Develop your Cybersecurity Framework

Supply chain attacks, ransomware attacks, phishing, data breaches; all these types of attacks are on the rise, thanks to the expansion of the connected world. With greater expansion comes greater security risk. Many risk factors are out there today, and data is potentially at risk more than ever. Having strong cybersecurity governance in place is a requirement for every business.

Many organizations recognize the need for governance programs, but it’s hard to know where to start. Read on to learn how to develop an action plan, and how Magenium Solutions can help you along the path to a well-defined cybersecurity framework.

Where do you start?

Make a cybersecurity action plan, creating an accountability framework for your organization. This will involve planning, action, audits, testing, review, and follow-up.

1. Assign senior leadership responsibility for understanding and managing cybersecurity risks facing the company and understanding compliance obligations.
2. Perform an early-stage audit to understand and inventory critical data and digital assets. Recognize how data flows and identify internal and external risks.
3. Adopt core internal policies and governance structures: information security, privacy governance, vendor management, and incident response.
4. Prepare a detailed, thorough, and step-by-step incident response plan for use in the event of an incident.
5. Identify outside counsel and vendors to enhance the company’s readiness in the event of an incident. Magenium Solutions
   can help you prepare and implement a plan.
6. Provide regular and relevant risk-preparedness training to key personnel and management.
7. Conduct periodic response exercises to test the incident response plan. Involve key internal and external stakeholders, including both technical and non-technical responders. Plan to conduct these exercises at least annually.
8. Consider obtaining cyber-insurance and require partners and vendors to obtain adequate cyber-insurance.
9. Implement, test, and protect your data recovery infrastructure to guard against business disruption and critical data loss.
10. Review reporting obligations and prepare template notices for use with regulators, consumers, and contractual partners in the event of an incident.
11. Conduct regular stress tests, penetration tests, audits, assessments, and reviews with management.
12. Actively monitor security events, including identifying, responding to, tracking, and reporting security incidents.
13. Implement a vendor management program to ensure vendors are appropriately safeguarding data and digital assets against risks.
14. Mitigate risks by monitoring and implementing technical best practices and maintaining a forward-looking threat assessment program.
15. Build a cybersecurity review into the process of on-boarding new projects or vendors.
16. Conduct semi-annual reviews with management regarding cyber-risk.

Stay vigilant

Once your structure is in place, be sure to review all the steps regularly, and keep the stakeholders well-informed about your cybersecurity health. Modify the plan as necessary when you identify weak points, and be sure to test your results from all angles. Exposure can occur from the endpoints utilized by employees, tools and applications used to manage IT infrastructure, commercial enterprises, or interconnectivity between different components spread across cloud landscapes. Additionally, several risk factors are related to the individuals who operate, manage, or even simply use any of the organizational services or assets on a daily basis.

Cyberthreats are penetrating organizations from every corner and the workforce is more widespread and at-risk than ever before. This makes a well-defined cybersecurity framework essential in every organization, and the forward-thinking enterprises are putting in the time and effort to establish a solid framework for their IT and business ecosystem.

Magenium can help

Magenium Solutions offers a wide variety of tools to help secure your devices and data, secure your corporate identity, and monitor and proactively defend your environment. Contact us today for a world-class solution for your business.