You can read this piece as published in the Technology Record here.
It feels like the People, Processes, and Technology (PPT) framework is an outdated and over-simplified methodology. Though a radical idea when the term was first coined in the 1960s, businesses still struggle to execute the concept. Sure, technology is deeply ingrained in business strategy, but the people and processes haven’t advanced in tandem.
With the increase in technology adoption and hybrid work, SMEs are frantically looking for a better way to stay secure. To satiate the need, vendors often solicit a product positioned as the “quick-and-easy solution” to the problem— though in reality, the problem isn’t the lack of tech. It’s the lack of strategy. Adding to your tech stack does nothing more than create tool sprawl, producing disparate data, gaps in visibility, and management overhead (which, in turn, creates more cyber risk).
Technology does not solve a problem— it simply creates the opportunity to do so. Without the appropriate people and processes in place, technology is unavailing. What technology can do, however, is enable the strategy an organization already has in place.
The missing piece, then? A functional cybersecurity strategy. The most critical piece of any strategy is its ability to be executed. An effective cybersecurity strategy must be functional and sustainable.
From a technology standpoint, most small and mid-sized enterprises rely on Microsoft’s security tools, especially the products included in E3 and E5 licenses. Be it Microsoft or other vendor-neutral products, managing the complexities of security tools monopolizes the time of IT teams who spend more time managing their security stack than on keeping the company cyber secure. Along with the manual processes, cybersecurity processes are tedious in nature— like threat hunting, alert verification, and incident response. With a growing shortage of cyber talent, finding people to do this work is a challenge in itself.
However, automation processes enable teams to do more work with less staff. By leveraging low or no-code security automation, IT teams can focus on critical areas of business without the tedious, mundane work falling through the cracks. The reality is that companies cannot keep up with the evolving risk landscape— without automation, breaches are inevitable.
Everyone is busy and data is endless: teams only want to see the most critical and actionable metrics. What do I need to know right now? Do I know how to act? Is it easy for me to do so? Once these questions are answered, we have the luxury of digging in further.
To enable a truly functional cybersecurity strategy, SMEs need the final layer in their security stack: a solution that provides convenience and confidence. ContraForce, a SaaS cybersecurity solution, does just that. ContraForce isn’t just a technology: it offers the full scope of people, processes, and automation needed to create and scale a functional cybersecurity strategy. The platform condenses existing Microsoft tools into a centralized dashboard to increase detection coverage, easily remediate threats, deploy a holistic security program, and more. With ContraForce, you know when and how to respond to threats: every time.
