A Comprehensive Look at the 7 Pillars of Cybersecurity

We put together this guide to educate business owners and decision-makers on the core tenets of cybersecurity. While this might seem like a boring topic, it’s becoming increasingly important for business owners to understand. We tried to keep this as technologically simplistic as we could. If you have any questions at all or want to sit down and discuss your organization’s cybersecurity, we’re happy to book a call.

One quick fun tangent before we start—we originally had 6 pillars, and since all of them happened to start with the letter C, we almost called them the 6 C’s of Cybersecurity. When we added the 7th, which also happened to start with C, we figured we were starting to sound like pirates roaming the seven seas. We ultimately switched to calling them pillars, but kept some of the sailing motifs.

The 7 Pillars of Cybersecurity are the fundamental principles that form the backbone of any robust cybersecurity strategy. Putting them all together will give you a comprehensive, well-rounded defense plan for your business that is actionable and sustainable.

The Importance of Cybersecurity Fundamentals

In today's interconnected world, cybersecurity is more important than ever. Cyberthreats are not only increasing in number, but they're also becoming more complex and damaging.

Understanding the fundamentals of cybersecurity is crucial. It equips you with the knowledge and skills to protect your digital assets effectively. It's not just about having the right tools, but also about knowing how to use them.

What are the 7 Pillars of Cybersecurity?

The 7 Pillars of Cybersecurity are a set of principles that provide a comprehensive approach to securing your digital assets. They are:

1. Continuity
2. Configuration
3. (Access) Controls
4. Compliance
5. Culture
6. Cost
7. Change

Each of these principles plays a crucial role in creating a robust cybersecurity strategy.

Pillar #1 - Continuity

Survive the Storm
Continuity is likely the primary goal for any organization when it comes to threat prevention. Continuity means minimal interruptions and the continuation of your services and productivity regardless of outside forces. Even in worst-case scenarios, your business should be able to get back on its feet quickly to avoid expensive losses in time, productivity, and reputation.

Continuity can be confused with data backup, as for the last decade or so, IT companies including Capstone Works have been associating continuity with data backup. In many situations, this is very accurate—a solid, well-tested data backup solution can rescue your organization from virtually any threat that harms your files or infects endpoints on your network.

Your data backup solution is the hail mary of your cybersecurity loadout, but it can’t solve every single problem you face. Having it when you need it could absolutely be the difference between staying in business and filing for bankruptcy, so we can’t overstate just how important your backup is, but continuity is much more than that.

Continuity is about planning, as much as it’s about throwing hardware into the mix. It’s about redundancies, it’s about delegating responsibilities, and communication.

Thankfully major hurricanes don’t hit the state of Maryland, but for states that are prone to certain weather disasters, smart businesses build out plans and prepare for the worst. This helps them ride out the storm. The same should be done for different types of cybersecurity disasters. Having plans in place for events where mission-critical IT isn’t accessible, or getting through widespread internet outages can make a stressful situation more streamlined. It’s much easier to go through a checklist of premeditated plans instead of panicking and trying to come up with a disaster plan on the fly while everything is falling apart around you.

Pillar #2 - Configuration

Batten Down the Hatches
One of the more common misconceptions folks have about cybersecurity is that it’s solved by throwing money at the problem. You might think that you should be pretty well protected if you buy a top-of-the-line firewall solution, deploy top-of-the-line antivirus, invest in the most expensive network switches, and so forth.

While yes, most businesses find they need to invest in security infrastructure when they start having the conversation about cybersecurity and compliance, a lot of money can easily be spent (and even wasted) while still leaving your business extremely vulnerable.

It’s like paying a security guard top dollar to stand at your front entrance, while leaving the backdoor wide open with nobody to watch it.

A big contributor to your network security is how the network and the devices on it are configured. Carefully ensuring that all endpoints are set up properly, using modern-day best practices and a security-first mindset will go a long way in bolstering your security.

This means reviewing every workstation, server, router, switch, and device on the network, and ensuring that rules are being dished out centrally. The beauty of this is it typically doesn’t require massive hardware or software costs for the average network, just time and expertise.

Pillar #3 - (Access) Controls

Give No Quarter
When everyone on the network can access everything on the network, it can become very difficult to manage and control your data. In the IT world, this is the first and largest indicator that a business network hasn’t been configured properly. 

Instead of an all-you-can-see free-for-all, employees should be set up with restricted access and only get access to directories and applications that they need. There’s no reason for a salesperson to have access to HR data or an engineer to have access to accounting information. When you lock down who has access to information, you greatly reduce the damage a cybercriminal could cause if a particular user were compromised.

On top of that, access control systems in most IT environments also correspond to other security rules. You can dish out security policies to all users, such as requiring stronger passwords, encryption, and 2FA.

Pillar #4 - Compliance

Follow the Code of Conduct
Depending on your industry, where you do business, and the type of information you hold and process, you likely have to comply with one or more security compliance standards. If you process and store credit card information, you need to comply with PCI DSS. If you do business with people or business in the EU, you need to comply with the GDPR. Healthcare organizations and affiliated businesses need to meet HIPAA compliance.

These regulatory standards are designed to protect consumers and if you don’t meet these standards, you run the risk of fines, lawsuits, and major damage to your reputation (not to mention putting your customers at risk).

Ensuring that your business meets these compliance standards is important, and most of the time requires a few different tactics to properly meet. Again, it’s not simply about throwing money at the problem, it’s usually more about proper training, policies, and enforcement of those policies that keep a business compliant.

Pillar #5 - Culture

Ahoy Mates!
If we’ve been trying to make one major point here, it’s that cybersecurity isn’t just about buying an expensive device and sticking it on your network. If it were that easy, major Fortune 500 businesses wouldn’t be getting hacked and showing up in the news all the time. 

Cybercriminals know that businesses are bulking up their security, and that’s caused them to adopt low-tech tactics to get past your security. If you have the most cutting-edge cybersecurity technology available, your end users are the weakest link in the chain.

That’s why establishing a culture of cybersecurity is so important, and it has to start from the top.

Let’s make this an editorial for a moment, so I can express an opinion here. I’m going to be brutally honest. As a business owner myself, even with a long background in technology and cybersecurity, I personally hate the extra layers of protection I have to commit to every day. I hate coming up with strong passwords, I hate having to use 2FA for everything, and I hate limiting the access I (or anyone under me) have because of the tiny inconveniences it causes me personally throughout the day.

That said, I know that I absolutely need to be a stickler for this stuff. I have to bite the bullet and be as security-conscious as I expect the people under me to be. In my heart of hearts, from the very bottom of my very soul, I would give anything to live in a world where I didn’t have to make the work I do more complicated and involve extra authentication steps. But I do it anyway because if I’m a weak link, it puts my entire business and reputation at risk.

Ensuring that your entire staff is properly trained and understands the importance of cybersecurity is critical, but so is making sure that everyone understands that they are just as responsible as anyone else for maintaining it.

Pillar #6 - Cost

Don’t Squander That Booty!
At the time of writing this, the average ransom demand that a business receives when infected with ransomware is $2.73 million. Yes, million. In 2023, the average was almost a million dollars less than that. Cybercriminals have statistical proof that businesses are willing to pay that kind of money under duress, simply because it’s true.

Even in more fortunate situations, the downtime that comes with ransomware and other modern cybersecurity threats is significant and costly. If your entire staff were stuck at 20% efficiency because most digital systems were down due to a problem, this would start to get very expensive, very quickly. Deadlines can get missed, customers can get upset, and your reputation can suffer. Plus, it can take days or weeks to get back up to speed after prolonged downtime.

At the same time, your organization probably doesn’t have an unlimited budget to throw at cybersecurity. It’s very easy to waste money on technology—almost as easy as it is to spend money without getting the solution or the protection your business needs in the first place.

Gone are the days when you could go to Walmart and buy a boxed copy of antivirus software, install it, and assume it was enough. We’re going to say it one more time, but cybersecurity isn’t a problem that goes away when you throw money at it. The money you do have to spend, however, needs to be done carefully. You can easily overspend on solutions that are overkill or don’t get implemented properly, or continue to layer solutions on top of what you already have, causing conflicts and other issues. 

Getting professional help establishing a cybersecurity budget and ensuring that you get the most out of your budget can go a long way in the longevity of your business.

Pillar #7 - Change

Weigh Anchor When the Winds Change
Cybercriminals treat their trade like a business. They measure their KPIs, they streamline their operations, they automate and change tactics… They will evolve as businesses do.

For instance, cybercriminals have noticed that more and more businesses invest in a lot of the basics—antivirus, firewalls, and other protections. This has caused a change of tactics for cybercriminals. It’s much harder, thus less cost-effective, to break into a network that has some of these protections on it. Instead, cybercriminals have been more focused on easier infiltration methods such as phishing and social engineering. These low-tech efforts are even more effective and harder to block.

This is why cybersecurity has shifted to require user training and awareness (see Pillar 5).

Your business will need to be able to adapt as trends change. Fortunately, this gets a lot easier when you are properly following the other six pillars. With the right mindset, culture, and budget, your business can have a much easier time shifting and navigating the world of cybersecurity without it becoming a major burden or becoming financially unfeasible. 

Don’t Let Your Business Become a Statistic

Cybercrime is constantly getting more dangerous, and attacks are more and more frequent. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when your business will suffer from an attack. 

At Capstone Works, we help businesses throughout central Texas meet compliance regulations and secure their network from threats. We take a very thorough, sophisticated approach that packs security best practices into everything we do.

Let’s talk about your organization’s cybersecurity, so you can rest assured that your business can focus on growth and avoid these threats altogether. Give us a call at (512) 343-8891 to get started.