On a quiet Monday morning in August 2024, the city of North Miami woke up to chaos. City Hall’s doors were locked, municipal operations ground to a halt, and police officers—used to modern digital dispatch systems—had to rely on outdated radios. The reason? A cyberattack had paralyzed the city’s networks, locking officials out of critical systems. The attackers demanded a multi-million-dollar ransom.
But there was a problem. In 2022, Florida passed a law prohibiting government entities from paying ransoms to hackers. With no ransom option and no comprehensive cybersecurity policy to guide recovery, the city’s response was slow and painful. Public trust plummeted as residents wondered how their city could be so vulnerable.Â
This wasn’t an isolated event. It was a stark reminder that in today’s digital age, weak cybersecurity policies aren’t just a minor oversight—they’re an open invitation to disaster.
A Multi-Million-Dollar Data Lesson
T-Mobile, one of America’s largest telecom companies, knows this all too well. Over the past few years, multiple breaches exposed sensitive customer data, triggering both customer outrage and regulatory scrutiny.
In 2024, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reached a settlement requiring T-Mobile to pay $15.75 million in civil penalties—and invest another $15.75 million into improving its cybersecurity practices. It was a costly lesson that having policies on paper isn’t enough. If those policies aren’t enforced and updated, they are just words.Â
One Weak Link Can Break the Chain
Poor policy management rarely stays isolated to a single breach. It creates systemic weaknesses that ripple across an entire organization.
The 2020 SolarWinds attack made that painfully clear. Hackers infiltrated the supply chain by compromising a trusted software provider, gaining backdoor access to U.S. federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies. This wasn’t just a failure of one company’s defenses—it was the result of inconsistent enforcement of vendor security policies across multiple organizations.
The lesson: if cybersecurity policies don’t cover vendors, suppliers, and partners—and aren’t enforced—the whole chain becomes vulnerable.
Policy Management: The Foundation of Cyber Resilience
So, how do organizations avoid becoming the next cautionary tale? Not just drafting policies, but ensuring they are actively followed, updated, and enforced.
- Build a Ready-to-Go Incident Response Plan
A cyberattack is no longer a possibility; it’s an inevitability. Organizations need a clear incident response plan that defines exactly how to detect, contain, and recover from an attack. A well-practiced IRP turns panic into swift action.
- Continuous Risk Assessments
Cyber threats evolve every day. That’s why regular risk assessments—not once a year, but continuously—are crucial. They identify weak points in systems, processes, and vendor relationships so organizations can strengthen their defenses before attacker’s strike.
Key areas to assess:
Unpatched software vulnerabilities
Overly broad access rights
Weak or outdated third-party security controls
- Multi-Factor Authentication : Mandatory, Not Optional
A stolen password shouldn’t be all it takes to breach a system. MFA ensures that even if credentials are compromised, an attacker still can’t gain access without additional verification.
In 2020, Twitter suffered a breach where attackers used social engineering to steal employee credentials, gaining access to high-profile accounts like Elon Musk and Barack Obama. Stronger authentication requirements could have made it much harder for attackers to escalate privileges.
- Train Employees to Spot the Tricks
Most attacks don’t start with elite hackers—they start with a simple email.
Phishing remains the leading entry point for cyberattacks. The best defense? Employee training like offerings from Symbol Security. Simulated phishing campaigns, password management training, and security awareness programs should be standard across all organizations.
Every employee—regardless of role—should understand how to spot suspicious emails, use secure passwords, and follow security policies.
- Lock Down Data with Strong Access Controls
Not all employees need access to all data. Implementing role-based access controls (RBAC) ensures employees only see the information they need to do their jobs.
This principle—the principle of least privilege—limits both the risk of insider threats and the damage from a compromised account.
Policies aren’t just documents; they’re lifelines.
Eric Anderson is the vice president, channel at Symbol Security.
