Most business leaders jump to firewalls, antivirus software, and the latest “must-have” security tool on the market when thinking about cybersecurity. It is a familiar cycle: a vendor promises that a new product will stop cyber attacks in their tracks, the business invests, and everyone assumes they are now safe.
But as Dr. Thomas Jreige from Shimazaki Sentinel explained in his recent conversation with host Hanif Ibrahim on the In the Trenches podcast, this reactive, product-driven approach is leaving businesses exposed.
The reality is that cybersecurity has evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry built largely around selling tools that promise protection, but often deliver only after-the-fact alerts. For business leaders—whether you are a founder, a small-to-mid business owner, or a corporate decision-maker—understanding why this model falls short is essential.
More importantly, it is time to rethink cybersecurity and focus on strategies that are proactive, people-focused, and aligned with your actual business risks.
The Limits of a Reactive Model
Reactive cybersecurity is the default for most organisations. You buy tools that monitor for threats and alert you when something goes wrong. In theory, this sounds reasonable. In practice, it is a dangerous false sense of security.
Most products on the market are built to detect known threats. They are excellent at spotting an attack pattern that has been seen before but far less effective at catching new, unknown threats in real time. When a novel or hard-to-detect attack happens, these tools often miss it until damage has already been done. At that point, your business is forced into damage control.
This is why enterprise-grade systems and well-known companies still make the news for data breaches. They have the latest firewalls and security suites, but those tools are reacting to problems rather than preventing them. The breach is discovered through a late alert or worse, when a staff member notices something unusual—well after the attacker has made their move.
The Bigger Risk Is Often Inside Your Business
It is easy to picture cyber threats as hackers in distant countries. While those threats are real, Dr. Jreige points out that the more common and often more damaging risks come from inside the business.
An internal risk can be intentional, like a disgruntled employee stealing data, or accidental, such as someone clicking on a well-crafted phishing email. In both cases, the attacker bypasses many of your digital defences simply by exploiting human behaviour.
These insider threats are harder to detect because they involve people who already have access to your systems. They know the processes, the data, and the weak spots. A single bad decision—whether driven by frustration or a simple mistake—can cause more damage than many external attacks.
Why Founders and Small-to-Mid Business Owners Are at Greater Risk
Large organisations have the budget and teams to monitor systems around the clock. Smaller businesses rarely have that luxury. Founders and small-to-mid business owners often rely on managed service providers (MSPs) to supply both IT support and cybersecurity.
While there are some excellent MSPs, many operate with a one-size-fits-all approach, selling the same set of tools to every client without conducting a proper risk assessment. This means businesses may be paying for software that does not address their most pressing vulnerabilities, while ignoring areas where they are genuinely exposed.
Without a clear understanding of what information you have, who can access it, and how it could be misused, you cannot make informed decisions about what protections you actually need.
Rethinking Cybersecurity: Start with a Risk Assessment
Both Hanif and Dr. Jreige emphasise that before investing in any technology, leaders should start with a detailed, adversary-focused risk assessment. This is not a tick-box audit. It is a process of mapping out:
- What you have: Identify the information, systems, and processes that are critical to your business.
- Who might target you: Understand the adversaries, from cybercriminals to competitors to malicious insiders.
- How they might attack: Map out potential attack methods, from phishing emails to physical theft of devices.
- What it would cost: Estimate the financial, reputational, and operational impact of different attack scenarios.
This exercise forces you to see your business through the eyes of someone trying to damage it. Only then can you decide what protections are worth investing in.
Moving from Technology-Only to People-Centred Protection
Technology is an important part of cybersecurity, but it is not enough. As Dr. Jreige explains, security should be framed as information protection, not just IT defence. That means looking at governance, processes, physical security, and, critically, people.
Staff need to understand not just the “how” of safe behaviour, but the “why.” Traditional security awareness programs often rely on short, generic training videos or simulated phishing tests. These may tick compliance boxes, but they rarely change behaviour.
Instead, training should make the stakes personal. When employees see how their actions can impact livelihoods—their own and others’—the lessons stick. This people-first approach transforms security from an IT department’s problem into a shared responsibility across the business.
Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies That Work
From the conversation on In the Trenches, several practical steps emerged for business leaders who want to shift from reactive tools to proactive cybersecurity strategies:
- Define and classify your information – Categorise your data based on sensitivity and importance. This allows you to apply stricter access controls to high-value information and limit the damage if something is compromised.
- Limit access based on roles – Only give staff the access they need to perform their jobs. Avoid the temptation to grant full system privileges to make things “easier.”
- Use conditional access controls – Implement measures like multifactor authentication that adjust based on location or device. If someone logs in from an unusual place, the system should require extra verification.
- Regularly review user access – Check who has access to what, especially after role changes or staff departures. Outdated permissions are a common weak point.
- Train for real-world scenarios – Ditch the generic, compliance-focused training. Show employees the real impact of breaches, using examples relevant to your industry and operations.
- Test your assumptions – Simulate potential incidents and walk through your response. This exposes gaps in your plan before a real attack occurs.
Understanding the Dark Web in Context
One area where fear often outweighs understanding is the dark web. MSPs sometimes sell “dark web monitoring” as an all-in-one safeguard. While these services can flag when your email credentials appear on underground forums, they often do not detect more dangerous leaks, such as stolen customer databases hidden inside encrypted files.
The real protection against your data ending up on the dark web is to stop it from being taken in the first place. That circles back to limiting access, enforcing good governance, and educating your people.
What Business Leaders Should Take Away
The main lesson from the episode is clear: cybersecurity is not just about buying tools. It is about protecting the information that matters most to your business through a combination of governance, people, processes, and technology.
A reactive, product-driven approach may keep vendors happy, but it will not guarantee your organisation’s safety. By taking the time to understand your risks, involve your people, and implement targeted protections, you build resilience that no single piece of software can match.
Final Thoughts
Rethinking cybersecurity means stepping away from the industry’s fear-based sales pitches and looking honestly at your own organisation. Whether you are leading a large enterprise or are a founder of a growing business, the principles are the same: know what you have, know who might target it, and take steps to protect it before something happens.
As Dr. Jreige made clear on the In the Trenches podcast, security is not a score on a dashboard. It is the result of deliberate, informed decisions made by leaders who understand that their people, not just their technology, are the key to keeping the business safe.