For organizations, it's high time to stop taking next-generation security lightly, especially as the variety and intensity of security threats continue to grow. It is the responsibility of every business running today to quantify the business values based on emerging technologies for implementing a reliable IT security roadmap that actually works.
Currently, most organizations are split between two scenarios:
- Established current policy but lacks required comprehensiveness
- Does not have a policy, wants to implement one, but clueless on where to begin
The DBIR concludes more than 53,000 incidents and 2,200 confirmed data breaches in 2018 while studying the impact of social engineering, DoS attacks, malware, and other threatening activities across different industries. The findings also revealed thousands of more incidents related to data security, causing a $400 million of financial losses.
With such findings and alarming statistics, it is important for businesses to wing out their information security policies right away. A well-crafted and documented security policy, which designates responsibilities and outlines step-by-step procedures, should be the first step all organizations need to take for reducing risks, vulnerabilities, and mitigating a cyber attack. Additionally, training is areas such as data security and compliance, as well as information systems security certification assists with setting up security roadmaps.
Moreover, it is also crucial to ensure that all your employees and stakeholders are aligned and vigilant too and understand the documented security policy in the best interest of the organization. This is where cybersecurity training comes in. It is the best way to spread awareness and equip your team to protect the data and organization from any sort of security threat.
IT Security Plan Structure
Every aspect and element of an IT security plan is crucial for its formation. To create a strong security roadmap, it's essential to incorporate these five sections in each policy:
Establish an overview:
The IT security plan overview should summarize the policy in detail, quickly scanning its purposes and objectives.
Policy scope:
This is where you can learn about the 'when' and 'what' of the security roadmap. It will highlight factors that are a part of the policy and an outline of how they should be implemented.
Policy:
This is the actual material that talks about how your organization's security aspects should be governed. Each policy should be action-oriented and specific.
Enforcement:
This refers to the team that an organization must train for information security to make them responsible for enforcing and executing the policy.
Revision tracking:
The idea is to treat it as an ongoing project and not a one-off opportunity. The implemented policies should be revised based on the predetermined review cycle of the organization.
A Stable Information Security Roadmap Content
The best policy is one that remains stable and sustainable, and an information security policy is no different. The idea is to ensure the methods do not only meet the current requirements but also guarantee a better, secure future for the organization.
A team of trained individuals will not only establish an information security roadmap that works in the current situations, but something that can easily be tweaked and updated in the long run to keep up with the future changes and requirements.
Here's all you need to know about establishing a stable information security roadmap:
Usability
Corporate systems are integral to an organization. When these systems are at risk, it naturally poses a great threat to the overall organization. It is critical to be very clear about what's prohibited and what's permitted. This step is added to the roadmap to detail the acceptable use of the corporate systems and the data present there. Every party involved as an authorized entity should be equally responsible for its protection. The scope of usability policy includes all use of corporate IT resources, including the corporate network, email, computer systems, and internet connection.
Private Data Policy
Private or confidential data can be the ultimate data asset for the company. It is highly valuable and thus carries greater risk as compared to general business data. For this reason, it's crucial to dictate strict security standards for such data. The trained team will be further briefed on how to handle confidential and valuable data and how to ensure its utmost security.
Email Security Policy
To date, business communication relies mainly on emails. But as important as it may be, there are potential security threats related to the network when it comes to email. Moreover, emails can also affect the liability of the company by providing written documents of the communication.
The roadmap at this point will highlight the usage guidelines specifically for the email system. It is not only to reduce security incident but to also boost business communications both externally and internally. Moreover, such measures will also provide for professional and consistent application for the email principles of the organization.
Mobile Usage
Workforce flexibility with mobile makes work more productive and efficient. This is one of the main reasons why organizations are encouraging the use of mobile devices to stay more efficient and up to date. Since the devices are becoming important to carry out businesses, it has become a storage hub for most sensitive data. The risk associated with the loss of a mobile device or theft is huge and also puts the business at risk. Crafting policies covering mobile devices used for managing a company's data is imperative.
Cloud Security
With cloud becoming the talk of the town, more organizations are using it to store the data in the cloud, making cloud security strategy a major concern for CIOs. There are many factors driving cloud vulnerabilities and threats, and policies are the best way to put in place effective strategies that can improve cloud security for the organization.
Roadmap Overview
This and a lot more needs to be taken into consideration keeping your overall risk posture in mind. Conducting regular analytics is a great way to figure out if your security policies are delivering expected results. In fact, the information can also give you a better idea of what to expect from the future.