A cyber Security Audit Is a Top-down approach to understanding your organization’s entire security posture. A Robust and extensive audit examines and ensures that the measures, policies, and controls you have in place from a Cyber Security perspective are being followed and are working correctly.
It is very critical to have regular Cybersecurity Audits, preferably, by third-party auditors, to eliminate any conflicts of interest. It can be done by internal auditors, but then you have to ensure that their INDPENDENCE is truly maintained and not compromised.
The whole purpose of a security audit to deliver a 'snapshot' of your security measures, policies and controls, at a given point in time. They can potentially highlight the weakness and vulnerabilities of your security posture that could be potentially leveraged by threat actors.
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How Important Cybersecurity Audits AreRecent SolarWinds cyber-attack has forced tens of thousands of organisations, including most of US Govt agencies to conduct 'cybersecurity audits' at mass-level, because the magnitude of impact is extra-ordinarily too high.
Cybersecurity Audits act more as a 'CHEKCLIST' that your organisation can use to validate its security policies and procedures. They can tell you how effect your organisation is in its cybersecurity practices.
Cybersecurity audits are essentially about assessing your COMPLIANCE. Impartial and independent third-party cybersecurity audit will “be able to assess whether or not you have the proper security mechanisms in place while also making sure they are in compliance with relevant regulations.
Cybersecurity audits allows you to take a PROACTIVE approach when designing cybersecurity policies, resulting in more dynamic threat management.
The followings may fall into scope of your Cybersecurity Audit:
1. All of your security controls
2. All of your security management/Governance practices
3. All of your Risk & Compliance provisions
Extending further, it may include audit of your third parties who are bound to you by a contract conferring audit rights to your organisation.
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5-Best Practices for a Cybersecurity Audit1. Review Your Information Security Policy
It is the hallmark of smart enterprises that they always have a well-defined document of their 'Information Security Policy.' It is one of the most fundamental things you should do. Your Information Security Policy establishes RULES for handling all sensitive customer and employee data. You clearly define your policies with regard to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of your data.
Data confidentiality is concerned with which employees have access to what data and who they can disclose data to. Data integrity details how well your controls maintain data accuracy. This also outlines the steps you take to make sure the IT systems that handle data remain operational in the event of an attack/disaster. Finally, data availability outlines the conditions under which data can be accessed by authorized users.
All organizations should have an information security policy that establishes rules for handling sensitive customer and employee information. Before the audit begins, make sure that you review this policy with regard to data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
If you have this document well-designed and ready, then it would be a great help to you and the auditors. They will be able to classify your data and determine what levels of security controls are needed to protect it. They will also be able to ask right questions to your employees to ascertain that how much aware they are of your policies. They can gauge how well your employees understand their responsibilities in this context. This document can help everybody greatly in evaluating how many of your compliance-requirements your organisation is meeting.
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2. Always Centralize Your Cybersecurity Policies
Remember, different regulations may demand a variation in your Information Security Policies. There can be some country-specific policies. But it does not you need different documents of your policy. Even if you do that, you must always CONSOLIDATE all those policies together at your corporate head-office. If you fail to do this consolidation, then your audit process will not be efficient. All such policies much be documented together, so that auditors can identify the potential gaps easily.
You should also include your policies regarding the followings also:
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Network access control (NAC): Do you have NAC solutions in place? If so, are they segmented, and who has access to what?
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Disaster recovery and business continuity plans: In the event of a breach, what policies will come into play to ensure that your business can remain operational?
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Remote work policies: How does your organization maintain security for its remote workforce?
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Acceptable use policy: What terms must employees agree to before they are allowed to access IT assets?
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3. Detailed Diagram Of Your Network Structure
Since the goal of these audits is to find out potential gaps in security of enterprise networks, you must have a highly-detailed NETWORK DIAGRAM ready. When you provide this diagram to your auditors, you can quickly gain a comprehensive view of whole of your IT infrastructures, and this will increase the speed of audit process.
To create a network diagram, you should clearly layout your network assets, and include details-- how each of them work together. With a top-down view of your network, auditors can more easily identify potential weaknesses and edges.
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4. Review ALL Relevant Compliance Standards/Regulations
Before the audit begins, it is important for you to review the requirements of the compliance standards & regulations that apply to your business. Once you have done so, be sure to share this information with your cybersecurity audit team. Knowing which compliance regulations apply to your business allows audit teams to align their assessments with the COMPLIANCE needs of your organization. It will also allow to take an active role in the audit-process by providing clarification on any questions the auditors may have.
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5. Create A List Of Your Security Personnel
Employee interviews are an important part of cybersecurity audits. Auditors will often interview various security personnel in order to gain a better understanding of an organization’s security architecture. You can help optimize this process by providing your auditing team with a document that lists out the individual responsibilities of different members of your security staff. This will help save time and ensure that the auditors have access to all information they need.
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Since vulnerabilities in cybersecurity can pose serious risks to the entire organization, it make a great need for IT auditors who are well-versed in cybersecurity audits...
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your comment on the posts or topics, because when you do that you help me greatly in designing new quality article/post on cybersecurity.This Article Was Written & published by Meena R, Senior Manager - IT, at Luminis Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd, India.
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