A cybersecurity assessment is not unlike getting your car regularly checked and serviced. The objective is to help maintain and improve its current condition, upgrade weak mechanical and structural components, optimise performance, and make sure it’s set up for multiple drivers (with varying experience and skills). And, of course, to keep it in a state of readiness to navigate the hazardous roads ahead.
Just as you wouldn‘t risk lives by driving a poorly maintained car, neither should you risk your business by taking shortcuts to cybersecurity. Proactive, fact-based assessments are critical in ensuring security hygiene, risk mitigation, and vulnerability remediation in your digital infrastructure, as well as strengthening your security posture.
So, what do you need to know?
- How often should you have an assessment? Following an initial bumper-to-bumper examination, we recommend a quarterly cycle to track progress against your cybersecurity roadmap.
- What can you expect from your first assessment? While an initial consultation is often sought to address a specific issue, further examination can uncover myriad issues and determine a list of remedial requirements to ensure you meet your compliance obligations and current legislative standards.
- What controls are you measured against? Three leading frameworks offer best practice mitigation strategies: ACSC Essential Eight, NIST, and CIS (which has 18 categories, including controls like policies, incident response plans, and business continuity plans).
- What are the benefits of regular assessments? Fact-based cyber assessments can be a ‘eureka’ moment for many organisations. But they’re also an invaluable opportunity to align disjointed IT and business management expectations and set practical plans and measurable goals to improve your security posture.
- What will a plan look like? Your assessment includes technical recommendations and a maturity level score, identifying potential risks (and their impacts), urgent actions, quick wins (like easy configuration changes), and a timeline. However, it will also include non-technical recommendations focusing on your governance policies and cyber resilience.
- How will you know you are safer? It’s all about metrics. With an initial score to measure progress against, subsequent assessments can determine your maturing security posture as risks are mitigated.
- Is there such a thing as a perfect security posture? Achieving the highest level of cybersecurity is extremely difficult without eliminating all human intervention (and replacing it entirely with automation). But given the ever-changing nature of the threat landscape, this is to be expected. Cybersecurity is a long and uncharted road, so vigilance is never-ending
Last words? Fact-based cybersecurity assessments provide you with actionable insights within your strategic roadmap - so you can make smarter decisions (not guesses) about what you need to focus on and invest in.
More from the cyberspace:
