// INDUSTRY INSIGHT // recovery capabilities of larger enterprises. This makes them easy and profitable targets. With no clear path to threat detection, containment or recovery, many mid-sized businesses are forced to pay the threat actor’ s ransom.
To counteract this threat, I would recommend that mid-market firms adopt a proactive, multilayered defence strategy. This includes deploying AI-driven anomaly detection systems, partnering with managed security providers and enhancing employee education programmes to reduce insider risk. Zero Trust Architecture should be deployed to segment networks and enforce Least Privilege Access, significantly reducing the risk of breaches and lateral movement within the network.
With regulatory pressures mounting and the cost of breaches rising, cybersecurity must become a board-level priority for midmarket firms. Investing in scalable, intelligent defences and preparing for AI-enhanced threats is no longer optional, it’ s essential for survival and growth.
Fighting fire with fire: Using AI to defend against AI-driven threats
AI shouldn’ t be viewed solely as a threat. It also offers significant opportunities for business advantage and defending against AI-driven attacks. When used effectively, AI can enhance security processes, streamline operations and drive greater efficiency and agility. It’ s crucial that SMEs recognise this potential and actively harness AI as a force for good.
AI offers levels of speed, scale and intelligence that traditional cybersecurity methods can’ t match. It enhances threat detection by analysing vast amounts of data in real-time to spot anomalies in user behaviour, network traffic or system activity, enabling your team to focus on the right critical events. It can isolate affected systems or block malicious actions before they cause damage. It strengthens email security by detecting sophisticated, AI-generated phishing attacks using natural language processing.
Often, it identifies threats that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Beyond detection and response, AI helps security teams prioritise risks by continuously learning from new threats, correlating intelligence across multiple sources and enforcing adaptive, behaviour-based defences.
As attackers use AI to evolve their tactics, businesses can and must leverage AI defensively to stay one step ahead. When aligned with human oversight and a solid cybersecurity strategy, AI becomes not just a line of defence, but a strategic advantage.
Not if, but when: Why mid-market firms must prepare for inevitable cyberattacks
With 45 % of SMBs experiencing a cyberattack in the last year, it’ s no longer a question of whether a business will encounter threat actors, it’ s a question of when.
No system is flawless and even the best defences can be breached. That’ s why having a well-defined, thoroughly tested Cyber Incident Response Plan( CIRP) is now a critical component of cyber-resilience.
Business cyber-resilience is the ability to withstand, adapt to and rapidly recover from cyberattacks while continuing critical operations and the key to achieving it, is to plan and test. There’ s no point waiting for a breach to happen, only to discover that your response plan includes a two week roll-back.
This means going beyond simply having a disaster recovery document on file. It means having a written CIRP that covers the six important phases of preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery and lessons learned. And the most important step? Regular testing. Testing of backup systems, attack simulation scenarios, recovery processes and validation. My advice? Test, test again and then test under pressure. A tested plan not only reduces the impact of a breach but also builds confidence among stakeholders, regulators and customers that the business can withstand and recover from even the most sophisticated cyberthreats.
The threat landscape is evolving so what works today, may not work tomorrow. Plan and test regularly to reveal flaws in your plan and to ensure a level of business cyberresilience that will keep data protected and the business thriving. �
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