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A cyber security plan agrees on the security policies, procedures, and controls required to protect an organization against threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. A cyber security plan can also outline the precise steps to take to respond to a breach. A cyber security plan sets the typical actions for activities such as the encryption of email attachments and restrictions on the use of social media. The organization should deploy a standard action plan for cyber security to safeguard the Organization from potential cyber-attacks and data breaches. A cyber security plan essentially includes a plan and action to deter various cyber attacks and a detailed data breach management plan.
A cyber security plan is a written document comprising information about an Organization's security policies, procedures, and remediation plan concerning countermeasures. This plan aims to ensure the integrity of operations and the security of the Organization's critical assets.
It's a vital tool to protect customers, employees, and corporate confidential information. By defining the current and future state of your cybersecurity space, cybersecurity best practices are being provided as a plan for the Organization. A cybersecurity plan also empowers the Information Technology team to communicate effectively with respect to the cybersecurity structure and operations. Professional earned hacking can help organizations to create effective cybersecurity plans.
There are three (3) reasons why cyber security plans are important:
Most business operations run on the internet, revealing their data and resources to various cyber threats. Since the data and system resources are the pillars upon which the Organization operates, it goes without saying that a threat to these entities is indeed a threat to the Organization itself.
A threat can be anywhere from a minor bug in a code to a complex system hijacking liability through various network and system penetration. Risk assessment and estimation of the cost of reconstruction help the Organization to stay prepared and to look ahead for potential losses. Thus, knowing and formulating a plan of cyber security precise to every Organization is crucial in protecting critical and valuable assets. Hence, professionals trained in Ethical Hacking certification courses are hired by Organizations for Incident Response roles.
Cyber security aims to ensure a risk-free and secure environment for keeping the data, network, and devices secured against cyber threats.
Small, medium and large organizations are prime targets, and they need to be prepared to eliminate cyber security threats. A widespread cyber security plan has become the most important factor for every business, or the organization will be at greater risk compared to an organization with a cyber security business plan can help reduce risks to a great extent. The benefits of a cyber security plan are listed down:
Organizations have extensively used cloud computing technology, mobile devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Wearables, and so on. This has led to substantial exposure to cyber-attacks and threats. Hence, Organization needs to be more calculated in safeguarding themselves than ever. A cyber security plan will help organizations understand the current IT environment, allowing them to make the necessary amendments to secure it.
One of the main reasons that organizations become fall prey to cybercrime is their reactive approach. It is important to defend against cyber-attacks and a cyber-attack prevention plan and take proactive measures towards strengthening cyber security posture. The organization should always be prepared for worst-case scenarios. A fundamentally strong cyber security plan can be put in place, which comprises vulnerability analysis and penetration testing, security vulnerability scans, business continuity, and disaster recovery, and managed security services as a proactive approach.
No organization is entirely secure, even with the strongest security solutions. Some attacks can breach the strongest defenses, and many organizations have witnessed that. That is why having a cyber security plan can be helpful. Creating this plan means knowing exactly what steps to take in the event of a cyber-attack and comprising the possible could take place. A cyber-attack prevention plan also helps each employee in the Enterprise will know their discrete role in how they should react to the catastrophe.
In this highly regulated industry, relevant compliance standards and regulations are necessary to comply. Some of these are GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and so on. Failure to do the same can lead to hefty penalties, lowered profits, and reputational risk. A cyber security plan guarantees utmost compliance and empowers the Enterprise to monitor all the best practices while consistently meeting industry principles and protocols.
Cyber security strategy and plan widen the horizon in helping organizations by repudiating insider threats by implementing a more organized approach to security. In another way, it is creating an impact to make cyber security a part of the organizational culture. Employees are currently making cyber security a top priority by engaging themselves in awareness and training sessions; hence, there is a declining trend for insider threats. In short, a cyber security plan is a natural preventive against insider threats.
Cyber security presents several obstacles to organizations today, and it can be problematic for enterprises to keep up with the surge in cyber threats. Although it is essential to use technology to provide an automated layered security approach, simply using technology is not enough. An organization must incorporate protection into its organizational culture to protect itself against the current threat. An effective cyber security plan would allow every part of an enterprise, from its processes to technologies, to establish a robust cyber security environment. To create an operative cyber security strategy, certain key elements are necessary to obtain. These are:
The approach towards cyber defense must be custom-made to the types of data security and the circumstances involved within its architecture. The agenda is an obvious component of cyber security risk management. It includes governance for a 3P structure, which is essentially people, processes, and technology within the company. The scope should cover all working procedures, people inside and outside the Enterprise, including third-party vendors, and devices attached to the corporate network.
The more proactive decisions can be made during a cyber-attack, the better off the Enterprise can be. Firstly, a cyber-attack prevention plan is essential to know the procedures and techniques as a guide by predetermined indicators. Threat intelligence provides these metrics, background, and actionable insights into current and emerging risks to corporate assets. The expertise provided here is evidence-based, offering the keys to informed decision-making when a cyber incident starts. Vulnerabilities such as shared administrative keys, unpatched applications, operating systems, network configurations, or business operations and processes provide a context for the threat. Effective Cyber Security certifications online programs can also help employees upgrade and upskill their knowledge concerning Threat Intelligence.
Part of the cyber security planning guide process includes circumventing issues in the first place. Basic security systems should run in top form to achieve this goal or improve the chances of never having a disastrous breach. Security procedures are also required to be fully implemented. These include the following:
In the event of cybersecurity breaches, all employees belonging to IT, Sales, HR, Marketing, and Finance of the Organization should be ready at the time of announcement. Everyone should have a predetermined role to play in responding to an incident. The cyber security plan should include collaboration with internal stakeholders as an essential and definitive action plan.
The most prevalent threat model is based on identified risks, their likelihood of occurrence, and the damage they could have done. Risk assessment fine-tunes the cyber security response and helps prevent attacks. It is an essential element for the pervasive cyber security maturity model.
Cyber security risks are growing day by day. That is why it is necessary to be proactive about incidents and responses. The plan for incident response plans should be layered and preemptive. Visibility is another critical factor in the event of an incident. It is best to see who has access to the network and systems and at what time to gather as much information as possible.
Data support and operations include the measures the Organization will implement for handling each level of classified data. These are the three primary categories of data support operations:
The component of the cyber security plan should outline the employee rights, responsibilities, and duties regarding data protection. Provide responsibility to the employees by nominating employees within internal control functions to perform access reviews, educate other staff members, oversee change management protocols, pick up and review incidents, and provide general oversight and implementation support for the cyber security policy.
There are 8 lean steps to planning an operative cyber security plan, including Conducting a Security Risk Assessment, Evaluating Systems, Applications and Tools, selecting a Security Framework, Reviewing Security Policies, creating a Risk Management Plan, Implementing Security Strategy, and Evaluating the Security Strategy.
A Cyber Security Risk Assessment requires an organization to determine its key business objectives and recognize the Information Technology assets essential to those objectives. It is then a case of classifying cyber-attacks that could adversely affect those assets. Cyber Security Risk Assessment within a cyber-attack prevention plan also analyzes the likelihood of those attacks occurring and their impact.
The assessment includes the following critical areas evaluated and documented accordingly:
The objective of Cyber Security is to safeguard information from theft, compromised or attacked. Cyber security business plan can be measured by at least one of three goals
The CIA triad is a security model that is designed to guide policies for Information Security within the premises of an organization. Every Information Security Strategy Plan should include a detailed model and guiding principle derived from CIA Triad. The following steps will help to create cyber security goals:
Cybersecurity is technology-centric and always depends upon the core systems of an Enterprise. While the assets are to be segregated as per their criticality towards business within the risk register, it is also important to understand and evaluate the technology landscape for proactive mitigation of risk. Once the critical assets are identified and segregated, it is essential to determine the functions evaluating the assets and the related functions of technology. It is also imperative to mention that businesses should be involved as a support function within the network. The below steps to be followed to evaluate the technology:
Based on the requirements of the Organization, different frameworks can be implemented. These are:
The objective of cyber security policies within the Cyber security business plan is to address security threats and implement a cyber security management plan. A thorough review of the policies is recommended to ensure security policies are up to date and address emerging threats. The steps toward reviewing security policies are as follows:
One of the constructive ways to defend against a cyber security breach is to design a detailed cyber security risk management plan, which needs to be amalgamated into a robust plan that is responsible for all kinds of Organizational risk posture. The intention of the cyber security risk management plan is to substantiate the Organization's posture towards cyber security with respect to safeguarding data from being stolen or lost. The following 8 steps are a guideline for creating a cyber risk management plan.
Implementing the cyber security management plan is the most important task in the entire strategy, and this comes with a layered approach. Internal teams discuss the plans in detail and assign remediation tasks accordingly. A PMO will lead the project, create milestones for every task, and track closure to complete the enactment accordingly.
This last step in forming the cyber security strategy is to start ongoing support of the security strategy. The security strategy must be monitored and tested frequently to ensure the goals of the strategy align with the threat landscape. Below are steps to be followed to maintain continuous and comprehensive oversight: start ongoing support of the security strategy. It is imperative that the security strategy be monitored and tested frequently to ensure the goals of the strategy align with the threat landscape. Below are steps to be followed to maintain continuous and comprehensive oversight:
A cybersecurity action plan template for small businesses outlines everything the Organization needs to protect the business from cybersecurity threats. A thorough cybersecurity project plan template includes preventative and reactive measures to minimize business risk. The plan typically includes the following components:
The cyber security management plan template aims to provide quick solutions when required. It lists all the activities concerning the privacy of information, the correctness of data, and access to authorized users. This brings us to focus on the 3 crucial aspects of security: confidentiality, Integrity, and availability of data, collectively known as the CIA Triad.
Cyber threats change at a fast pace. Strategies and attack methods are changing and improving daily. Cybercriminals access a computer or network server to cause harm using several routes. This is also called an attack vector. Based on these attack vectors, cyber threats institutionalized their basis of attacks. Some of them are:
Cyber security policies serve as the framework of a cyber security management plan. Policies outline the expectation of internal stakeholders to protect business assets and minimize risk. The security policy should include the following:
A breach response process allows Organization to quickly identify an attack and shut it down as soon as possible. This minimizes damage to the business data and ensures that there is a backup that is running in parallel. The breach response plan should include clear steps and a timeline of how long the critical systems have to shut down while there is an attack before the Organization is at risk.
There can be the strongest cyber security policies in place, but if the employees don't know them, the organization is still at risk. So, a small business cyber security management plan is not complete without employee training. To be successful, the employees need to be aware and updated with the cyber security policy. A cyber security training program also needs to be designed to educate the employees periodically. KnowledgeHut's cyber security certifications online program can also help employees to upgrade and upskill their knowledge.
Having a cybersecurity implementation plan from the start and continuing it throughout the development cycle is an industry best practice. However, the process is monotonous and requires detailed planning before execution. Below are the steps to implement a cyber security plan:
The first step in a cyber security management plan is to build a dynamic team. This team designs and builds the framework of the security program monitors the threats and responds to the incidents.
The cyber security team's initial screening is to understand the assets that exist location of those assets, make sure the assets are tracked, and secure them properly. In other words, it is time to prepare a catalog of everything that could contain sensitive data, from hardware and devices to applications and tools (both internally and third-party developed) to databases, shared folders, and more. Once the list is prepared, the same is assigned to each asset owner, and then the same is categorized by importance and value.
Thinking about risks, threats, and vulnerabilities is indispensable to evaluating risk. A list of probable threats to the Organization's assets should be made ready, and then a numeric score to designate these threats based on the likelihood and impact. The numeric score can be classified and ranked accordingly based on potential impact. Vulnerabilities identified from these assets can comprise people (employees, clients, and third parties), processes, and technologies in place.
As the ranking of the list that has been prepared by assessment, it can be decided whether Organization wants to reduce, transfer, accept, or ignore each risk.
For the risks that have been identified, controls should be implemented. These controls will alleviate or eradicate risks. They can be technical (e.g., encryption, intrusion detection and prevention software, antivirus, firewalls, anti-malware, and phishing software) or non-technical (e.g., policies, procedures, physical and logical security, and employees). Security controls are to be implemented accordingly as per the technical / non-technical aspect.
A complete cyber security audit program should be in place to understand the standpoint with respect to Organization's Threat Matrix. This can help the Organization identify the Root Cause of the incident as well.
The following list is the most common areas that should be avoided while implementing the cyber security plan:
Every Organization is unique, and its operating procedures are different. Hence, it is important to understand the complete architecture of the systems and applications in scope within the purview of the Organization. One of the examples of the heat map defining CIA for a cybersecurity action plan template which defines risk assessment of the critical assets, is attached below for reference:
Cyber Security Plan Implementation Template
Here are some of the standard Cyber Security Plan Implementation Templates.
The following Cyber Security Program implementation milestones are the reference towards the implementation of the Cyber Security Plan:
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The organization should not wait for a cyber incident before implementing a proactive cyber security strategy across their business. With a strong cyber strategy, not only the business has a fast recovery time, but it will also be cautioned and prepared for any cyber incidents in the future.
Metrics are tools to facilitate decision-making and improve performance and accountability. A cyber security metric contains the number of reported incidents, any fluctuations in these numbers, and the identification time and cost of an attack.
A strategic cyber security plan specifies the security policies, procedures, and controls required to protect an organization against threats and risks. A cyber security plan can also outline the specific steps to respond to a breach.
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