Have you got the 7 security essentials in your budget?

March 18,2016/By techsol

Mobile and cloud security services firm Neohapsis has published a list of 7 essential elements in any security budget.There is little surprise to see perimeter defences, spam and email content control, and anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware on the list. These are the basics and they are still important.However, the list does include data leakage protection and internet access control, which several reports in recent months indicate are not in every company's security budget.

Fewer companies still have patch management on their list, despite the fact that this alone could eliminate a fair proportion of threats as attackers increasingly target applications. Companies continue to be affected by malware that exploit patched vulnerabilities. Proper patch management would take care of this problem. Perhaps the most interesting item on the list is secure build. Only a few companies understand the value of security by design, DigitalBodyGuard founder Jon McCoy told me recently in an interview.

Businesses can increase data protection and decrease costs by baking in information security from the start of any IT project, he said. McCoy says security needs to start when businesses set the goals and plan the day-to-day workflow a new IT system will accomplish.

"Companies that are doing security well typically conduct regular security reviews, include security at the planning stages of all IT projects, and do iterative security testing," he said.

How does your company's budget match up?