Author: Kivo Daily Staff

Cybercrime is the new plague of the modern world. It is an ever-present threat that everyone needs to be ‘en garde’ for, all day, every day. This is why most companies around the world try to implement the most up-to-date security measures. However, no matter how secure you think your organization is from cyber threats, it only takes that one hacker to upend your entire security system.

For this reason, most organizations tend to look out for certain principles of cybersecurity that would enable them to build a robust security framework. Following these principles is almost like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It would make way for a strong base and a hack-free foundation that keeps the organizations and workers safe and secure.

Here are seven basic cyber security principles that every security system needs to adhere to.

The Principle Of Confidentiality

 

All security systems need to work on the principle of confidentiality. This means that only some users in the organization should have the keys to the security network, and these authorized users can then let others into the network if necessary.

In general, all employees must be allowed to use resources based on “least privilege.” What exactly does this mean? This can be best explained through the following example. Imagine that an employee is required to do X task today. The principle of confidentiality and least privilege dictates that he/she should be granted just enough access to complete the task without compromising the confidentiality of the system more than what is required for the task

The Principle Of Data Encryption

This is one of the most fundamental principles out there that every security system has to follow. There is no denying that the most important aspect of an organization is its data and information, and data encryption is the key to protecting all of it.

As a basic rule, you need to have your data encrypted over two levels: EAR (Encryption at Rest) and EIT (Encryption in Transit). If your security system has encrypted your data over both these levels, then you’re good to go.

The Principle Of Advanced Access Security

The truth is that the hackers and phishers have developed highly sophisticated ways of hacking into the system. This means that a simple username and password is not going to cut it. Instead, coming up with advanced access management systems such as multi-factor authentication will provide extra layers of security to your organization.

However, merely putting up two independent methods of authentication is not enough to secure access. Instead, it is necessary to analyze your security system for threats and alert the tech team accordingly. The key here is to get a panoramic view of all those who are using your system while providing you higher control at the same time.

The Principle Of Cybercrime Simulation

What is the best way for you to catch holes in your security system? Why, to assume the role of a hacker, of course! The principle of cybercrime simulation states that you simply simulate all kinds of cybercrime that you are generally anticipating and then identify cracks and potential cyber-crime entries into the system.

Here, it is important not just to simulate an external attack on the system but also to focus on internal attacks. The ultimate goal is to secure your system so tightly that you are secure even if you hand over the keys of your internal network to a hacker.

The Principle Of No Hindrance

This principle focuses on allowing your organization’s employees to work with the security measures put in place without hindering the workflow. In other words, the security system should perform its job without causing interference to authorized users in either accessing information or using tools and software.

Developing a no-hindrance system also means that you need to put secondary channels of access in place. This would be used by users who are unable to access primary channels for different reasons. All of this must be done by keeping the security framework robust enough to keep external entities out of the system.

The Principle Of Disaster Recovery

The security system should be responsive enough to ensure business continuity. In other words, the threat of cybercrime should not put your company back in terms of time, personnel, and resources.

Therefore, your security system should be strong enough to detect and report security breaches in a timely and efficient manner. This means that there should be a robust disaster recovery plan in the system that focuses on elimination and recovery without compromising productivity.

The Principle Of Compliance

Your security system needs to be compliant with security policies such as ISO27001, ISO9001, and so on. However, security compliance does not stop with merely external compliance. It is vital to build your own compliance framework with the help of your Security Officer.

This compliance framework would elaborate on your security principles, your guidelines for the people using it, and the security policies incorporated to ensure that all of the principles are being met at all times.

Wrapping Up

 

Cybercrime is an evergreen threat that organizations face in the modern world. In 2019, about 88% of organizations experienced spear-phishing attempts. Cybercrime results in the loss of an immense amount of time, money, and resources that can set your company back several days, or sometimes even weeks. It is expected that cybercrime will cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

Setting up a robust security system would help to prevent this to a large extent. Of course, security can never be 100%, but the goal is to get an inch closer to this number every step of the way and keep unwanted entities out as much as possible. This is why it is vital to frame a security system that continuously adheres to the above cybersecurity principles.

Excerpt: Ross Andrew Paquette, founder, and CEO of Maropost, explains why he believes that you can build a successful business without investor funding.

Everyone talks about the cons of investing in startups. It’s risky business, they say. The majority of new companies never even make it off the ground, they explain. And then they point to the statistics that everyone likes to throw around — like how “9 out of 10 startups fail.”

In the current landscape, things are even more complicated. COVID-19 threw a wrench in the economy that had 77% of startup founders facing imminent failure (and 37% actually failing because of a lack of capital or profitability.)

But forget about that for a second. And look with me, at the other side of the coin.

Did you know that 75% of startups that are backed up by venture capitalists fail?

Now… I don’t know about you, but this sounds like the statistics that founders should really be paying attention to. Not what you have to do to convince a VC firm to provide you with capital.

But, instead, whether you even need that funding to begin with. And, what, exactly, you are risking, when you bring in new people on the table that may never truly be on your side.

“Never lose your voice.” This is the advice that the founder of Maropost, Ross Andrew Paquette, was kind enough to share with me as he told the story of how he managed to turn a bootstrapped, lifestyle business into a multi-million-dollar enterprise.

Growing A Successful Business Without Investor Funding

To really be able to understand Maropost’s ‘bad experience’ with investors. We have to look back to its beginnings. For that, we jump 10 years into the past, to 2011, when Ross Andrew Paquette was in the process of bootstrapping Maropost from his own apartment.

Paquette was working as a sales executive at the time for an email marketing company called Campaigner — relevant because it meant he wouldn’t “be worried about keeping the lights on” while he worked on his Maropost project.

“When I started Maropost, I had every intention of running it as a lifestyle business. At most, I expected maybe around ten customers that I would support very well with a basic but solid solution,” Paquette told me. “But, that intention didn’t last for very long.”

He goes on to explain that for the first year of business, they were working with a very bare minimum crew. No, perhaps even less than the bare minimum. Seeing as it was just him, his CTO, and one other person.

“Suffice to say, we were shorthanded,” Paquette said. “But that didn’t stop us from continuing to develop the platform. We took every opportunity to give it as much as we possibly could in terms of added features and functionality.”

And, because of this, he said, “people started to notice.”

Historically, Maropost has been able to generate about 50% of its revenue through the goodwill of its clients, or more colloquially, through “word of mouth.”

This was especially true in the beginning. When the Maropost team had been so focused on building the platform that marketing it just didn’t seem as important.

Turns out, it really wasn’t! Between 2011 and 2016 (the year that they brought investors onboard), Maropost became known as one of the fastest-growing tech companies in North America. A title that is much deserved, seeing as, between that span, they jumped from $300,000, to $3.3 million, to $13.3 million, and finally, to $30 million in revenue!

It probably needn’t be said. But it deserves pointing out anyway, that Maropost had been quite able to build a successful business without investor funding!

Losing Your Voice — A Common Misstep Made by Founders

One can say that Maropost’s rapid growth had been entirely down to luck. But I would argue that it was because the founder, Ross Andrew Paquette, was able to build a work environment that was built upon a very strong foundation of ideals.

He knew what he wanted Maropost to be when he first created it. He knew he wanted a solution that would be able to constantly evolve. That would be better than all the stagnant and undeserving options that had been available while he was still working for Campaigner.

For their first years of business, while they were more than doubling in revenue (each year), a lot of their success was because he never lost his voice. Because he continued to push himself, and his team, to be better.

“A lot of our competitors fall into the trap of focusing on how to survive until their next round of funding. That’s never been our strategy. We’ve always put our efforts into building a better product—a product that delivers more value to customers. Because we weren’t answering to investor demands, we could listen to customer needs,” Paquette said.

Now… in 2016. That took a bit of a turn. It was August of that year that Paquette accepted funding from the Venture Capital Firms Elephant and Highland Europe in an all-secondary deal. He sold 25% of Maropost to these two firms that year, believing that having these investors on board will help them grow more than ever before.

That’s not how it worked though.

And, by 2019, he had exited both firms out of the company completely. “I didn’t get the support that I expected,” Paquette told the Entrepreneur during an interview. “It became clear that our investors had opposing views, so we exited them from the business.”

He goes on to say that, if he had the opportunity to talk to his younger self, he would tell him that: “Investors are not your friends, partners or mentors, so tread lightly. They have only one goal: getting a return on their investment. Most don’t care about you as the founder or about your vision, for that matter.”

He has refused to take any further investor funding for Maropost since. Even now that Maropost has its own venture arm, called Maropost Ventures — that Paquette built with the intention of turning around his own bad experience by ensuring that they did things the right way.

“The irony is we’re complaining about the same industry that effectively we’re subscribing to,” Paquette told Betakit, commenting on why he decided to start up Maropost Ventures. “But the reason we’re subscribing to it is that we believe that it can be done in a different way. It can be done from the perspective of investors that truly believe in the founders and are comfortable with the success or failure of the business at the end of the day.”

And so, we reach our conclusion. “Never lose your voice.” That’s what Ross Andrew Paquette told me, and that is what I share with you today, hoping that you can avoid this common misstep made by founders — with the words from one of your own.