Ensure the Success of Information Security Roadmap Implementation Through Information Security Training

Effective information security emphasizes all aspects of the term and not just the technical one. Whether it is for personal customer information or information related to property or assets, reliable security strategies in place along with a workable recovery plan are imperative for running a successful business in today's digital age.

It has never been more important to put emphasis on cybersecurity training for team members to implement a successful information security program. Having a workforce that's more aware and informed can help mitigate the risk of data breach, especially at the hands of employees within the organization.

Providing proper security training can make employees more security-conscious and enable them to support each other with improved technological use. Most importantly, they will participate collectively to implement a more reliable information security roadmap for the organization to follow.

Establishing and Implementing an Information Security Roadmap

Successful security policies establish the actions and why they should be carried out. A good policy is a combination of endorsement, relevance, attainability, realism, and adaptability. Together, these characteristics help design a great security roadmap.

Setting Up an Information Security Department

First and foremost, an organization should create a team and assign information security tasks to establish a program. Once the security framework has been designed, the team will be responsible for ensuring it is thoroughly followed. The team should be provided with advanced cyber security training as well as other means of physical security sessions to ensure full contribution and high-quality work.

The general responsibilities of an information security team include:

• Creating and managing an up-to-date inventory of digital and physical assets
• Assigning owners or managers to each asset
• Identifying standards and regulatory compliance as required

Planning, Strategizing, and Development

To effectively protect an organization, it's crucial to put a well-planned security strategy in place. Therefore, IT should be recognized and regarded as an important component of business operations. Efficient and effective information security programs require cooperation from business personnel and leaders within the organization with a clear commitment and directions given by the top administration and authority.

Cyber Security and Information Assurance should be well-integrated features of a business, which require effective collaborations from each department within the organization. It is therefore essential for security strategists to have all managerial-level members on board, to aware them about different assets, their value, and how they are protected.

Process, Organization, and Technology

One of the most important aspects of implementing a thorough information security strategy is to understand business specifics. There are always those generic vulnerabilities and threats existing, however, some are particularly related to the nature of your business.

Security teams or strategists should determine the effort, money, and time required to build security control and policies that can effectively take care of organization-specific security threats.

For an ideal environment of an organization, where IT and business goals are aligned, it becomes easier to identify factors such as databases, applications, information exchange, networks, workflow, reporting, records management and research.

Using industry guidelines and business-specific processes, strategists can decide and plan on the framework for aligning process definitions, IT governance objectives, management-guidelines, and high-level control management to reach maturity levels for information security.

Have a Disaster Recovery and Incident Management Plan

Without an active incident management program, identifying and resolving operational and security issues can be challenging. This is a backup system that saves you from facing an unpleasant situation. To ensure the program's efficiency, the organization must implement an Incident Response Policy that covers important procedures such as:

• Escalation plan: Incidents should be categorized into different classes, i.e. high intensity, medium intensity, and low intensity. Instructions for handling the incident should be followed according to each classification.
• Handling process: Outline the procedure for collecting, assessing, and resolving the incident.
• Delegate responsibilities: Clearly assign responsibilities for the different phases of incident handling process – such as responsibilities for identifying, reporting, monitoring, managing, and resolving incidents.
• Incident monitoring and reporting: Proper document maintenance should be implemented for reporting incidents to track all the steps required in the resolution process.
• Post-incident report: Regularly carrying out meetings where development plans and incident reviews can be discussed to prevent threats and similar incidents in the future.

Risk Assessment and Management

Have you been able to identify the risk areas and vulnerabilities in your existing security program? Are there any assets on the critical line as far as external attacks are concerned? Which type of data or systems is causing trouble to secure? What about physically locating and securing data and system?

It is essential to answer some of these most important questions to be able to highlight the areas, which require the most attention. Sensitive documentation, financial records, asset statements, customer records, and the like are usually at most risk.

To ensure you are able to evaluate and manage risks, it is important to identify where they lie. The next step is to shore up your digital and physical defenses to mitigate both internal and external factors. Take all the steps required to ensure those risks are easily taken care of.

Employee Training

This is something we cannot emphasize on more. As mentioned earlier, having a team on board that has developed and implemented a plan is crucial for any business operations. This means you are prepared after assessing the risk and can take care of major incidents. Having teams up-to-date on security concerns and protocols is crucial.

A detailed vulnerability assessment may include scanning tools and/or penetration tests to identify weaknesses and threats in systems, networks, and applications. Carrying out an audit will further mitigate any risk present. 

Establishing a team that focuses on the strategy, plan, design, and implementation of an information security program is crucial. After this job is done and the responsibilities are delegated, it is time to test your new program. An audit can be your ultimate solution to find out if some security gaps remain.