Risk Advisory

Cyberthreats shift constantly. That’s not FUD; simply reality. The short answer is that how frequently you need to test sits in direct proportion to how many safeguards you’ve built into your network, and extended to your broader environment. Regardless of how you’ve built your network and related safeguards, it’s recommended that you periodically get an internal or external third-party to test your systems to identify gaps and misconfigurations you may have missed. Having a third-party, like our Cybersecurity, that brings a fresh perspective and expertise is critical in finding those little details that often go unchecked.

A security risk assessment is a formal method for evaluating an organization's cybersecurity risk posture, and the time it takes to conduct a full security risk assessment varies by your organization’s size and complexity. Risk assessments for smaller or less complex organizations may be completed in less than a week, while those for larger, more complex, or highly regulated organizations can take significantly longer. Comprehensive security risk assessments take stock in business objectives, existing security controls, and the risk environment in which the business operates. When done well, the assessment identifies security gaps in existing controls as compared with industry best practices. Assessments then prioritize opportunities to close the gaps based on the significance of the cyber risk to which they expose the business.

To be effective, a cyber resiliency plan must use the foundation of a thorough understanding of the cyber risks your enterprise is likely to face—including both internal and external threats.

Cyber resiliency plans aim to help maintain an appropriate state of preparedness to prevent or ameliorate the effects of a cyberattack. An effective plan should include how the enterprise can maintain core business function during an attack, as well as how the organization will restore its critical functions in a timely fashion.

In addition, an effective plan should provide for applying the intelligence gained during the attack to enable the organization to build additional resilience into its network.

Active defense enables organizations to identify potential intrusions before attackers can establish a presence within your network. It provides crucial techniques that slow attackers and makes it difficult for them to infiltrate or undermine applications, networks, and systems. It also offers vital threat intelligence data that allows organizations to understand attacks and prevent similar future events.

To be effective, an active defense employs offensive tactics to slow the attack and prevent the attackers from advancing through your business networks. In addition, these techniques can also force the attackers to expose the nature of the attack vector.

Strategic data governance includes data integrity, data security, availability, and consistency, and should also include the people, processes, and technology that help enable appropriate handling of data across your organization.

In order to protect against threats, organizations must know what data to protect and how to help keep it safe. It begins with knowing what data you have, where your data is, how it is used, who it is shared with, and how. 

The incident response plan gives a structure or guideline to follow to reduce, mitigate, and recover from a data breach or attack. 

In effect, the incident response plan serves as a blueprint—outlining the steps to be followed when responding to a security incident. Ideally, the plan should include guidelines and processes your security team can follow so threats can be identified and eliminated. When used effectively, the plan is an essential tool for minimizing damage caused by threats, such as data loss, loss of customer trust, or abuse of resources. A robust plan can enable your company’s team to respond quickly and more efficiently against any type of threat.