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“Nearly 80% of senior IT and IT security leaders believe their organizations lack sufficient protection against cyberattacks.” (Forbes) Cybersecurity and privacy should be first on the priority list for every company looking to do business in 2022. Businesses should be pursuing a digital transformation to improve security and privacy in the modern digital marketplace.
Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plans (CSIP) arm an organization with the tools to protect itself against: Catastrophic data breaches
In this blog article, we’ll discuss which organizations need a Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) and how you can begin to prepare your organization for this digital transformation.
Companies that are just beginning to understand the need for a refined and thorough cybersecurity strategy are often those who have faced recent intrusions or are part of an industry that has dealt with a major cyberattack or similar catastrophic security breach.
Often, cybersecurity strategy and intrusion prevention may be an afterthought in a world filled with what seem like (at first glance) more pressing dangers such as the pandemic and the myriad of problems that COVID-19 has brought with it. Businesses without even the basic level of cybersecurity are wide open for hackers and bad actors to invade and rob the most precious of corporate and personal data. Due to remote work and the increased use of cloud computing and SaaS, businesses are now required (in most industries) to begin to comply with local and industry security frameworks and regulations to protect personally identifiable information and classified data.
Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) will assist this type of organization in:
As Know Your Business and FISMA requirements become the standard rather than the norm, companies who wish to engage in strategic partnerships or complex mergers and acquisitions need to demonstrate not only their security readiness but also their ability to protect themselves and respond to cyber-attacks and protect both classified and corporate intellectual property.
Entering into a partnership with any organization, whether federal or private, can have its risks, and securing data and private information is often required by both contractual agreement and federal law/regulation.
Contracts can contain often overlooked or disregarded clauses that can have major impacts on the ability of one or more parties to effectively carry out the contract and eventually breach the contract terms and endanger both their reputation and status in their industry as a whole. Information and data security, specifically when discussing the concept of intellectual property when two businesses endeavor to work together in a partnership is one of the most touchy subjects as even the smallest data breaches can cause major issues for a company’s ability to send a product to market and to avoid reputational damage.
Several sectors and industries(and categories of businesses) require data privacy and information security including many that require live data transfer and auditing (particularly organizations partnering with government agencies or working with these agencies).
These include:
According to McKinsey, “to decrease enterprise risk, leaders must identify and focus on the elements of cyber risk to target. More specifically, the many components of cyber risk must be understood and prioritized for enterprise cybersecurity efforts.” Below we’ve listed five ways CSIP protects businesses entering into partnership agreements:
Ensuring that an organization’s intellectual property/data handling, transmission, and security policies protect against breaches and intrusions allows for peace of mind as organizations work together towards a shared strategy. CSIPs function as both a preventative and proactive stopgap in the event of a potential intrusion or cyberattack and should be written with even the rarest circumstances in mind.
Are you entering into a partnership agreement or beginning to explore a contract with a government agency? Contact Us for a free consultations.
Company shareholders and boards representing the interests of corporate entities and enterprises worldwide are tasked with ensuring that their companies are protected from major cyber attacks, extortion attempts such as Ransomware, and social engineering attempts.
Ransomware is some of the most difficult software to protect against and has plagued security, disaster, and data recovery professionals as well as forensic analysts for years. Ransomware is “a type of malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish or blocks access to data or a computer system, usually by encrypting it, until the victim pays a ransom fee to the attacker. In many cases, the ransom demand comes with a deadline. ... Ransomware attacks are all too common these days.”(Pinpoint) Is your company or enterprise equipped with a CSIP section identifying and planning for a ransomware attack?
Social engineering attacks are psychological attacks designed to penetrate the psychological defenses of an unsuspecting individual or group of individuals at a company, large enterprise, or federal facility for all sorts of gains (be they access, financial, or bragging rights). Imperva defines social engineering as a “term used for a broad range of malicious activities accomplished through human interactions. It uses psychological manipulation to trick users into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information.”
Your organization’s CSIP will help you identify your organization’s cybersecurity weaknesses on the technical side and the human side of the house. Using this information the CSIP will help you proactively build in safeguards, access controls, and response strategies to mitigate and avoid risk to your enterprise’s most valuable assets.
Incident Response & Disaster Recovery Plans help protect your organization from data breaches and financial consequences that can cause catastrophic damage including financial and reputational loss. Businesses that are looking to develop or establish more robust IRP and DRPs should look at creating and implementing a robust and all-inclusive Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP).
Data breaches have led to major financial consequences both in terms of regulatory fines and direct financial loss to the organization. According to IBM, “Data breach costs rose from USD 3.86 million to USD 4.24 million, the highest average total cost in the 17-year history of this report.”
CSIP plans help to act as an additional safeguard and strengthen your existing Incident Response Plan and Disaster Response plans. A well-designed CSIP attempts to protect your organization against cyberattacks, breaches, and social engineering attempts while training your staff to understand and evaluate red flags before they turn into disasters.
Security or market vulnerabilities exist due to shortcuts taken to accomplish production or design goals by software development companies. Intellectual Property and trade secrets/program code are a few of the most prized possessions for hackers or cyber-terrorists to gain access to. This is why CSIPs are so important. Subterfuge and manipulative tactics (possibly found in social engineering attacks) have been known to open the door for trade secrets and weaknesses or bugs to be publicized or exploited by competing firms. Ensuring that regular security audits and vulnerabilities are identified and data security or access control gaps are closed should be one of the highest priorities for any INFOSEC or cybersecurity director.
CSIP can protect your firm’s IP and hard-fought progress while ensuring that your investors who believe in your idea and software product can rest easy knowing that the chances of your trade secrets leaking on the internet or falling into competitors’ hands are slim to none.
Highly regulated fields require data protection and privacy assurance policies and procedures. Security plans such as CSIPs and IRPs allow for business to remain as usual and innovation to occur through cross-collaboration be it governmental entities working with private enterprises or data to be shared instantly across an encrypted and safeguarded network.
Healthcare workers and hospitals (and those involved in collaboration with these entities and healthcare professionals) are required to abide by this law. The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes “national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as “protected health information”) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers.” (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
Penalties for violating HIPAA include:
Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) applies to all agencies within the U.S. federal government. Since the law was enacted in 2002, “the federal government further expanded the reach of FISMA into the private sector and dramatically increased implementation oversight. Now, any private sector company that has a contractual relationship with the government, whether to provide services, support a federal program, or receive grant money, must comply with FISMA.” (McAfee)
Many organizations and large enterprises were caught off-guard unaware that they possibly violate this law and others designed to protect the privacy and integrity of information and data existing or traveling to and from government agencies’ networks or servers.
Consumer data is extremely sensitive and some of the most highly sought-after data by hackers and bad actors. The CCPA empowers California residents with the:
Data privacy in the US and the UK has been thrust to the forefront with the amount of recent data breaches and major financial losses that organizations have suffered both due to their hands-off lack of compliance and to the intrusions and use of stolen data. Enterprises that fail to comply with these strict privacy regulations (and similar laws) have been subject to fines that reach in the tens of millions of dollars.
There are no comprehensive, off-the-shelf cybersecurity tools. Every company requires a custom solution based on industry space, e-commerce platforms, records storage, and other considerations. Begin with the steps below to assess your vulnerabilities and let NextLink Labs help you build and implement your Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP):
Step 1. Understand your cyber threat landscape
Step 2. Assess your cybersecurity maturity
Step 3. Determine how to improve your cybersecurity program
Step 4. Document your cybersecurity strategy
Step 5. Regularly Audit & Ensure Compliance
Remember: a CSIP Is Your Organization’s Path To Compliance, Schedule a Call with us for more information on how NextLink Labs can help you comply with federal laws and industry regulations.
At NextLink Labs, we are committed to serving our clients by consistently finding ways to enhance their cybersecurity and protect them from catastrophic loss.
We encourage companies to #BeCyberSmart year-round. Current cybersecurity threats keep companies on their toes, and they require consistent assessment and prevention measures to combat.
Our expertise allows us to help you build and integrate a cybersecurity strategy and implementation plan that allows your organization to ensure that your sensitive data and your clients are protected against even the most complex cyber threats and malware.
If your company needs help securing your network, lean on our expertise at NextLink Labs. These simple first steps are a must in protecting your valuable data, but if you want to know how we can further enhance cybersecurity at your company, schedule a free call with us today!
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