They say the first step is often the hardest. That certainly is the case when it comes to addressing the cybersecurity of your organization. But nothing could be more critical in today’s world.

Cyber threats aren’t going away—if anything they will continue to increase in frequency and depth. Experts expect that organizations will need to double or even triple their cybersecurity budgets in 2022. But how will they allocate that money?

The abundance of tools on the market means there is a lot of noise about what each organization needs to secure itself. It’s easy to get convinced that the more tools you have, the better protected you are. But as Trava CEO Jim Goldman reminds us, "A random collection of cybersecurity tools does not equate to a comprehensive cybersecurity program." (Watch the video.)

Taking the time to understand that can be overwhelming, even scary, and many times paralyzing—leading to not doing anything. After all, ignorance is bliss, right? But hackers aren’t taking any vacations. With the average cost of a cyber incident coming in at over seven figures proves that every organization needs to make sure they’re taking the necessary precautions.

The best place to start is with a third party assessment.

Here’s an analogy. Think about if you had a brick and mortar jewelry store and you wanted to secure it. Would you buy any gadget you saw online promising security? Or, would you bring in an expert in securing highly valuable inventory to make sure you had the right coverage?

You could bet that expert would look at how secure you were from a process standpoint (are you leaving your jewelry in the cases every night or putting them back in the vault?). They’d look at how secure you are from an infrastructure standpoint (are the locks you have strong enough to keep intruders out?). Then they’d take a look at your people (are they trained to recognize threats?).

The Bonnie and Clyde bank/jewelry store robbers of the 20th century are now the hackers of the 21st century. The security experts of years past are now CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) and vCISOs (virtual or fractional Chief Information Security Officers).

Every organization needs to make sure they’re getting a third party expert assessment every year to make sure they are secure on all three levels—people, process, and infrastructure. And to make sure you have a risk register and roadmap to fix known risks. If you don’t have internal resources (many small and medium-sized companies do not) consider a resource to help you prioritize your risks according to the greatest severity.

Trava CEO Jim Goldman recently sat down with two Trava clients to talk about taking that first step. He introduced the concept of “negative inertia” and how difficult that first step can be. However, once companies realize the value of cybersecurity, and that "first step" hurdle is crossed, most SaaS companies realize how much easier risk management and cybersecurity implementation gets once the initial groundwork is laid out. Over time, the process becomes more natural. Watch the video segment.

The first step is indeed the hardest. But you don’t have to take it alone. Ignorance about your organization’s cyber security program isn’t bliss, it’s negligence.

Download the ebook to learn more about services that Trava vCISOs provide.