Best practices for communicating cybersecurity risks and efficiency
One of the most difficult challenges encountered within risk management in today’s ever-changing cybersecurity environment is the ability to communicate the risks posed to an organization effectively. Security executives expect communication to be in their own language, focusing on the financial implications regarding gain, loss, and risk, and the difficulty of translating traditional security terms and nomenclature into risk statements expected by business executives poses a serious challenge. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a cybersecurity professional to ensure that security risks are communicated to all levels of the organization using language that can be easily understood.
The communication of security metrics plays a crucial role in ensuring the effectiveness of a cybersecurity program. When disseminating information on cyber risks, several aspects of communication should be considered. For example, a security professional should be cognizant of the credibility of the information’s source, the targeted audience and how to place the risk into perspective. We firmly believe that the success of a business today is directly related to the success of its cybersecurity program. This is largely due to the fact that all organizations depend on technology. Specifically, the interconnectedness of digital technologies translates to a significant potential for damage to an organization’s operational integrity and brand credibility, if its digital assets are not meticulously safeguarded. We only need to look at the recent Equifax breach for an illustrative example of this. Considering the potential impact of cyber attacks and data breaches, organizations must improve how they communicate cybersecurity risk.
The first step to ensuring effective communication of cyber risks involves a comprehensive business impact assessment. This must consider the organization’s business goals and objectives. Business impact assessments focus on how the loss of critical data and operational integrity of core services and infrastructure will impact a business. Furthermore, it acts as a basis for evaluating business continuity and disaster recovery strategies.
The second step is the identification of key stakeholders and their responsibilities. According to experts, this step plays a significant role in being prepared to mitigate the impact of cyber risks. Stakeholders are directly affected by a breach and have the most skin in the game. Identifying stakeholders should not be a one-off exercise but must be conducted regularly. An important consideration is that the more stakeholders there are, the greater the scope for miscommunication. Failure to identify the responsible stakeholders will increase the probability that risk is miscommunicated. In the case of a breach, it means that the response will be ineffective.
The third and most critical step is the identification of Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) tied to your program’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Doing this correctly will mean communicating cyber risks to executives in a way that allows them to make informed decisions. As an example, the amount or the severity of vulnerabilities on a critical system is meaningless to non-technical executives. Stating that a critical system that processes credit card data is vulnerable to data loss is more meaningful. Once business impacts have been assessed, stakeholders have been identified, and meaningful security metrics have been determined, regular communication to various stakeholders can take place.
Different stakeholders have unique needs. This must be considered when communicating KRIs and KPIs. When delivering information, we must accommodate both the stakeholders that prefer summaries and those that prefer reviewing data to make their conclusions. DFLabs’ IncMan generates customizable KPI and incident reports designed to cater to both audiences. Cybersecurity program metrics1 must also focus on costs in time and money to fulfill business needs. The ability to track these metrics is a key differentiator for DFLabs IncMan.
DFLabs’ IncMan is designed to not only provide the best in class incident orchestration and response capabilities but also provides the ability to generate customizable KPI reports that accurately reflect up-to-the-minute metrics on the health of your cybersecurity infrastructure. If your organization needs to get a true, customizable view that incorporates all stakeholders please contact us at [email protected] for a free, no-obligation demonstration of how we can truly keep your cyber incidents under control.
Faced with the growing threat of cyber attacks and the challenges involved in recovering from various cyber security events, New York state’s authorities have rolled out new cyber security regulations that apply to financial institutions operating within the state. New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued the final Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies, affecting “Covered Entities”, defined as “any Person operating under or required to operate under a license, registration, charter, certificate, permit, accreditation, or similar authorization under the Banking Law, the Insurance Law or the Financial Services Law”, establishing a set of standards that have to do with reporting cyber security breaches to regulators, in addition to implementing specific cyber security policies.
Cyber Security Programs and Incident Response Plans
The new regulation aims to protect New York’s banks and insurance providers against cyber attacks, along with protecting sensitive consumer data. To that end, the rules – that went into effect on March 1 – prescribe a wide-ranging set of requirements for financial services companies in terms of specific steps they are supposed to take to be better prepared for cyber security incidents and how and when they must notify authorities of cyber attacks on their computer systems and networks.
According to the regulations, financial services companies are required to create a cyber security program that is expected to protect their information systems against cyber attacks. A covered entity’s cyber security program should be focused on identifying internal and external cyber security risks, detecting cyber security events, responding to detected cyber security events, recovering from cyber security events, and complying with reporting obligations.
As far as cyber security policies are concerned, covered entities are required to implement them in order to be able to address systems and network security, information security, data governance, customer data privacy, risk assessment, and incident response, among other aspects of cyber security.
When it comes to incident response plans, the new rules state that reporting cyber security incidents to regulators must be a paramount part of those plans. Regulated entities are required to confirm they gathered documentation regarding cyber security events and report them to various government and supervisory bodies, as part of their previously devised incident response plans.
Compiling documentation in reference to cyber security events, creating appropriate reports, and notifying authorities can be a tedious task for any organisation’s CSIRT. Companies can face tough consequences if they don’t complete the documentation in a timely and proper manner. Companies often require the solution of a cyber incident response platform that can generate reports on cyber security incidents automatically and in various formats, and is also capable of tracking and collecting evidence, helping their cyber security teams compile the required documentation faster and effortlessly.
These types of platforms also can also help companies’ CSIRTs predict and detect cyber security breaches and respond as fast as possible, which is one of the main capabilities the new cyber security regulations require from covered entities.