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Date: July 7, 2023
Cyber Security Governance Refers to the overall approach you use to direct and manage your organization’s cybersecurity. This includes a systematic approach to processes and practices that help identify cyber risks, and assess and manage them effectively.
The primary goal of cyber security risk governance is to provide a structured approach to securing your digital infrastructure and critical assets.
In this blog, we cover some of these basics of cybersecurity governance:
- What is cyber risk governance?
- How should you approach cybersecurity governance for your organization?
- What does good governance look like?
What is governance in cyber security?
We often hear the terms ‘governance, risk and compliance’ thrown around liberally in any cyber security discourse. However, in our discussions with businesses and clients over the years, we have noticed that not everyone fully understands the ‘governance’ component.
Hence, we decided to simplify the concept in this blog. The idea is to show you what cyber governance entails and how you can achieve it. Because the most essential aspect of cybersecurity governance is a systematic, action-based approach to security.
Cyber risk governance is a process of assembling policies and frameworks that integrate with organizational activity. This ensures that cyber attacks cause less disruption.
Below is a look at some of the key steps in establishing a good governance program:
- Identification of organizational risks and risk appetite in the existing threat landscape.
- A clear definition of the most critical business assets and operations that need maximum protection to ensure business continuity.
- Creating clear accountability frameworks – ensuring roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and communicated to all stakeholders.
- Has a well-established cyber risk management framework.
- Crispy marble, to the point Response plan for cyber incidents, Cyber Security Policy and A book of reactions to events. This helps in better overall risk management and incident response.
- Ensure that cyber security is part of the business culture. All departments, including management and the board of directors, should be knowledgeable about their cybersecurity responsibilities.
- Defining how regularly cyber security documents, programs, processes and policies will be reviewed and revised. Treating cyber risk governance as an ongoing and ongoing process rather than a one-off or annual activity.
How should you approach cybersecurity governance for your organization?
When it comes to cyber risk management, it’s important to remember that no ‘one size fits all’ approach will ever work. This is simply because the risks and threats your business faces will always be different from anyone else’s, including those in the same industry as you.
Furthermore, your critical assets or most important operations will also always be unique. The way your information systems are managed will be unique to your business. How you assign responsibility for cybersecurity to different departments and leadership will also be unique.
Therefore, it is imperative to understand that what governance looks like to you may be very different from what it looks like to your closest competitor.
This is where we offer to bring in outside expertise like ours Cyber virtual assistants. Our cybersecurity experts can help you implement a governance strategy that is specifically tailored to your business needs. They can also guide you in the following ways:
- Creation and implementation of effective cyber security policies and procedures
- Measuring the effectiveness of your security risk management program
- Achieve compliance with your organizational framework
- Audit plans and evaluation reports
- Forming and implementing an information security strategy that suits you
What does proper cyber governance look like?
As we said before, good cybersecurity governance will look different for everyone. However, there are some key elements of risk governance that are essential. We summarized them as follows:
- Investment in risk management
Governance is about a systematic approach to how information systems and critical business operations are managed and protected from cyber security risks. Investing in risk management doesn’t just mean investing in technology.
The intention is to take comprehensive control over risks and to create a detailed action-oriented plan to maintain the corporate cyber security position. Of course, cybersecurity governance also involves identifying, assessing and managing information security-related risks. This includes conducting Risk assessmentImplementation of controls to reduce identified risks, and ongoing monitoring and testing of the effectiveness of these measures.
Governance frameworks define roles and responsibilities for cyber security within the organization.
This ensures that appropriate teams and individuals are responsible for implementing and maintaining effective security controls, compliance monitoring and incident response.
It is also necessary for the C-suite to trust the decision makers in charge of risk management. No matter how involved senior management and the C-suite are in cybersecurity, they are rarely the ones making day-to-day decisions about governance and risk management. 
Therefore, it is essential that they delegate and trust those tasked with managing cyber security risks. It goes without saying that these people will have the right technical, business and security experience and knowledge to deal with the task at hand.
Accountabilities and clearly defined lines of communication go a long way in ensuring good governance in cyber security.
Ensuring compliance with applicable laws, cyber security regulations and industry standards is of course a mandatory requirement for good governance.
Risk management includes monitoring regulatory changes, maintaining compliance with standards such as GDPR, PCI DSS or ISO 27001, and implementing necessary controls to meet legal obligations.
We talked briefly about communication channels earlier. Effective risk governance includes clear communication and reporting mechanisms. This includes sharing risk information with relevant stakeholders, such as managers, board members and employees, to facilitate informed decision-making.
Regular reporting of risk management activities and incidents helps ensure transparency and accountability.
Having a well-defined roadmap for incident response and ransomware response is of paramount importance today.
You must establish cybersecurity policies and procedures that outline guidelines, rules, and best practices for securing information and technology assets. These documents define acceptable use of IT resources, data classification and handling, and other security-related guidelines.
But it is very important to have a solid incident response strategy. Cyber security risk governance includes establishing incident response plans and procedures to handle security incidents effectively. These programs and playbooks should help you detect and respond in time to incidents, contain the impact, and initiate recovery processes to minimize downtime and restore normal operations.
Government efforts must include educating employees about cybersecurity risks, threats, and best practices. Regular awareness training programs promote a security aware culture. They also empower people to make informed decisions about information security.
Such programs can help employees better understand the criticality of data protection and privacy laws. They can also better assess how damaging a cyber security incident could be to their operations and the overall viability of the business.
For those more fundamentally related to the incident response process, we recommend Normal Table exercises for a cyber crisis. These exercises not only help to repeat incident response plans. They also help participants better understand their role in a crisis situation. They help develop muscle memory that can truly save lives in times of chaos.
Cybersecurity governance is anything but a one-off project. This requires constant evaluation and improvement of security measures.
This includes conducting audits, assessments and implementing feedback mechanisms to identify weaknesses, address gaps and improve the overall security posture. Constant uncertainty in the cyber security landscape must also be taken into account.
A program, policy or technological solution that was relevant and effective yesterday may not be so today. Continuous improvement focuses on maintaining the context of the organizational threat. It calls for continuous adjustments to policies and strategies to deal with constant change.
It also means never getting too complacent and too ready and regularly investing in staff training and reorientation.
Summary:
By establishing a strong governance program, you can effectively manage and address cybersecurity risks, protect your sensitive data, and maintain the trust of your stakeholders.
Cyber risk governance is an ongoing process that requires a proactive and holistic approach. By incorporating risk management practices into your cybersecurity strategies, you can improve your overall security posture and protect critical assets.
Ultimately, good governance helps you identify and address potential vulnerabilities, protect against threats, and reduce the likelihood and impact of cybersecurity incidents—which is really the ultimate goal of any cybersecurity effort today.
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