The other day, I spent some time reviewing my emergency fund. And it got me thinking: What’s the equivalent in cybersecurity?  

Just like we have savings to protect our financial well-being, organizations need a plan to protect their operations when a cyber incident strikes. This kind of planning isn't a “nice to have.” It’s a must.

This is where cyber resilience comes in. Even if the worst happens, cyber resilience ensures your business can keep running and your customers aren’t left in the dark. It’s about being prepared not just to prevent incidents, but to survive them.  

Are you prepared for the day after?

Imagine it’s the day after a major cyber incident. Are you still operational? Can you still serve your clients, even if it’s not business as usual?  

Today's cybersecurity can’t just focus on preventing attackers from breaching the network. You should be preparing for a breach to happen and be ready to get through it without shutting down.

This approach is similar to having emergency savings. Just like a personal safety net helps you manage unexpected expenses, resilience is a safety net for your business.  

But there’s no universal solution — it’s not one size fits all. Your organization’s resilience needs depend on factors like industry, risk profile, and business model.

Prevention + containment: Building a cyber resilience baseline

A strong baseline for resilience hinges on two main pillars: prevention and containment. Prevention tools such as firewalls, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and network monitoring are crucial. But they’re only the first step.  

The reality is that no matter how robust your defenses are, there’s no such thing as a 100% secure perimeter.

That’s why containment is equally important. Think of it like putting fire doors throughout a building. If a fire breaks out in one room, containment measures stop it from spreading to the rest of the building. In cybersecurity, containment means isolating threats to limit the damage. This is where Zero Trust comes into play.

Zero Trust: The best strategy for cyber resilience

Zero Trust isn’t just a strategic or technical approach. It’s a cybersecurity mindset shift that centers on resilience.  

With Zero Trust, you’re not assuming anything is safe by default. You verify every device, application, user, and even workload. By doing this, you ensure that if one part of your network is breached, the intruder can’t roam freely through your systems, especially getting to your business-critical systems.  

Zero Trust enforces a “trust nothing, verify everything” policy which is essential for resilience.

Think of Zero Trust as the framework that helps your organization not just prevent breaches but also contain them when they happen. It’s a way to prepare for the inevitable breach without letting it bring down your entire operation.

Building cyber resilience isn’t optional  

Just like an emergency fund brings peace of mind in our personal lives, building cyber resilience equips organizations with the day-after mindset they need to face whatever comes next.  

Cyber resilience is the ultimate safety net in today’s threat landscape, ensuring that your organization can thrive even in the face of adversity. So, as you think about your own resilience plan, ask yourself: Are you ready for the day after?

This week on the Zero Trust Hub:

• In his new Dark Reading article, The Power of the Purse: How to Ensure Security by Design, Gary Barlet calls for CISA to enforce mandatory cybersecurity measures, comparing the Secure by Design pledge to the EU’s USB-C mandate and California’s emissions standards.
• John Kindervag's WIRED article, How the Creator of Zero Trust Developed Today’s Most Robust Cybersecurity Strategy, highlights the origins of Zero Trust, its Protect Surface methodology, and the need for proactive cybersecurity to safeguard critical assets before breaches occur.
• Join Illumio’s Raghu Nandakumara and IBM’s Simi Deb in the new webinar, Illumio and IBM: Building Resiliency for DORA Compliance, as they discuss top priorities, challenges, and tools to simplify your journey toward DORA compliance ahead of the January 2025 deadline.