Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important component of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) as cyber-attacks become more regular and sophisticated. In a fast-evolving digital and commercial landscape, cybersecurity has become inextricably linked to business continuity, which is the capacity of a company to carry on operations in case of a disaster or disruption.
Losing sensitive data and money to data breaches, ransomware, and phishing attempts is no longer a matter of “if” but “when.” With the strategic collaboration between the IT security teams and business continuity planners, companies can avoid a higher risk of attack with a mitigation plan.
Consider these five cybersecurity best practices to integrate with your business continuity planning to safeguard the company from threat vectors and guarantee the continuity of operations.
1. Create a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) takes into account all of the organization’s potential risks, including what may result from a weak cybersecurity infrastructure –
- Reputational Damage
- Revenue Loss
- Customer Attrition
- Legal Action and Fines
It is crucial to lay out all the short-term and lingering repercussions the business might endure from a cyber incident. Organizations can make better judgments about ensuring business continuity in the event of an attack by defining the full spectrum of harm.
2. Prepare a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Report
Cybersecurity risk assessments give a complete picture of a company’s security and its third- and fourth-party vendors. It can help security teams figure out their current level of protection and what steps they need to take to keep the entire network safe.
Cybersecurity risk assessment reports often include:
Executive Summary
Summarizes the scope, significant conclusions, and recommendations for mitigating hazards.
Assessment Methodology
Describes the tools and techniques used to do the assessment and the scope of the evaluation.
Risk Identification
Enumerates clear and present threats and vulnerabilities, including how likely they are to happen, how bad they could be, and the assets and systems at risk.
Risk Assessment
Ranks and determines the importance of the identified risks by evaluating each one’s likelihood of occurring and potential impact on the organization.
Recommendations for Risk Reduction
Presents a list of ways to deal with identified risks, such as strategies for risk reduction, risk transfer, and risk acceptance.
Implementation Plan
Includes how to execute the mitigation recommendations, timelines, resources needed, and roles and responsibilities.
Monitoring and Review
Outlines the metrics for gauging mitigation strategy success and a schedule for future risk assessments.
Appendix
Itemizes the system and asset descriptions, network diagrams, and other pertinent documentation.
3. Include a Supply Chain and Third-Party Risk Management Plan
Supply chain risk management is more critical than ever as firms increasingly collaborate with other organizations to carry out commercial activities. Businesses must first untangle the complexity of their supply chain management before considering additional resources and plans to respond to cybersecurity threats. Review the following supply chain risks that every business must include in its business continuity plan —
- Third-party service providers or vendors (from janitorial services to software engineering) with physical or virtual access to information systems, software code, or IP.
- Poor information security practices by lower-tier suppliers.
- Compromised software or hardware purchased from suppliers.
- Software security vulnerabilities in supply chain management or supplier systems.
- Counterfeit hardware or hardware with embedded malware.
- Third-party data storage or data aggregators
4. Utilize an Incident Response and Crisis Communication Plan
An incident response strategy must be in place for your firm to be able to resume operations as soon as possible. This plan should make it easier to deal with security problems quickly and effectively by clarifying what to do and who needs to do it. Part of the incident response strategy is a customer outreach plan communicating the remediation steps taken if personal information is exposed.
Here are the three mission-critical areas that should be part of your Incident Response and Crisis Communication Plan —
- Secure Your Operations
- Fix Vulnerabilities
- Notify Appropriate Parties
Refer to the recommendations of the FTE for complete guidance.
5. Maintain Full Visibility and Persistent Monitoring
The best way to proactively manage risk and ease concerns about business continuity and cybersecurity is to allow complete visibility and continuous monitoring. This practice enables IT security professionals to stay on top of the organization’s cyber hygiene at any time – helping more confident, educated decision-making and continual compliance monitoring.
The threat ecosystem is rapidly developing. Thus solutions that provide comprehensive visibility across an organization’s entire network infrastructure, including the whole supply chain, should appropriately depict their level of security utilizing point-in-time assessments.
Conclusion
Proactive cybersecurity risk management is essential for total visibility and control over an organization’s IT infrastructure. By putting cybersecurity into business continuity planning, security teams can make it easier for other teams to work together and make decisions based on more data about how to reduce risks and deal with them.
How UDT Secure Reinforces Business Continuity Planning
UDTSecure brings expertise in security infrastructure consulting to evaluate, discover and fix security weaknesses in the following domains:
- DNS Health
- IP Reputation
- Web Application Security
- Network Security
- Leaked Information
- Hacker Chatter
- Endpoint Security
- Patch Management
Supported by some of the most advanced IT security technology available, UDT helps your organization map out critical security flaws and shows you how to invest wisely and build a robust infrastructure that drives value.
