Simplify to Fortify
Let's cancel some subscriptions!
Open your bank account and skim through the past 30 days of your outgoing transactions and write down every subscription you use. When you have done it, return to this article. I'll wait.
Done? Good job! You now have your IT software assets list (as far as subscription-based ones go).
Take a look at that list. If you managed to find over ten different subscriptions, you are in the same boat as most SMB's. If, on the other hand, you found only one or two, then did you check the right bank account? You would be fooling only yourself here.
Looking at that list, can you name all the subscriptions? What are they used for? Who is the main user? Can you log in to the platform? What would happen if you canceled the subscription? If you can't answer any single one of these questions, I would just cancel it and see what happens.
Yes, there is always a risk that something important will be deleted or some integration will stop working. But if you really don't use it, there's a 100% chance you are paying for something you don't need.
This practical exercise we just did, while being very friendly to your wallet, is also an exercise in cybersecurity. It is called "attack surface management". And if you actually canceled any of these subscriptions, then you also practiced the "attack surface reduction" exercise. This puts you ahead of most SMB companies.
The most important thing you can do for your IT management and security is not to get another tool that is supposed to help you in securing everything, but to cancel the tools you actually do not need. Reducing your attack surface (having less IT software that can be used against you) is the most effective and cost-efficient practice that no salesperson will ever tell you. Why? Because there is no money to be made.
If you want your IT to be manageable, secure, and efficient, then it has to be simple. By simplicity, I don't mean some abstract terminology, but literally. If you cannot understand why you have a solution or a service, then you probably do not need it. The less stuff you have, the better.
