Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

Introduction

Cyber security is a body of process, practices and technologies designed to protect devices, networks, data and programs from damages, attacks or unauthorized access. It may also refer to the security of information technology. The military, corporate, financial, and medical and government body’s process, collect and store exceptional amount of informations on their computers and electronic devices. Most of the data stored is sensitive and it might include intellectual properties, personal information, financial data and other type of information, which if exposed or falls in the wrong hands, could cause a lot of damage. Organizations usually transmit enormous amount of data across networks during business transactions. Cyber security is therefore the discipline that is dedicated to protect that data and the systems used to store and process it.

In the recent past, there have been rise in volumes of erudite cyber-attacks. Thus, organizations tasked to protect information that is related to health, financial records, or national security have to up their game and protect personal and sensitive business data. Digital spying and cyber-attacks are now considered as a top threat to national security. The most tiring and difficult challenge that cyber security face is the unending nature of cyber-risks themselves. In the past, a firm or an organization used to focus on securing themselves and put a lot of attention on their security resources to protect their most essential system mechanisms and secure them against known threats. Today, threats have progressed and change very fast than organizations can cope with making the traditional approach insufficient.

Consequently, advisory firms have come with more adaptive and proactive mechanisms to face cyber security. NIST, which is an institute of technological standards have provided guidelines in its framework on risk management that has recommended an approach of constant monitoring and real-time valuation. It is seen as an approach that is data-focused unlike the traditional method that was perimeter-based. When an organization’s information is compromised by either an external individual or an employee, it undergoes long term problems. One particular incident of cyber security can have long-term damaging effects on the reputation and financial standings of an organization. This may lead to bankruptcy, a lot of media coverage, low market share, reduced profits, and low competitive advantage and in some critical circumstances, it may lead to death. As a result, it is necessary to provide security against cyber-attacks for an organization to succeed.

Most of the attempts of compromising data involve social engineering, which is a competent manipulation of human nature and people. In most cases it is easy to use a trick on a person by telling them to click a link that is malicious from an email address that they think is from a colleague or a friend when the email receiver is distracted or busy. Other cases are well documented that involves attackers persuading employees in IT department to give access to parts of a network or to reset the password. This is done by easily masked as someone who can be trusted. The only answer that can bring an end or control cyber-attacks is through a firm’s risk management and creating awareness. The key point is to mitigate risk to sensitive data and reduce the effects of, and recuperate from, issues as they come. Simply, risk management is looking at what might go wrong and then come up with ways to prevent that situation.

Risk Analysis

Study shows that 39% of managers are sure that their corporations has identified its most sensitive and valuable digital assets. Another 25% of directors lacked any or had little ideas on whether their firms are able and have identified any attackers or threats. This is the first step in the plan of cyber risk management. This process entails identifying the significant attackers and threats to the company. Additionally it involves the most crucial assets of the firm and assessing the resilience levels of the company and its targeted levels. At this step, the firm should mainly focus on acquiring the correct information on the current states of the countries resilience. It should also make sure that it has built good relations with the firm’s security leaders and technicians. This helps in getting the correct info on whether or not the firm is performing well. The firm should classify and distinguish its controls. Company management should understand that not all tools can be used in all places to provide control. Assets that are critical to the firm should receive control measures that are more defined.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the process of recognizing threats to data or to information structures, determining the possibilities in which the threat can happen and recognizing weaknesses of the system that a threat can exploit. The first step in risk assessment involves classification of info. Creating management plan on cyber security is by assessing the technology that is used in your firm. Before doing away with vulnerabilities, one should get a range of the technology being used in the organization. The main point of this step is to get the manufacturers and technologies present in the firm. Different operation systems, parts and hardware, infrastructure, network and software applications have different weaknesses. All this vulnerabilities should be recognized to in the beginning.

The second step involves the assessment of all weaknesses that may be brought by protocols and employees.  The most crucial work of cyber risk management is to make sure that the processes, protocols, and work methods used by staffs does not bring vulnerability into the organization’s systems. These steps looks into whether the organization’s staffs are proficient technologically. Whether they have had any training on cyber security and materials to read about it. Whether employees use their own devices to access the network of the firm. This is because in most cases, viruses introduced by employees are not intentional but rather mistakes made without their knowledge. All businesses organizations should assess the procedures and processes they implement. It should be done as some methods and protocols documented might not be valid and secure.

The third step is to carry a historic analysis of all cyber-attacks. The best method to find conspicuous vulnerability in your organization’s system of cyber management is through looking at earlier cyber-attacks, hacks, viruses that the firm has faced. In this step, information on cyber-attacks is analyzed to identify paths that are open for hackers to use in harming your firm. Even the failures that the organization has underwent on cyber security should be gone through and in most cases they may provide valuable and immense data on vulnerabilities.

The forth step is to begin recurring activities on cyber risk management. In order to maintain the network that a firm uses, a continuous activity need to be done.  There is need of planning a recurring actions that improve the framework of cyber risk administration. This process entails updating all the available software and installing them as the updates has fixes to any new weaknesses that will be discovered. The fifth and final step is on concentrating on training against cyber-attacks.  Every employees in your organization is capable of introducing a virus to the network as long as they have access to the network. In order to efficiently provide cyber security management, all staffs need to regularly be trained on ways to maintain cyber security. They should learn on the best practices and the most shared scenarios of problems that people have made which lead to exposing the firm to cyber-attacks.

Risk mitigation

Risk mitigation is defined as the various ways and procedure that can be used to reduce the possibility of compromising the honesty, privacy and availability of important assets to agreeable levels. There are different levels of risk mitigation, namely identification, choosing and implementation.

Risk identification

It is advisable for organizations to measure the information asset and then make a decision on how to reduce the risk involved. Upon risk determination the organization has three options to consider. First, they can accept the risk. The acceptance can only be an option if the risk itself is low for example where the asset value is low and the possibility of the threat occurring is low. Additionally, a situation where an organization ca accepts the risk is when the cost of transferring the risk is higher than the cost of accepting it. In case the cost of accepting the risk is higher than that of transferring it, then an organization should consider other forms of risk mitigation.

Transferring risk.

Like for the insurance companies, when a risk is said to be shared it simply means that the risk has be partially or fully been shared with the third party. In case the organization has valuable assets, they can consider insuring them so that incase of damage they can be replaced. There are cases where insurance does not work because mostly the risk is very high hence not transferable. Examples of transfer of the risk when an owner of a car transfers the risk of losing their car through theft or accident to a third party of when an organization invites a vendor who ensures the organization’s and takes responsibility of the integrity and all information from the organization mostly happens with the web hosting.

Limit of risk

Whenever the risk cannot be transferred, limitation of that risk either in part or in full should be considered. The process will involve researching, identifying and developing satisfactory control to that threat. For example, a company that faces risks of cybercrime can purchase a software to be used across the organization to reduce that risk, additionally training of worker of different ways to avoid such threats is advisable. Sometimes risk limitation cane free, inexpensive and very fast. For examples suppliers may offer supplies without charging for their currier services. In other cases, risk limitation is very expensive. For example, if places that hold very important information face any threat of any kind, an organization may consider moving out and go to a different location.

Generally, there are different levels of risk controls an organization can us to ensure that does go beyond and above what the organization can handle. Organizations are obliged to this responsibility of either controlling or transferring risk to control different aspect of the threats.

Avoiding the risk.

There are different people who deal differently with the risks as they come from risk acceptance, transfer and risk limitation. In real life it is the responsibility of people as mangers of their own life or organizations to know when to avoid the risk. Risk avoidance simply tells you that the assets involved are of high value and they need no exposure to any kind of uncertainty howsoever.

Choose option

After the identification of different way of risk mitigation, there is one option that is picked. The management receives recommendations from the team responsible to handle risks. In case there is change in asset information or the threats, then the decisions are revisited to ensure that the right steps are followed in the solution process

Implementation of the solution.

Implementation involves actualizing the decisions made in risk mitigation. As previously highlighted, risk mitigation steps are accepting the risk, transferring the risk, limiting the risk and risk avoidance. Once the decision is made the proper measures, policies and procedures are put in place.

Risk Evaluation

This is the last step after implementation, it is done in order to ensure that the method used to end the risk for every information asset identified has been applied. A review should be done annually to make sure that control measures put in place are working and are viable provide protection to the said information asset. A technical review team on security includes the reviewing of controls put in the system or in the applications to make sure that they are still functional as expected. It is also done to ensure that those measures comply to the security policies documented and their procedures.  It also entails taking a review on the security patches to confirm that they have been connected are operating such as the review to firewall testing, rules and control list. There are several steps in evaluation as it will be discussed below.

Review and records

This steps is done after implementation has taken place to look at what was done by classifying assets, choosing an option and applying the chosen actions. In this step, documentations and recording are learnt. A group is prepared which should be inclusive of the original group so that they can evaluate and discuss the procedure and to document lessons learnt and issues that arises.

Tools to help in evaluation process

Another important part is the use of auditing, policies and tools. Tools used include a system of risk management that is used to assess risk. Some of this tools are also used to reduce risks for a long period. Auditing helps firms over time to recognize possible risks and threats and come up with future management and assessment assets. Policies helps a firm to outline how they can prevent misuse of data assets and correction of those that compromised the firm’s info. Tools of leveraging such as procedural and software can assist in the management and assessment of risks and therefore they should be examined. If used properly they can speed up the process of assessment making the management processes easy.

Auditing tools are sometimes available in systems that transfer or contain information assets. To continually manage risks, an organization should consider enabling and installing these tools. There cannot be used to replace risk management but rather for identifying situations that may have otherwise compromised the integrity, availability and integrity of information methodologies. Policy management tools sometimes are integrated and available to the firms system. Policies are generally used in prevention of compromises that are possible. They in some cases limit the activities of people on the system. Other policies are used to send data in a format that is greatly reliable, providing integrity.

Conclusion

The risk management framework of most organizations is updated and examined regularly, its mechanisms constantly changed, and its software submissions   updated or replaced with versions that are newer. Additionally there should be regular changes with the employees and in policies regarding securities. All this changes indicates that there will be new risks that will come up and also old risks that have been dealt with previously might resurface again. Thus, the process of risk management is evolving and ongoing. The government should involve the private sector in the efforts of fighting with cyber-attacks. Organizations should use management tools that are risk-based and be integrated with the management framework of the organization. People should be taught about the business risks and needs of the government and also the need and importance of cybersecurity. The government legislators and agencies should work together to talk about the problems faced on the fight against cybersecurity and also to generate the funding that is required against the fight.

The firm’s first line of defense is their risk management plan that will ensure that they identify and address possible vulnerabilities and threats. Every organization should focus on its management plan so that they can improve it. Through this, the firm is assured of cyber health, reputation and security for a long period. This will ensure that it protects the organization against threats, which in return boost profits, reduce business liabilities, meet required standards and finally ensure that the firm gains a competitive advantage.