What is Cyber Resilience?
In our increasingly digital world, cyberattacks and system failures are growing threats. According to Astra “there are 2,200 cyber attacks/day, with a cyber attack happening every 39 seconds on average. In the US, a data breach costs an average of $9.44M, and cybercrime is predicted to cost $8 trillion in 2023”. Traditional cybersecurity focuses on prevention - building walls to block external attacks. But no wall is impenetrable. When (not if) threats penetrate defenses, organizations must bounce back quickly. This ability is called cyber resilience.
Cyber resilience incorporates security but goes beyond prevention to emphasize rapid recovery and adaptation. It’s about handling incidents effectively when they occur. Cyber resilient systems are designed to limit damage and restore normal operations quickly.
Cyber resilience has two key components:
Recovery: The ability to get systems back up and running after an attack or failure. This means having continuity plans, backups, and spare capacity. The goal is to minimize downtime impact.
Adaptation: Improving defenses to prevent a repeat incident. This requires identifying vulnerabilities, applying patches, updating safeguards, and enhanced monitoring. The goal is emerging stronger.
Together, quick recovery and adaptation limit the business disruption caused by cyber incidents.
Real-World Applications
For smart cities and utilities, downtime can and will have major consequences. Outages don't just disrupt operations. They put public health and safety at risk.
Consider a cyberattack that compromises the power grid or water treatment systems. Rapid isolation and recovery of affected components could restore most services quickly. Adaptations like added access controls or microsegmentation would then prevent repeat incidents.
Smart city systems have extensive interconnectivity and remote access. A resilient design limits the impact if any single connection is compromised. Segmented networks, read-only data access, and routine restore points all contribute to resilience.
In our world today, cyber threats are inevitable, so resilience is essential. With strong continuity planning, recovery procedures, and adaptive defenses, major disruptions can be avoided. Cyber resilience shifts the focus from purely prevention to effective response. This allows our critical infrastructures to withstand and emerge stronger from the cyberattacks.