We’ve seen close to a 2000% rise in malware attacks in one year alone, which should worry companies everywhere about their cybersecurity. You have more than one way to defend your business, including proactive vs. reactive approaches. So, what’s the difference between them?

A proactive approach to cybersecurity prepares a company to identify and prevent an attack from happening. A reactive approach deals with an attack after it takes place. The top analysts will not pick either: they’ll combine both approaches to create the best defense possible.

Is it enough to combine proactive and reactive cybersecurity measures? That’s the best course of action, though you need to understand what each one entails before you put them in place. It’s always a good idea to compare both before moving forward.

Proactive vs. Reactive Cybersecurity:  A Comparison

• Proactive Cybersecurity. Proactiveness is about stopping an attack before it takes place. It’s about putting up measures in place that make it hard for a threat actor to act, including training your employees, updating software and hardware, and performing penetration tests. The cybersecurity industry favors a proactive approach today – because it’s a cost-effective and efficient way of handling security.
• Reactive Cybersecurity. Reactiveness is about dealing with an attack once it takes place. It depends on your cybersecurity analysts being able to identify a threat, contain a breach, and remove infected devices from a network. It was the usual way of doing business until not long ago, but nowadays, more and more people favor the other approach.

Proactive vs. Reactive Cybersecurity: Which One Is Better?

Proactive cybersecurity is about preventing attacks from taking place. In contrast, reactive cybersecurity is about dealing with an attack once it takes place. Proactiveness prevents attacks from happening – which is always a better thing from a cybersecurity perspective.

Nobody wants to deal with a cyberattack. It’s a stressful time that may disrupt the flow of business, costing you time, money, and comfort. For that reason, a proactive approach that prevents attacks from happening is always better than one that has you reacting to them.

In other words, a good proactive approach will have threat actors walk away before they attempt an attack. A reactive approach is a more welcoming effort for hackers to act – although you may stop them later.

Why Is Proactive Better Than Reactive Cybersecurity?

Studies show companies are safer when they employ proactive measures. In other words, your infrastructure will be safe from harm if you try to prevent attacks instead of scrambling to stop them once threat actors are at the gate.

Let’s put it this way: would it be better to identify a threat, contain a breach, and disconnect servers – or would it be better to stop an attack in its tracks before a malware infection takes place? It’s crystal clear that a proactive approach is more efficient and provides more peace of mind.

Your employees know not to fall for common scams, your analysts constantly update your security infrastructure, and more – when you’re proactive about your defense. Reactiveness prepares you for the worst, though that may not be necessary if your defenses are strong enough.

Differences Between Proactive and Reactive Cybersecurity

• Preparation. Proactive and reactive specialists prepare differently: a proactive approach is about preventing a threat actor from succeeding; a reactive approach is about responding to a threat actor already inside or halfway through the door.
• Response. A proactive approach has your cybersecurity analysts respond to an attack before it happens. In other words, the gist of it all is setting up enough defenses for no hacker to pass through. In reactive cybersecurity, the response happens after the danger is imminent.
• Results. Having a proactive approach gives you more peace of mind than the alternative – because you know your information and money are locked behind plenty of doors and defenses. That doesn’t mean a reactive approach isn’t necessary (as you’ll soon see below).

Proactive Cybersecurity Benefits

• Keeping the Gates Closed. A proactive approach is about leaving no open doors. Otherwise, hackers will start trying to get in until they’re successful. In other words, having a proactive approach improves your chances of hackers not trying to attack – because you’re making it too difficult for them.
• Staying Updated. Hackers are constantly coming up with new ways to attack your company. They give new twists to old tricks, create new attack tech, and more: they do so to steal your information and money. Keeping up the pace is a must to deal with their dangerous enthusiasm.
• Being Prepared. The easiest way to fend off an attack is to be prepared. Threat actors prey on unsuspicious victims and hidden vulnerabilities to act. For that reason, closing any open doors hackers may use is a must.

How To Establish a Proactive Defense

• Update Your Infrastructure. Updating software and hardware, as well as routinely scanning your code, is a must to prevent any attacks from happening. Otherwise, you leave vulnerabilities wide open for a threat actor to exploit.
• Educate Your Employees. More often than not, employees are behind data breaches. It’s not intentional, although inside threats are more common than we think. However, educating your employees reduces the chance of a successful attack.
• Perform Penetration Tests. The best way to have a proactive defense is to think like a threat actor. That way, you can be one step ahead of them. You have to hire ethical hackers to attack your infrastructure from the outside for that to happen. That way, you’ll see where you’re vulnerable and patch things up.

Is Reactive Cybersecurity Necessary?

Reactive cybersecurity is still necessary, even if you deploy countless proactive defensive measures. You must have the tools to contain an attack and reset your system when a threat actor infiltrates your network.

It’s easy to see why most cybersecurity enthusiasts push for a more proactive approach: it’s a more efficient way of defending yourself from threats. However, that doesn’t mean you should disregard other ways of doing things.

Studies show that a company takes more than 200 days to detect a breach. That talks about most having poor reactive measures in place. Otherwise, they’d detect a threat actor roaming around their infrastructure, stealing their data.

In other words, reactiveness may still be necessary.

When Do You Need Reactive Cybersecurity?

Reactive cybersecurity measures are a must when the worst happens. You must have this approach ready to go when a threat actor infiltrates your network and starts to cause mayhem within your company (e.g., after a malware infection or a successful social engineering attempt).

Let’s say, for example, that an employee didn’t follow cybersecurity best practices and downloaded an attachment from an unknown sender. Now your network is falling prey to ransomware.

At that point, reactive measures need to kick in. Your cybersecurity analysts must contain the problem, disconnect infected devices, and do their best for the company to continue doing business until everything goes back to normal.

In contrast, a proactive approach is great when you teach your employees how to fend off malware attacks. However, if someone makes a mistake, it’s time for reactive cybersecurity to take the stage.

Reactive Cybersecurity Benefits

• Having Contingencies in Place. Being reactive is about being ready. That means you have everything locked and loaded, waiting for a threat actor to cross the line. A contingency plan is a must to contain the threat, restore your system, and go back to business.
• Being Ready for the Worst. If you decide to go down the reactive path, you’ll study what could happen when a threat actor causes a data breach or infects your network with malware. That’ll force you to be ready for anything.
• Falling for No Surprises. Reactiveness means you always are alert, waiting for the worst to happen. For that reason, no threat actor will surprise you when they attack your infrastructure. However, not being surprised is not the same as being prepared: establishing the right reactive defense is a must.

Establishing a Reactive Defense

• Prepare Countermeasures. How quickly can you isolate infected devices from your network? Can you continue doing business if you shut down a couple of your servers? Countermeasures need to happen – and they need to happen quickly – after a cyberattack.
• Have a Contingency Plan. A hacker could do a lot of damage once it infiltrates your company. They could infect your network with ransomware or other viruses. Stealing information and causing a data breach would be extremely likely too. Identifying the threat and containing it is a must.
• Create a Reset Scheme. Resetting passwords and other credentials are a must when an employee falls for a phishing scam. At the same time, certain pieces of malware will steal credentials too. For that reason, resetting accounts is a must to remove a threat actor’s unlawful access to your system.

Is Reactive Defense Necessary When You’re Proactive?

Proactive defenses on their own are not enough. Cybersecurity analysts are making emphasis on deploying proactive measures alone because most companies have a certain degree of reactive training. However, that doesn’t mean having reactive defenses is bad.

There are no perfect cybersecurity methods. You always need to have contingencies in place. Imagine if a hacker fools your proactive defenses – and you have no reactive measures set up. What can you do but suffer a breach while you scramble to shut it down?

You could make a case for having a reactive defense as part of a proactive plan. By preparing for the worst (and setting up reactive measures), you’re making a proactive effort to prevent hackers from succeeding. Of course, that’s just a way of saying reactiveness is still necessary for this business.

How To Combine Reactive and Proactive Defenses

The best way to combine a reactive and proactive cybersecurity approach is to set up both in place. You shouldn’t look at both approaches as different but complementary. Those in charge of cybersecurity need to develop a defense plan that includes setting up defenses and dealing with intruders.

In other words, you have to protect your fortress from external threats and, at the same time, be ready to deal with anyone who manages to get in. Lacking in either front will put you at great risk when your only approach fails.

Let’s put it this way: threat actors look for vulnerabilities to exploit. They will avoid a possible attack if the risk-to-reward ratio is poor. Having a proactive and reactive approach in place forces hackers to look for victims elsewhere.

Conclusion

We at U.S. Cybersecurity realize that it’s not enough to set reactive or proactive defenses in place. You have to combine both efforts to prepare yourself for an attack and know how to deal with one after it takes place. Fortunately, both approaches seamlessly blend together. Picking one alone will leave your company with serious cybersecurity issues. Contact us today if you need any assistance.