October 2, 2018 By Laurie Gibbett 2 min read

The immense amount of information the human brain processes in a day is extraordinary — but often overwhelming. My mind can be a mess even on an average day, and I’ve found myself looking for ways to sift out the noise so I can focus on what really matters.

One of my favorite ways to clear my mind is by practicing yoga, which introduced me to the concept of vinyasa. Vinyasa is a flowing movement between yoga poses in parallel with controlled breathing. It’s a freelance style of yoga, where the individual tends to find a certain flow that best suits his or her specific needs and style.

The same is often true in the cybersecurity industry. There are countless guidelines and frameworks that outline best practices for enterprise security and incident response, but it is crucial to find your organization’s own flow, and then practice and adapt it as needed.

Find Your Balance: Know Where You Are and Where You Want to Be

Every day, we are bombarded with content about how to protect ourselves and our organizations through people, products and processes. Spending your security budget on just one of these areas is not enough to protect the organization, which is why it’s crucial to find the right balance.

In yoga, you won’t benefit from complicated handstands, side crows or other advanced moves that you’re not ready to properly attempt. However, you can use a wall for assistance, or practice chaturanga poses to gradually build up the strength required by expert routines. In the enterprise, security professionals must understand where their cybersecurity strategy currently stands and where they want it to be in the future to reach the next level of maturity outlined below:

Practice Your Flow: Be Prepared for Anything

A common challenge with change, such as the adoption of new technologies or processes, is a lack of willingness to accept that change as a centralized capability. Although there is a period of adoption, acceptance and learning, once we get into the flow of things and practice the new norm, we start to see the benefits.

Even practicing for the unexpected should be part of your cybersecurity strategy. Many organizations are adopting cyber simulations to prepare for the possibility of a major incident response situation.

Be Flexible in Your Approach: Adapting and Strengthening Your Cybersecurity Strategy

Continuous improvement is a concept most of us are familiar with in some shape or form, and it should be no stranger to the world of security. Like most things, a cybersecurity strategy needs regular tweaking to compete with the ever-changing threat environment — after all, no organization is breach-proof.

Through thorough testing and an understanding of what’s happening in the market, frequent and regular adaptations can help strengthen a security program. So while I’m not suggesting that everyone become yogis, the concepts of vinyasa and continuous improvement can go a long way toward helping you strengthen your cybersecurity strategy and posture.

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