for your company, 9 times out of 10 nothing good comes out of it. Yes, you can get an excellent network protection software package (or even install a powerful firewall from a well tried and tested vendor, like Cisco,) purchase the latest license for the coolest antivirus or also build fail-proof network architecture, but even all of the above safeguards cannot guarantee that your network will not be breached.

The truth is that hackers detect numerous weaknesses in commonly used apps on a daily basis. This obligates an organization to implement tools to protect their corporate data and to be up to date with all the nuances. They should browse hacker forums practically day and night. Moreover, no one has managed to eradicate social engineering as there is no antivirus to help battle it.

Naturally, to know all the peculiarities of working with network security, your system administrator must shift from their primary responsibilities to mastering white hat hacker abilities – but this can be an almost impossible task to handle in this day and age.

What can be done in such a situation? The answer is quite simple – hire a team of professional pen testers to conduct an all-around analysis of your network, detect defects (to eliminate them) and implement the preventive means to reduce the chances of hacks in the future. While this may create additional expenses, we assure you that the eventual cost of security risk assessment is justified in the long run (facts and statistics are briefly discussed below).

Now, let’s find out how destructive network breaches can be to firms that, at first glance, have pretty reliable protection in place.

Facts and Vulnerability Statistics

2017 was a memorable year for the history of cybersecurity because it was in that year, on 27 June to be exact, that Petya malware massively penetrated computers in Ukraine, Russia, France, Great Britain, and Latvia, etc. To restore the lost access, users had to transfer $300 of bitcoin to the criminal’s wallets. Another great attack in the same year was the WannaCry virus that on 12 May penetrated thousands of computers all over the world resulting in over $1 billion of losses for various companies.

All these facts indicate one thing: companies striving to eliminate downtime and information theft should be ready to spend on the prevention of hacks. Thus, according to PwC data, only by adhering to the updated GDPR policies can we avoid any unauthorized personal data access. Otherwise, companies will have to be prepared for security assessment costs exceeding the $10 million mark.

Looking at the predictions from a reputable source, ‘Cybersecurity Ventures’, the total losses companies will bear, due to hacks by 2021 could comprise up to $6 trillion. Considering this, it becomes pretty apparent why corporate owners should be ready to spend money to cover what can sometimes seem to be an unreasonable cybersecurity risk assessment cost.

How much does a Security Assessment Cost?

To get an approximate picture of the cost of a security assessment involving a security expert, try evaluating the scope of work they will have to handle by the following criteria:

• The complexity of the established network architecture (as a rule, the cost of security assessment relies directly on the quantity of hardware equipment involved);
• Availability of company staff and employees specializing in providing network security (if you have at least 1 system administrator, they will be of significant help in accelerating the workflow of a hired team and lowering the security risk assessment cost);
• Availability of licensed software (some programs with a paid license also feature paid updates; the necessity to install this increases the cyber security assessment cost);
• The necessary level of security you need (e.g., the PCI correspondence alone is a very complicated, multi-staged procedure. Be prepared for the security assessment cost, in this case, to be much more robust than if you just needed to protect a small bank of computers from possible cyber attacks.)

How To Choose The Right Company For Cybersecurity

It is a pretty expensive affair to gain the skills needed to become a white hat hacker. Mostly it is the companies that have already won a reputation in the field and have some buzz amongst their audiences who can afford to hire highly-qualified experts. It won’t be difficult to find those experts by entering the specific search requirements you require in an online search engine, and it is best to search within your area, for example, ‘cybersecurity company in New York’, will get direct you to the required links on the first page of your search results).

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What is Included In The Complexity Of Services for the Cyber Security Assessment?

Here’s an approximate list of cyber security assessment services usually offered by cybersecurity specialists:

• Analysis and elimination of flaws in the global data transferring network. This procedure implies the scanning of routers for defects, connection to VPN servers (optional), security analysis of a current network provider, installation of defense priorities system (HIDS/HIPS software), configuration of firewalls, check of employees for susceptibility to social engineering manipulations, update of existing software to the latest versions, etc.;
• Analysis and elimination of flaws in the local network. This stage includes the distribution of access policies among local network users, implementation of centralized user password management applications and the involvement of physical system access keys, etc.;
• Adjustment of backup functions and emergency backups. Here, the backup resources for storing data are defined, which enable a system to restore the performance in the shortest terms possible and continue working without any downtime;
• Hardware security measures. If your corporate PCs or other network equipment store essential data, the sufficient level of physical security should be implemented so that a criminal is unable to penetrate the space where they can steal information or connect to any unauthorized devices. At times, even the full reorganization of network architecture takes place for the reinforced protection (especially, if there are a couple of servers performing for the establishment);
• Accordance with private data access policies. If your company provides services that imply using other people’s private data, the security experts will also conduct a check of correspondence concerning PCI, GDPR, HIPAA, and others.

What is the Price of a Cybersecurity Assessment Service?

The main question we have to answer is how much does a security assessment cost? Usually, cybersecurity consulting firms charge from $125 per hour, so your overall cost can fluctuate depending on the type of services you require and the status and size of your company. You must also take into consideration the cost of a security assessment which, will summarise everything you must pay to stay secure.

Summing UP

Your company will require narrowly-profiled experts with substantial experience in the field of information security assessment services to get a sufficient level of software and hardware protection. These can be consultants from a company providing security equipment (ZyXEL, Allied Telesis, Cisco, and others) or experts from consulting companies specializing exclusively in offering hacker-proof cybersecurity services. Only by employing such experts can you be sure that the high it security assessment cost is fully justified by the high-level professionalism of the team you have hired.

How Hacken can help

After identifying a set of flaws, Hacken experts can employ some of these means to protect the network from future vulnerabilities. It is essential to hire a team that can not only get you a good antivirus up and running but also possesses the right expertise in the field of hacking.

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