Cyber Threats Don’t Pause for Anyone: How Enhancing Cybersecurity Can Prepare for a Potential Recession

As global economic uncertainties rise and recession fears loom, businesses are re-evaluating their priorities, streamlining operations, and cutting unnecessary costs. As priorities, operations, and costs are re-evaluated, an area too often devalued is cybersecurity. While executive teams may view cybersecurity and compliance as an optional expense, cyber threats do not pause for economic downturns. In fact, periods of disruption often invite increased cyber threats—during the 2023 banking crisis, for example, threat actors quickly launched sophisticated phishing campaigns posing as financial institutions and vendors, preying on the confusion around fund access and account stability—making proactive cyber defense more essential than ever.

Coalfire's Cyber Risk Advisory (CRA) team offers a smart, scalable way to maintain and strengthen your cybersecurity posture. Coalfire’s CRA team can seamlessly integrate within your organization to provide specialized on-demand services, precisely when it is needed most. Coalfire’s CRA team offers services across multiple information security areas including:

• Cybersecurity Consulting Services
• Third-Party Risk Assessments
• Incident Response and Business Continuity Contingency Planning

Why Cybersecurity Cannot Take a Back Seat During a Downturn

During an economic downturn, organizations may reduce headcount, freeze hiring, or restructure departments, leaving critical gaps in cybersecurity coverage. Meanwhile, cyber attackers often exploit such periods of disruption, targeting companies that are not prioritizing security, are under-resourced, or are restructuring.

This is where the utilization of Coalfire’s Cyber Risk Advisory services becomes a strategic advantage. Rather than pausing security initiatives due to changes in organizational priorities (e.g., reduced headcount, hiring freezes, department re-orgs, etc.), companies can leverage experienced professionals from Coalfire to fill critical roles, execute targeted projects, and/or provide ongoing support.

Cyber Risk Advisory Strategic Support

Coalfire provides a portfolio of cyber risk services that can seamlessly integrate with your organization’s internal capabilities. The following three areas address potential high-impact areas during uncertain economic times:

1. Cybersecurity Consulting Services

CRA’s Cybersecurity Consulting Services employ a seamless model to deliver seasoned professionals to assist your organization. From virtual Chief Information Security Officers (vCISO) to Information Security Managers and Analysts, Coalfire team members integrate with your team and organization to support the end-to-end operationalization of your security program including areas such as:

• Information Security policy maintenance
• Performance of internal assessments
• Establishing and maturing third-party risk management (TPRM) programs
• Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) process ownership
• Key Risk and/or Performance Indicator tracking and reporting
• Phishing simulation and resilience campaigns
• Comprehensive audit support

This flexible, on-demand approach ensures you have the right talent in place to meet your organization’s evolving information security needs without the long-term financial commitment of permanent hires.

When you engage CRA’s Cybersecurity Consulting Services, you gain access not only to a dedicated individual or team, but also to the collective expertise of the entire Coalfire organization which ensures you receive the most accurate and effective solutions to your organization’s questions.

2. Third-Party Risk Assessments

As organizations reduce internal complexity and leverage vendors or outsourced partners, third-party risk increases which can become a time-consuming process for internal teams to manage. Coalfire provides comprehensive Third-Party Risk Assessments to identify and help manage vendor risks through comprehensive assessments and consistent risk scoring. Third-Party Risk Assessments help organizations understand who they are doing business with and the level of risk associated with the relationship and services they are receiving.

3. Incident Response and Business Continuity Contingency Planning

A recession or reduced funding can quickly expose operational weaknesses, highlighting the importance of Incident Response and Business Continuity Contingency Planning. Coalfire supports organizations through strategy and documentation development, business impact analyses (BIA), as well as training and simulation exercises. These services ensure your organization remains operational through unexpected outages, workforce disruptions, or cyber incidents.

Organizations with lean teams may also leverage Coalfire's Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) capabilities to support immediate response. This allows your organization to investigate and mitigate suspected breaches quickly and effectively without the need for an in-house DFIR function.

Conclusion: A Smarter, Leaner Cyber Strategy

CRA services offers a model built for agility. Rather than investing heavily in hiring and training during a time of budget constraint, businesses can access expert-level cybersecurity talent precisely when needed. This approach ensures continuity in cybersecurity operations when attackers may be most active.

Coalfire’s CRA professionals integrate seamlessly into your workflows, providing strategic guidance, operational execution, and technical expertise.

Whether you are building a more resilient supply chain, preparing for a potential incident, or ensuring continuity of operations, do not wait for a disruption to highlight the gaps in your cyber defenses. Partner with Coalfire to strengthen your organization’s security posture with confidence and control.