Written by Mark Riddell
First of all, I’m not saying your IT Manager isn’t TECHNICALLY capable of doing this. The fact is, they just don’t have the TIME.
Managing a cyber security program for a business is a full time job. IT Managers have little time as it is, never mind have to deal with this cyber stuff. And without proper time to focus on the job, it’s never going to get done to the best standard. There will always be another more pressing distraction.
I started by saying your IT Manager could technically fulfil this role – well, maybe yours could, but even the best lack enough cyber security knowledge and experience to really tackle this. You could train them, of course, but the cost and amount of time that would take is just going to leave your business exposed even longer (but remember they don’t have TIME to deal with this).
The final point I would make about why they may not be the best person for the job is that cyber security means diving deep into the vulnerabilities in your systems. For an IT Manager this is a conflict of interest. It’s like marking your own homework – highlighting weaknesses in your security program is not in their best interest. Will you truly get to get an impartial approach? Will they really come to you and tell you about security problems in the systems they built and manage?
So who should deal with this?
If not your IT Manager then who should look after your cyber security? If you can afford it, hire an IT Security Manager. Or for most businesses, our recommendation is to partner with a cyber security specialist. Outsourcing your security to a 3rd party brings many benefits:
- They have nothing to hide! You’ll be certain of complete openness and transparency.
- They employ specialist cyber security skills that you may not be able to afford to hire in-house
- They have experience managing cyber security for other businesses – you can benefit from the knowledge learned to your business
- You can usually buy their services on a retainer package, which lowers your financial commitment, and the services can scale as you grow.
If you’d like to discuss how our managed cyber security packages can help your business, give us a call today on 01738237001.
