As the days grow shorter and we spend more time indoors, winter offers a chance to focus on projects that often get sidelined during the busier months. And while We can’t promise this won’t add to your cabin fever, it is a great time to strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity maturity.
Coming out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s easy to let the momentum fade — but now is the perfect moment to pick up those “someday” projects. Cybercriminal activity often increases around the holidays, so a little proactive work now can pay off later. Here are five practical steps to make your organization more resilient this winter.
1. Implement Application Control
Do you know exactly what should be running on your endpoints? Ideally, only applications that are explicitly approved and necessary for your business operations. Everything else increases your attack surface. By default-denying any application not on your approved list, you dramatically reduce risk. Solutions like Endpoint Privilege Management make this process far more manageable.
2. Prioritize Vulnerability and Patch Management
Most breaches happen because of unpatched, well-known vulnerabilities. If you want a quick win, automate patching for all your systems and software, then use a vulnerability management platform to confirm those patches were applied. Solutions such as Patch My PC can help streamline both processes.
3. Start Logging Strategically
Logs are your best forensic tool when something goes wrong — but they only help if they’re collected thoughtfully. Focus on centralizing logs that reveal the “who, what, and when” of an incident, such as network, identity, and endpoint logs. Resist the urge to log everything; quality over quantity will save you time and storage headaches later.
4. Revisit Firewall Rules
Most organizations focus on filtering incoming traffic but overlook outbound traffic control. Review your egress policies — what should be allowed to leave your network, and from where? Restrict outbound connections to only what’s necessary, reducing potential command-and-control communication paths for attackers.
5. Harden Device Access
If you haven’t already, consider rolling out Microsoft Intune or a similar endpoint management solution. Use it to enforce conditional access policies, ensuring only trusted, compliant devices can connect to company resources. Layer in multi-factor authentication to further protect access at the device level.
Raising Your Security Maturity
Each of these projects can start small and scale over time. Some may require new tools; others just a bit of planning and process improvement. Together, they’ll go a long way toward raising your security maturity before the next busy season hits.
If you’d like guidance on where to start or which tools best fit your environment, our team is always here to help lighten the load and make implementation more manageable. Talk to us to learn more.