Cyber attacks and data breaches are constant threats to businesses of all sizes. While most organisations understand the importance of cyber security, not all understand where their weaknesses are.
A Cyber Security Posture Review (CSPR), rolls of the tongue doesn't it, acts as a security health check for your organisation. It's an analysis of your current cyber security posture, designed to identify not only your strengths, but more importantly, your weaknesses.
By understanding your weaknesses, you can take proactive steps to address them and build a more robust defence. There are a number of benefits to performing
Benefits of a Cyber Security Posture Review
Just like an MOT reveals areas needing attention on a vehicle, a CSPR identifies vulnerabilities in policies, processes, and technology controls. This allows improvements to be prioritised based on risk and ensures critical security gaps can be addressed before they're exploited.
Security budgets are never limitless. An CSPR helps make the most of resources by highlighting the risks that need the most attention. This evidence-driven approach ensures investment is targeted on solutions that address the high security risks first.
Security breaches are costly and damaging. By proactively identifying weaknesses through a CSPR, security risk management can shift from a reactive to proactive approach, saving time, money, and avoiding reputational damage.
CSPRs are also useful to demonstrate an organiations commitment to cybersecurity. Having a recent CSPR report can be beneficial when demonstrating regulatory compliance or working with customers/partners who require strong security controls.
A CSPR can help you identify redundant or unnecessary security measures that may not be aligned with cyber risk profiles. This allows the effective management of security approaches and effective allocation of resources.
The findings of a CSPR can be a valuable tool for communicating security risks to leadership who may not have a technical background. The assessment's scoring provides a clear picture of the organisation's security posture, supporting informed decision-making.
Frameworks for Your Security Maturity Assessment
Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the NIST CSF is a flexible framework that allows organisations to identify, protect, detect, respond to,and recover from cyber attacks. This is being widely adopted due to its ability to be communicated simply to non-technical teams, whilst maintaining sufficient detail to implement an effective control framework.
This international standard provides a comprehensive approach to information security management. This is a risk-based standard, that allows organisations to demonstrate their management of risk.
Overseen by the National Cyber Secuirty Centre, and governed by IASME, this is a technical standard, where organisations must meet technical control requirements. Organisations can opt to complete a self-assessment questionnaire only, or also opt for techical validation through Cyber Essentials Plus.
Developed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), CIS Controls are a prioritised set of actions designed to mitigate the most pervasive cybersecurity threats.
Depending on your industry, there may be additional security frameworks that are relevant to your organisation. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies to healthcare organizations, and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) applies to organizations that handle credit card information.
Ready to Get Started?
Our Cyber Security Posture Review is a top-down assessment of your security controls, starting with accountability, governance, policies, process and controls. To extend the assessment further, we can complement it with technical assurance activities.
Alternatively, a gap analysis can be performed against an industry standard, to allow you to understand the steps required to achieve certification.
If you would like to know more, please do Contact Us.
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