It’s not easy to build a security compliance roadmap. It’s frequently the first big compliance milestone reached by new businesses. The need for a solid security compliance roadmap has emerged because of the rising number of cybersecurity attacks, as seen by the daily headlines.
Your business doesn’t have to be well-known to be a desirable target for today’s hackers. In fact, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report indicates that small and midsized businesses are now experiencing nearly as many breaches as large corporations. Protecting your business is a continuous activity that needs careful preparation.
Let’s see how you can make that process as hassle-free as possible.
Perform a security risk assessment
A security risk assessment finds, evaluates, and applies important security measures. It also focuses on preventing security flaws and vulnerabilities. A business can see its current situation in cybersecurity holistically from the standpoint of an attacker by conducting a risk assessment. It helps managers in making well-informed decisions about resource allocation, tools, and security control implementation.
To begin a cybersecurity risk assessment, you must first answer three key questions:
- What are your business’ important information technology assets, or the data whose loss or exposure would have a significant impact on your business?
- What are the most important business operations that use or require this data?
- What dangers could jeopardize such business functions’ potential to work?
You can start building tactics once you know what you need to safeguard. However, before you spend money or time putting in place a risk-reduction solution, be sure you know which risk you’re dealing with, how important it is, and if you’re handling it in the most cost-effective way possible.
Have a security policy and strategy
A security policy is a written statement of how a business intends to safeguard its physical and information technology (IT) assets. Security policies are dynamic documents that are updated and revised when new technologies, vulnerabilities, and security needs emerge.
Security policies are crucial because they safeguard an organization’s physical and digital assets. They include all of the business assets as well as potential dangers to those assets. You can use the information from your cybersecurity risk assessments to influence policy decisions in the second step of building your security compliance roadmap.
When creating a security policy, security experts must examine a variety of factors.
Cloud computing and mobile devices
When designing security policies, it’s critical for businesses to think about how they use the cloud and mobile apps. Data is increasingly spread across a variety of devices within an organization’s network. It’s crucial to factor in the increasing number of vulnerabilities that a dispersed network of devices introduces.
Data categorization
Improper data categorization can result in the loss of important assets or the use of resources to secure data that doesn’t need to be protected.
Ongoing updates
As a business develops, sectors change, and cyber threats evolve, so do its IT infrastructure and the vulnerabilities it is exposed to. To reflect these changes, security policies must develop.
Frameworks for policy-making
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a Cybersecurity Framework that can be used to develop a security policy. Businesses can use the NIST strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to cyberattacks.
Assess the security program’s progress
Metrics for success are an important aspect of assessing the impact of security program improvements in the workplace. These metrics should be defined prior to the start of a project and be related to the business goals.
When interacting with organizational leadership, accurate and relevant metrics will aid in the reporting process and make the effect of the security program more evident. Consistent measurement will also make it easy to evaluate if the projects on the roadmap are on track to move the security program forward.
Proactive, progress-oriented security programs
Building a security compliance roadmap for your business might not always be easy. In times like this, you can find it better to work with a professional. Therefore, you can use a plan to build a clear route toward creating an efficient and operational security compliance solution rather than an ad hoc approach.
If you’d like to work with the industry-leading NordLayer while building your security compliance roadmap, click here to get more information.