The Criticality of Understanding Your Holistic Cyber Security Posture

Given today’s cyber threat landscape, organizations are under constant pressure to assess their IT environments, understand where they are vulnerable, and proactively resolve any gaps in coverage.  

They can do this by implementing a holistic cyber risk management strategy with regular cybersecurity reviews. Encompassing people, processes, and technology, these assessments can be aligned with established compliance frameworks that have been developed by industry professionals over several years and serve as a baseline for continuously tracking readiness. They help identify and address security gaps, measure progress over time, demonstrate return on investment (ROI), and enhance the organization’s overall cybersecurity resilience and preparedness. Most importantly, however, regular cybersecurity reviews help foster a culture of awareness throughout the organization – getting people to think about their role in keeping the organization safe from malicious actors.  

Mitigating Risk Through Consistent Cybersecurity Reviews 

It’s important to conduct a holistic review at least once a year to better understand where the organization stacks up against a constantly evolving threat landscape. New tools such as phishing as a service (PhaaS) kits and publicly-available generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) solutions are increasing the volume and sophistication of threats. As risk increases, security teams are having to bolt on additional security tools to remediate and implement new controls – a budget request that is getting harder to justify. This is where a cybersecurity review provides a base measure of maturity that can be reassessed each year to show progress over time and demonstrate ROI. 

These reviews work by assessing organizations against a holistic cybersecurity framework such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, or National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. Aligning to these established standards while documenting changes and progress ensures consistency between reviews while avoiding new complexities. Critically, these compliance frameworks have been developed over time by experienced individuals across the industry and are updated to keep up with new innovations – such as cloud computing or AI – so security teams can be assured that they are always protected. 

The Benefits of Independent Cybersecurity Reviews 

Organizations should consider an independent assessment conducted by a third-party provider – giving them an unbiased perspective that gives the board peace of mind that security budgets are backed by independent advice. These services review people, processes, and technologies and their ability to protect against cybersecurity threats. The frameworks encompass a wider array of controls that focus on the following areas; governance, identification, protection, detection, response and recovery— allowing organizations to get a more accurate understanding of true capabilities. 

These services review people, processes, and technologies and their ability to protect against cybersecurity threats. The frameworks encompass a wider array of controls that focus on the following areas: governance, identification, protection, detection, response, and recovery. This comprehensive approach allows organizations to get a more accurate understanding of true capabilities. If we look at this from a perspective of NIST CSF specifically, these reviews will cover aspects such as: 

Governance: 

• Management buy-in 
• Management training 
• Policies and processes 
• Security committees 
• Change advisory boards 
• Supply chain management 

Identification: 

• Asset management 
• Risk assessment 

Protection: 

• Identity management, authentication, and access control 
• Awareness and training 
• Data security 
• Platform security 
• Technology infrastructure 

Detection: 

• Continuous monitoring 
• Adverse event analysis 

Response and Recovery: 

• Management, analysis, mitigation, reporting, planning, and communication 
  

By thoroughly evaluating these areas, organizations can better understand their cybersecurity posture and identify gaps that need to be addressed. 

Risk management service providers can help organizations develop a prioritized roadmap that aligns remediation efforts with business objectives and risk. To ensure this is accurate, they can also identify critical assets and conduct a high-level threat assessment which can be used to prioritize remediation efforts across all controls due to the level of importance or perceived risk to them. These assessments should be tailored to a specific organization based on industry, customer profile, markets, growth plans, and other factors. Cybersecurity reviews should also be documented and analyzed over time to give organizations a foundation for measuring progress and demonstrating ROI. 

Summary 

The threat landscape is unpredictable, and by only leveraging technical security solutions, organizations are not covering all their bases. By regularly conducting cybersecurity reviews across people, processes, and technology to identify and resolve weaknesses, measure progress over time, and demonstrate ROI, organizations can enhance their security posture and ensure continuous improvement. Working with an independent assessor is critical, providing an unbiased, complete review of your cybersecurity resilience and preparedness based on established standards or frameworks.