By Cary Grant 
‘How do I assess cybersecurity readiness?’ It’s a common question that resonates through many business organizations. With ever-evolving cyber attacks, it has become vital for businesses to invest in SOC Services for a complete cybersecurity solution. It enables them to develop powerful strategies to deal with potential cyber threats and protect their digital assets.
In short, Cybersecurity assessment helps organizations evaluate whether or not their tools can handle a cyber incident. It is an effective way to ensure continuity and find any loopholes in existing infrastructure. This article discusses the 6 best practices for evaluating Cybersecurity Readiness.
Now, let’s quickly go through the 6 Evaluation Steps you need to follow for Cybersecurity Readiness!
1. Define your Goals
Before you begin, it is important to set your goals or requirements. Or, better say, what do you expect from your Cybersecurity Assessment? Otherwise, you’ll just waste your time, budget, and resources. Check whether you want to
- Use the best practices to set the performance benchmark against the competitors.
- Identify and Mitigate the risks.
- Comply with standards like NIST< CSF, CIS, ISO 27001.
Mapping out your requirements can help you achieve the best results. Also, you can make the right decision about the tools and practices essential for your business continuity.
2. Choose the Right Assessment Tools
Rather than wasting your time on vendor demos, check whether the assessment technology can integrate into the existing tech stack. Not only does it save you time, but also eliminates the non-qualified technical solutions in the initial stage. A wide range of assessment tools are available, such as:
- Self-Assessments
- Testing tools
- Interviews
- Surveys, etc.
Some of these are qualitative, comprehensive, and standardized, while others are quantitative and customized. Use the cyber tools to analyze relevant and reliable data sources such as logs, reports, documents, policies, etc. To evaluate cybersecurity readiness, you need to choose the right tools that can provide optimal solutions for your objectives.
3. Cyber Essentials (CE)
This UK government-supported Scheme provides maximum safety against the common cyber threats for SMBs. Obtaining a CE certification is the easiest and most effective way to assure customers that the organization is committed to cybersecurity. Two types of CE certificates are available:
- Cyber Essentials (Self-assessment)
- Cyber Essentials Plus (It requires technical verification).
Cyber Essential certificate commits to preventing businesses from common cyber attacks. It’s a compact yet powerful assessment to find the gaps in your organization.
4. NIST (National Institute of Security and Technology) Check
It is a simple and straightforward assessment of your organization’s existing cybersecurity control. NIST provides guidelines, standards, and CSF (cyber security framework) for evaluating different aspects of cybersecurity. NIST assessments typically evaluate the organization’s:
- Cybersecurity policies & procedures,
- Technical controls
- Overall Security Posture
Based on the self-assessment questionnaire, a cybersecurity expert thoroughly reviews your documents and artefacts. Finally, a formal assessment report with all the expert’s opinions, flaws, and recommendations is handed to the organization. NIST health check is a cost-effective and time-savvy technique to identify vulnerabilities, areas of improvement, and gaps in the infrastructure. It is highly recommended for businesses looking for a complete cybersecurity solution while managing potential threats.
5. SIEM Assessment
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) assessments have proven quite effective for medium and large businesses. SIEM is a proactive cybersecurity audit that detects and deals with cyber threats. For example, Rule and Use Case Analysis identifies the security incidents and determines if they responded to the threats. SIEM testing assists businesses in ensuring compliance with industry standards, regulatory requirements, and frameworks like GDPR, and SOX.SIEM audits also ensure that the user interface, dashboard, etc. provide actionable insights to stakeholders and security analysts.
In a nutshell, a detailed SIEM assessment boosts cybersecurity defences, mitigates risks, and improves operational efficiency, thus providing safety for valuable assets and reputation.
6. Ransomware Readiness Assessment
It is the easiest way to detect whether the current tech stack is capable of responding to and recovering from ransomware attacks. A Ransomware Readiness Assessment evaluates gaps in security strategies and risks and validates security investments.
This proactive assessment reviews access controls and privileges in the current network and systems to ensure they can reduce ransomware infections. It should cover a Ransomware Response test, to see how your systems and staff hold up when your technology gets hacked. It also includes testing frequency, backup integrity, retention policies, and offsite storage. Ransomware recommends improving its readiness and compliance with regulatory frameworks (GDPR/PCI DSS) based on the assessment results.
Final Words
Periodic cybersecurity assessments can minimize the impact of ransomware threats or other cyber attacks on your business operations. Regular evaluation of tools, policies, and procedures helps maintain optimal cybersecurity health. Identify, implement, monitor, and measure are the four key parameters to pursue after assessing your cybersecurity readiness. Ensure compliance with the best Cybersecurity Service Provider to foster an advanced cybersecurity culture within the organization.