Adarma Cyber Insiders Vol 3 Digital spreads FINAL 2 - Flipbook - Page 39
STRATEGIC DEFENCE
-
GARTNER DESCRIBES BIA AS THE
“CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE” REGARDING
ALL RESILIENCE ACTIVITIES.
Understanding the True Value
of Cybersecurity Investment
So, how do we elevate the
cybersecurity investment
conversation? Firstly, security leaders
must determine what functions are
mission-critical to the business. They
must then understand the possible
risk scenarios that could jeopardise
those functions. It’s essential to know
what you’re protecting and why. This,
in turn, will help you to understand
who threatens you and what
techniques, tactics and processes
(TTPs) they are likely to use.
By understanding the outcomes of
the BIA, businesses can develop
a security program that prioritises
critical functions to monitor
and the controls required to
protect them. This approach will
help organisations protect their
“crown jewels” or mission-critical
systems. A bonus by-product of
a comprehensive BIA is that it
can also increase efficiency and
safety by identifying duplicate or
underused applications or assets
for possible retirement.
Failing to fully scope or define
mission-critical components of the
business or understand incident
ramifications can lead to over or
under-investment, disorganised
priorities, or unsuitable recovery
requirements. It could also lead
to an overabundance of
misplaced confidence in the
business’s incident response
capabilities.
Using BIA to Drive
Cyber Resilience
Gartner describes BIA as the
“centre of the universe” regarding
all resilience activities. Gartner
recommends that organisations
undertaking BIA do the following:
•
Develop a set of risk tolerance
levels across multiple
risk impact categories,
including financial, brand
and reputational, legal and
regulatory, life and safety,
and productivity. This holistic
approach enables informed
decision-making and helps
organisations maintain a
balanced risk posture in the
face of diverse challenges.
•
Formulate a prioritised
list of business functions
by criticality, ranging from
mission-critical to deferrable.
•
Chart a dependency map of
other business functions,
facilities, workforce,
applications, IT services,
third parties and vital data.
•
Establish collaboration
between business and IT
through joint sponsorship
and project management for
accurate and valuable results.
This ensures that criticality
designations are unbiased
and balanced across
different areas.
Once the BIA results have been
validated and approved, the next
crucial step is to implement them.
The IT teams can evaluate their
recovery abilities based on the
BIA results, pinpointing areas
that need improvement. This
assessment will guide the
implementation of essential
processing, backup, and recovery
solutions to address these gaps.
Similarly, management will need
to assess their capability to
support remote work when the
primary production location cannot
be accessed. This evaluation
ensures that necessary measures
are in place to enable seamless
remote working and maintain
operational efficiency.
Clear scoping leads to a clear
mission, enabling effective direction
of cybersecurity investments.
Demonstrating resilience, ensuring
continuity, and quantifying cyber
investments become achievable
through these efforts. For
professional guidance, consider
engaging an independent third
party like Adarma to support your
organisation in this process.
ADARMA CYBER INSIDERS
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