James Kloppers, CASA Pre-Sales Engineer.
A quick search on the internet about the current cyber threat landscape yields a number of gloomy statistics. Add to that the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to provide already well-resourced cybercriminals with even more destructive tools to hack corporate and government systems. It is being
For example, a cyberattack occurs every 39 seconds, and more than 71 million people or 800,000 organizations fall victim to cybercrime each year. Additionally, the incidence of cybercrime has increased by 600% since the COVID-19 pandemic.
This last statistic leads to the crucial point that information and technology have become essential and inseparable to business. Therefore, an Information Security Management System (ISMS) not only streamlines existing business processes, but also helps organizations protect and protect their information assets by improving business efficiency, identifying redundancies, and reducing costs. Helps reduce cyber risks.
An ISMS is based on a framework consisting of people/teams, policies, processes, products and technologies, as well as partners and third parties (vendors). The key is to enable organizations to manage risk and protect their information assets. ISO/IEC 27001, revised in 2022, is very helpful in this regard. It explains what you need to do to build and maintain a compliant ISMS.
An ISMS significantly reduces costs and time by eliminating spreadsheets and effectively coordinating the entire security management process.
Connecting operational technology devices to a corporate network is a particular risk that needs to be highlighted. These devices, typically sensors or other equipment attached to facilities or equipment, feed valuable information back to the company. However, they often use outdated technology protocols and are easy to hack, providing cybercriminals with a convenient backdoor into your system.
For example, sensors on equipment installed at the head of a gas well in the heart of Africa are unlikely to be secure and are connected to a company's network via the Internet, making them a quick system entry point for cyberattacks. There is a possibility that criminal.
Therefore, implementing an ISMS enables companies to adopt a framework and select appropriate implemented controls that facilitate continuous validation, monitoring, and updating of policies, procedures, and aforementioned controls. This helps reduce these risks. Then, as your organization's requirements change and additional solutions are introduced, the limits can be easily adjusted, allowing for a proactive approach to measurement. This is an iterative process that helps you understand security risks in detail in near real time.
Governance considerations
Unsurprisingly, technology and data governance is rapidly rising on board agendas. King IV Principle 12 requires companies to “manage technology and information in a way that supports the establishment and achievement of the organization's strategic objectives.”
Recommended Practices 13(c) and (d) specifically require boards to ensure business resilience and monitor and respond to cyber-attacks. These recommendations are in line with global best practices.
It must be noted that directors who fail to fulfill their fiduciary duties may be held personally liable for the loss of value to the organization. This is just one reason CIOs and CISOs are under pressure to ensure their businesses are prepared to identify and respond to security threats. Visibility is very important and this is where her ISMS provides the ability to continually monitor and assess where you stand and what corrective actions are required.
There are often specific requirements to comply with strict cyber security standards such as ISO 27001 and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), to name just two. Maintaining compliance is difficult because it takes time and requires collecting large amounts of information. These industry standards are built into the ISMS, making compliance management much easier as CISOs can simply select the standards that are relevant to their business.
In response, many organizations purchase and deploy expensive security systems without taking the time to understand their unique requirements, hazards, and risk profiles. Companies often resort to adding an extra layer of security, hoping that this is a panacea to all evil.
The right approach is to first assess the inherent risks and the threats they pose to your business, and then investigate appropriate solutions designed to mitigate these significant risks. After that, it's best practice to continually monitor, adjust, and improve.
As information and technology assets are constantly evolving, it is imperative that businesses adjust their security posture in parallel to keep compliance and mitigations up to date.
A related point is that the IT (and data) environment has become mind-bogglingly complex. This action is no longer within the (relatively) safe confines of corporate firewalls, but occurs anywhere, at any time, on a plethora of mobile devices. Corporate servers are no longer reliably on-premises and can be physically located anywhere, or may not even be physically present in the cloud. This means the attack surface has expanded significantly, making it difficult to even understand a company's IT assets.
The solution for many is the growing number of spreadsheets used by harassing administrators to list IT assets, current risk profiles, and associated protective measures over time. . This manual process is time-consuming, error-prone, and often forgotten, resulting in zero visibility and alignment within the organization, and internal disparities.
Blow your trumpet and enter – ISMS
It is essentially a framework that allows users to understand a company's security posture/culture and track progress towards achieving cybersecurity governance, risk, and compliance goals.
If these goals include compliance with global standards, the system should be automatically updated when standards change. This may not be possible to automate as the data must be entered into the system, but it has two major benefits. First, all the information will be stored in his one place and available to everyone who needs it. Second, it provides a comprehensive view of where the organization is headed and its progress.
An ISMS offers many benefits by providing both visibility and structure. These include regulatory compliance, data breach prevention, and accountability. This eliminates finger pointing and improves incident response.
Importantly, it can play an important role after a security breach as it provides traceability in the form of an auditable record to demonstrate your commitment to protecting sensitive data.
An ISMS significantly reduces costs and time by eliminating spreadsheets and effectively coordinating the entire security management process. One example of cost savings is by allowing CISOs to identify what security controls are needed and the extent of the risk, so they can buy only what they need.
Security audits are typically performed annually, but with an ISMS they can be performed as frequently as needed, allowing you to address potential security risks on a regular basis.
An organization can never be 100% secure. However, an ISMS provides the best possible security by understanding the information assets that need to be protected, identifying the risks to them, and creating the necessary mitigation controls.
