The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in an organization is responsible for implementing cybersecurity solutions so as to safeguard confidential company assets. CISOs are responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected, with disaster recovery and business continuity management as a part of his regime.
They can transform employees from the weakest to the strongest link in the industry. Cybercriminals utilize the ignorance of employees to exploit their naivety in order to extract valuable data. However, such a lapse can be prevented by cybersecurity officials of a company by exercising a robust program on security awareness, management and monitoring.
Large organizations and MNCs have CISO or an equivalent to make confidential company details well-protected against any sort of unauthorized hacking or illegal access. Protecting the data of employees and clients is of primary importance to security personnel within the industry.
For effective task management, he should have a well-planned security management system and measures that he wants to implement in the organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure. Let us guide you with this ultimate security handbook to get started for an effective system of security management as a CISO in your organization.
Review of Present Security Environment
If cybersecurity experts aren’t already aware of the pre-existing cybersecurity flaws in their organizations, they wouldn’t be able to assess or improve vulnerabilities. Hence, a detailed review of the predefined security policy should be an accurate head-start for every new CISO, including already implemented security programs, security awareness among employees, assessing human errors, etc.
It is important to understand that while employees and company officials may have access to all company data, there is a major risk of Insider Threat. This has increased the risk of Insider Threat.
Surveys conducted by security analysts have revealed that more than 60% of data breaches are a result of Insider Threat from careless employees.
This may be a result of lapses while performing everyday official activities, work distractions, limited knowledge of cybersecurity, usage of weak passwords, or misdelivery of confidential data. After understanding the exact set-up of the cybersecurity infrastructure at your workplace, implementing measure for improvement becomes imperative, such as :
- Encouraging employees to use strong passwords, and frequently change them from time to time.
- Encouraging employees to create passwords that do not contain any personal information such as date of birth, name, address, etc.
- Making sure that all employees are confirming and checking the sender ID while sending out official information.
- Giving them proper insight into the emerging cyber attack vectors.
- Preventing employees from clicking on unauthorized links.
- Preventing employees from using USBs from unidentified sources.
- Encouraging employees to always keep their operating system and software devices updated to the latest version.
- Encouraging employees to lock their systems whenever leaving their work station.
Network Management and Monitoring
Monitoring and managing networks used by company employees on their operating systems and devices is another essential objective of all security officers. He must be able to implement a program for the detection of data breaches and unauthorized access into the network to instigate an alert response in case of a cyber attack.
Network security management allows the CISO to gain complete visibility into the network infrastructure of the organization, and come up with solutions to strengthen the same. Cybersecurity officials should take the initiative of implementing efficient network penetration services to secure all existing networks as well.
Proper Coordination with Co-workers
The role of a cybersecurity executive requires proper coordination and synchronization between co-workers to form a well-knit team of security analysts. Having a temperament that welcomes suggestions made by colleagues in the team regarding security policies within the organization is an essential attribute of a CISO.
Training his team and helping them explore new ideas regarding cybersecurity can prove to be beneficial in the long run. Having a well-trained group of people coming from diversified backgrounds will allow security experts to make quick decisions regarding attacks and tackle security incidents more smoothly.
Coming Up with Solutions Related to Breach of Security
After getting familiar with the vulnerabilities and glitches existing in the organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure, the following step for a CISO should be mitigating the risk of breaches via effective cybersecurity solutions.
A comprehensive workplace security policy should be constructed by him, keeping in mind the three most important elements in a security solution program: prevention, detection, and response.
Implementation of cybersecurity tools:
Availing a well-crafted cybersecurity response tool that will help respond to immediate threats as and when company executives are exposed to them is imperative for a CISO. More often than not, employees receive fraudulent emails from a malicious source initiated by a cyber attacker.
The security response tool when activated by the employee redirects the aforementioned email to security analysts. Here the authenticity of the forged email is checked by matching its DMARC and SPF records via an email domain authentication tool. In case the email turns out to be spoofed, it is transferred into the trash bin or spam box of the employee.
Availing external security services:
An even smarter step that can be taken by a cybersecurity officer working for an organization would be taking the help of cybersecurity monitoring services and implementing tools that would analyze email domain authenticity. Coordinating these measures taken together with a proper vulnerability assessment and penetration testing service will result in an impenetrable security infrastructure at the respective organization.
Increasing awareness among employees:
Measure taken by security executives is of no use if the employees of the company are completely unaware and ignorant about impending attacks. This is why employees should be exposed to a security awareness training program that will allow them to assess their knowledge regarding the various ways of security breaches. Detailed information on attack vectors should be provided to get via knowledge imparting sessions and advisories, suggesting them ways to evade the same.
Ensuring Data Security
As a CISO of an organization, numbers and facts play an important role in measuring improvements and calculating outcomes. However, maintaining proper metrics is useless if the factors leading to the resultant measurements are not provided.
The digital devices of a company should be all efficiently analyzed by the CISO and his team of security experts. They should also subsequently be able to relate the data with the company’s backdrop. This will allow security analysts to discover various risks in security management and monitoring and come up with solutions to improve on them.
It is always preferable to manage security risks with the help of an external cybersecurity threat administration program. Vulnerable security infrastructure, IoT devices and insecure networks increase susceptibility to data breaching. These vulnerable systems can be exploited by attackers to access the ICS ( Industrial Control Systems) and leak confidential data.
Increased usage of IoT devices has drastically hampered cybersecurity within organizations, which when connected to the company’s primary network, immediately increases the risk of infiltration. Cybersecurity officers must secure all IoT devices and implement services for vulnerability assessment of such devices in a company.
Establishing oneself as a cybersecurity official of a company can be extremely challenging and testing, for he is responsible for being the shield that protects all confidential information of the company. Subsequently, all employee details, client details, and databases containing important metrics are at the disposal of the CISO.
If he fails to deliver results and prevent leakage of data, the reputation of the company will be hampered. Therefore, a well-organized action plan related to cybersecurity management is essential in every organization and it is the sole responsibility of the CISO to ensure that the company can avail it.
“As cybersecurity leaders, we have to create our message of influence because security is a culture and you need the business to take place and be part of that security culture.”
— Britney Hommertzheim, Director, Information Security, AMC Theatres, at SecureWorld Kansas City
