If there’s one question security professionals hear over and over again, it’s this: “What are the most important cybersecurity controls every business should have?” It’s a fair question, but it’s not an easy one to answer.
Cybersecurity isn’t about ticking boxes or deploying a handful of tools and assuming you’re safe. Even if you implement a dozen strong controls, there’s no guarantee you’ll never experience an attack. Threats evolve constantly, and attackers adapt just as quickly.
Still, every organisation needs a solid foundation. The following 10 controls provide that foundation. They work together to reduce risk, improve resilience and make it significantly harder for attackers to compromise your environment.
Before going into them, however, there’s one prerequisite that deserves mention.
No cybersecurity programme succeeds without leadership support. You can have the best technical team in the world, but if senior management does not prioritise security, provide adequate funding or support policy enforcement, the programme is likely to struggle.
Management commitment enables investment in technology, training, staffing and governance. It also sends a clear message across the organisation that cybersecurity is a business priority rather than just an IT responsibility.
With that in place, here are the 10 controls every business should consider implementing.
Asset Management
You cannot protect what you do not know exists. A comprehensive asset inventory should include more than just laptops and servers. It should cover:
- Hardware devices
- Software applications
- Cloud services and SaaS platforms
- User accounts and identities
- Business data
- Critical systems and infrastructure
Just as importantly, every asset should have an identified owner and a defined level of business importance.
Every organisation has its own “crown jewels” which are the systems and information that are essential to operations or revenue generation. Understanding what those are allows security efforts to focus where they matter most.
Security Awareness Training
Technology alone cannot stop every cyberattack. Employees receive emails, click links, download attachments, travel with laptops and make decisions every day that affect organisational security. That makes user awareness one of the most important lines of defence. An effective training should teach staff how to:
- Recognise phishing attempts
- Handle sensitive information safely
- Report suspicious activity
- Avoid risky online behaviour
- Follow company security policies
General awareness training is essential for everyone, but role-specific education is equally valuable. Developers should understand secure coding practices, finance teams should recognise payment fraud schemes, and administrators should receive training relevant to privileged access and system management.
Reliable and Tested Backups
Backups are your safety net when preventive controls fail. In ransomware incidents especially, having recent, recoverable backups can make the difference between restoring operations and facing prolonged downtime or ransom demands. However, simply creating backups is not enough. They must also be:
- Tested regularly
- Verified for integrity
- Stored securely
- Protected from unauthorised modification
- Recoverable within acceptable timeframes
Recovery objectives should align with business priorities so that critical systems can be restored quickly when needed.
Separate Administrative and Standard User Accounts
Administrative privileges should be used only when necessary. Users should perform routine activities such as checking email or browsing the web with standard accounts and only elevate privileges when administrative tasks require it.
Separating privileged and non-privileged accounts reduces the risk that malware or attackers can capture administrative credentials from an everyday workstation. The principle applies whether systems are on-premises or cloud-based.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Passwords alone are no longer sufficient. With advances in computing power and increasingly sophisticated credential theft techniques, organisations should require an additional verification factor wherever possible.
MFA combines something you know (such as a password) with something you have or are, including:
- Authentication apps
- Hardware tokens
- Biometrics
- One-time passcodes
Whenever an application supports MFA, enabling it significantly strengthens account security. At the same time, organisations should avoid overwhelming users with excessive authentication prompts, as repeated requests can lead to “MFA fatigue” and careless approvals.
Email Security
Email remains one of the most common entry points for cyberattacks. Modern email security solutions do much more than scan attachments. They analyse links, inspect message content, detect spoofing attempts and identify suspicious behaviour associated with phishing and business email compromise. Advanced protections can detect:
- Brand impersonation
- Phishing campaigns
- Malicious URLs
- Suspicious attachments
Although user awareness remains important, filtering dangerous messages before they reach inboxes adds another valuable defensive layer.
Secure Remote Access (VPN or Zero Trust Access)
Employees increasingly work from home, airports, hotels and public Wi-Fi networks. Secure remote access technologies protect communications between users and organisational resources by encrypting traffic and controlling access. Depending on the organisation’s architecture, this may involve:
- Traditional Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
- Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
The specific technology matters less than the underlying goal: ensuring remote connections remain secure and reducing exposure when employees operate outside corporate offices.
Vulnerability and Patch Management
Every piece of software contains flaws. Vulnerability management involves continuously identifying weaknesses in systems, assessing their risk and determining the most appropriate remediation strategy. A mature programme typically includes:
- Continuous vulnerability scanning
- Risk-based prioritisation
- Patch deployment
- Mitigating controls where patches are unavailable
- Ongoing monitoring
Not every vulnerability requires immediate remediation. Business context matters. The key is prioritising based on both technical severity and business impact.
Device Encryption
Lost or stolen devices remain a common source of data exposure. Full-disk encryption ensures that if a laptop, tablet or smartphone falls into the wrong hands, the data stored on it remains inaccessible without proper authentication. Encryption should be enabled on any portable device that stores company information, including:
- Laptops
- Mobile phones
- Tablets
- Other portable endpoints capable of holding business data
This control protects data at rest and complements other measures such as strong authentication and endpoint security.
Firewalls
Firewalls continue to play an important role in network defence. Whether deployed on-premises, in cloud environments or as virtual appliances, they inspect and filter network traffic according to security policies.
Modern firewalls help organisations:
- Block unauthorised inbound connections
- Restrict unwanted outbound traffic
- Segment networks
- Monitor communication flows
As infrastructures evolve, firewall functionality may be delivered through traditional hardware, cloud-native services or security platforms integrated into broader architectures.
These 10 controls will not eliminate every risk, but they provide a strong foundation for building a resilient security programme. Organisations that implement them thoughtfully and continually refine them over time are far better positioned to prevent attacks, limit damage and recover quickly when incidents occur.