12 November 2016

Six steps to reboot your cyber security strategy


8th November 2016 

The High Performance Security Report 2016 published by Accenture Security unearthed a clear disconnection between how companies perceive cyber threats and the reality of the situation. According to the report, 75% of security executives surveyed said they were confident in their cyber security strategies, and 70% reported that their organisations have successfully adopted a culture of cyber security fully supported by their top executives – yet one in three targeted attacks succeeded, resulting in a breach.

It’s time to face reality

To close the gap between perception and reality, the report invited companies to “reboot their approaches to cybersecurity”. Here is the report’s six-steps to help you rethink your cyber security strategy: 

Define cyber security success

One reason perceptions don’t match reality comes from the misalignment of cyber security strategies and business imperatives. Identify the best cyber security strategy for your company based on your assets and capabilities, which cyber threats it should secure your company from, and how you can measure its success or its failure in business terms. 

Pressure-test security capabilities the way adversaries do

Get into the criminals’ shoes: engage ethical hackers to run attack simulations and realistically assess your ability to defend your company from external threats. IT Governance is a CREST member and its suite of penetration testshave been verified as meeting the high standards mandated by CREST. Moreover, all of our penetration testers hold the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) qualification. 

Protect from the inside out

The only difference between internal and external attackers is that the first know where key assets are located. Prioritise securing your key assets from insider threats, which usually have the greatest impact. If you want to know more about insider threat, read the bestselling Insider Threat – A Guide to Understanding, Detecting, and Defending Against the Enemy from Within

Invest to innovate and outmanoeuvre

The wider and more diversified your strategy is, the easier it is to stay ahead of cyber criminals. Instead of spending money in existing programmes, widen your suite of programmes by investing in seven key cyber security domains: business alignment, strategic threat context, extended ecosystem, governance and leadership, cyber resilience, cyber response readiness, and investment efficiency. 

Make security everyone’s job

According to the report, “Fully 98 percent of survey respondents said that for breaches not detected by the security team, the company learned about them most frequently from employees.”. Consequently, a staff that is up to date with the latest cyber threats and cyber security best practices improves your threat detection capabilities and reduces the chances of staff-related security incidents. Implement a staff awareness programme based on e-learning coursesto empower your staff and make it part of your cyber security strategy. 

Lead from the top

Cyber security should be discussed in the C-suite on a daily basis, not confined to the IT room. The CISO needs to proactively engage with enterprise leadership and make cyber security a top priority.

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