This blog is part of a series to help organizations of any size optimize their security. Our experts provide insights and recommendations based on common security use cases, customer questions, and security software developer needs.
Many organizations grow their cybersecurity capabilities as the business itself grows. Adding security technology and processes ad-hoc is typical for many companies as they focus on growth, revenue, and product development. And yes, most companies have implemented the basics such as firewalls and antivirus software.
But with new cyber threats and malware evolving exponentially every week and the average cost of a data breach in the US close to $10 million according to statista.com, establishing a formal cybersecurity operating model is essential to protect digital assets, mitigate risks, maintain compliance, preserve reputation, and minimize business disruptions.
9 reasons to establish a cybersecurity operating model
The reasons below can help with organizational buy-in for an evolution of vigilance in establishing a cybersecurity operating model.
1. Risk management: Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks to reduce the likelihood and impact of a cyber threat.
2. Compliance: Meet the legal obligations specific to many industries to avoid penalties and maintain a good reputation.
3. Asset protection: Safeguard digital assets including customer and employee data, intellectual property, and proprietary information.
4. Business continuity: Minimize downtime and financial losses after a data breach or ransomware attack with incident response and recovery plans in place.
5. Customer trust: Maintain this crucial aspect of building a profitable business by demonstrating a commitment to cybersecurity for employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders.
6. Competitive advantage: Increase the likelihood of business retention and growth by maximizing the safety of your data.
7. Cost savings: Maximize the initial investment of setting up a cybersecurity operating model with long-term savings that result from reducing the frequency and impact of security incidents.
8. Resilience: Prepare your organization to detect, prevent, and respond should threats or security disruptions occur.
9. Strategic alignment: Ensure that security efforts are in harmony with business goals so that security is perceived as part of the overall strategic goals and mission and not as a hindrance to growth and innovation.
What considerations should be included when designing a cybersecurity operating model?
If your organization has implemented a security operations center (SOC), a comprehensive cybersecurity operating model would be the strategic level for the SOC and all other security operations. The considerations below are a guideline for the areas to include in developing a cybersecurity operating model that uniquely fits your organization’s needs, size, and resources.
Considerations for the model include:
- Business objectives and strategy – Align your cybersecurity operating model to overall business strategies and objectives.
- Governance and leadership – Clearly define roles and responsibilities for security within the organization and establish a governance framework that includes executive leadership, a steering committee, and reporting lines.
- Risk management – Identify and assess risks specific to your organization and develop a strategy that includes risk mitigation, acceptance, or transfer and aligns with relevant regulations and standards.
- Security policies and procedures – Develop and maintain a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that are regularly updated, communicated effectively, accessible, and enforced consistently.
- Asset inventory and classification – Create an inventory of all digital assets, hardware, software, data, and third-party services and classify assets based on criticality.
- Incident response plan – Develop a plan that outlines steps to follow in the event of a security incident and conduct regular drills and exercises to test the plan’s effectiveness.
- Security awareness and training – Implement ongoing awareness and training programs for employees so that they understand their role in maintaining cybersecurity.
- Technology stack – Evaluate and select technologies and tools that align with your organization’s needs, integrate them into your IT ecosystem, and regularly update and patch systems to address evolving vulnerabilities.
- Access control and identity management – Implement strong access controls and user authentication methods and enforce the principle of least privilege (Zero Trust) to limit access to critical systems and data.
- Monitoring and detection – Set up continuous monitoring and intrusion detection systems to identify threats and vulnerabilities and establish alerting mechanisms and response processes.
- Third-party risk management – Assess and manage risks associated with vendors and suppliers and require third parties to adhere to defined cybersecurity standards.
- Compliance and reporting – Regularly audit and assess compliance with policies and regulations and prepare reports for stakeholders.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics – Define and track relevant measures of effectiveness to inform decisions and improvements.
- Budget and resource allocation – Allocate appropriate budget and resources to fully support cybersecurity initiatives.
- Continuous improvement – Establish a process for continuous improvements based on lessons learned from incidents and regular assessments.
- Documentation and document management – Maintain comprehensive documentation of all cybersecurity activities, policies, and procedures and ensure that all documentation is easily accessible and updated regularly.
- Business continuity and disaster recovery – Develop procedures to ensure business continuity in the event of a breach and regularly test and update the plan.
- Legal and privacy considerations – Understand and comply with relevant data protection and privacy laws and establish procedures for handling and reporting breaches.
- Crisis communication – Develop a plan for addressing security incidents both externally and internally.
We have not implemented a formal cybersecurity operating model. Is implementing cybersecurity technology enough to maintain security?
Depending on business size, many organizations have different levels of cybersecurity measures in place. For example, large enterprises in highly regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and government need a comprehensive strategy and plan of a cybersecurity operating model to manage and safeguard complex infrastructures.
Mid-sized organizations may suffer from budget constraints or resource limitations to fully implement a comprehensive plan, and small or start-up businesses may not fully recognize the importance of prioritizing cybersecurity as they scale and grow.
Implementing cybersecurity technology and setting up a security operations center (SOC) regardless of business size is a good step towards vigilance and resilience in the absence of a comprehensive cybersecurity operating model.
Learn more about security for your unique environment
If you’re not sure about your security posture or the level of vulnerability in your organization’s IT environment, a security assessment can help you develop a clear view of your current state and possible remediations needed. You can also rehearse real-time scenarios and threat-hunting through our Cyber Defense Simulation service. Visit the Professional Services for Security resources section for overviews on the different types of assessments available, and contact us at [email protected] to learn more.
For more support, read the other blogs in this series which include tips for building up cybersecurity skills, a review of the cybersecurity mesh architecture framework, and practical ways to secure APIs.
