Co-authored with Cyrius, a collaborative platform against internal threats. Promotion EDHEC Entrepreneurs S21 - Future 40 Station F (2022)
What is at stake?
Why is it important?
Startups enjoy significant media exposure (...) with press articles, constant communication, and extensively covered fundraising activities. Speaking of fundraising, it involves financial resources, which can attract potential ransoms or means of blackmail. If I were a hacker, Crunchbase would be my CRM !
Achille Morin Lemoine, CEO of Cyrius
Cybersecurity is a crucial concern for startups, offering the following benefits:
➡️ Mitigating Increasing Risks: Cyber attacks are on the rise each year, and these threats can jeopardize a startup's survival.
In practice, a startup's most valuable asset are its data, and accessing this data has become easier. Data leakage can have dramatic consequences for stakeholders and the startup's operations, as was seen in the sudden halt of operations for myNurse (Techcrunch, 2022).
➡️ Gaining Competitive Advantage: A strong security posture can be a competitive edge, and VC funds are increasingly evaluating the cybersecurity maturity of their investments.
Three key steps to take action
1️⃣ Educate Yourself and Raise Team Awareness about these Challenges
The risk is very real: more than half of the companies (60%) that are cuberattacked go bankrupt within 18 months of the attack (source).
To minimize human risk, training your team in security issues is crucial. In particular, teams should be regularly tested through phishing simulations because 91% of attacks start with an email.
2️⃣ Implement "Best Practice" to Mitigate Risks
3️⃣ Formalize these best practices in an IT charter
⚖️ The IT charter is a legal document that outlines specific usage guidelines for internal IT resources (information systems) within a company.
It specifies the tools that employees must use and details the proper usage of these tools.
The charter is provided to every employee upon their entry into the company and is attached to the internal regulations. It serves to establish a culture of internal security from the moment employees join the company.
📚 Resources and further reading
📖 The Startup Security 101: 10 Key Actions (Cyrius)
📝 Data Security Policy Template (Apiday)
📝 IT Charter Template (Coover)
✍️ They contributed to the writing of this document
Cyrius specializes in human risk management in cybersecurity through a platform that ensures the security of employees from their entry into the company until their departure from it.
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