Six Steps to Achieving Cyber Resilience

Even though cybersecurity has been one of the most talked about topics in 2015, cyber professionals still face many challenges combating criminals. For government agencies at all levels, there’s a dire need for the right talent and capabilities to actively defend against cyberthreats.

And with developing technologies in cloud, the Internet of Things, social networking, and mobile, comes more opportunities for data breaches. Because data breaches are inevitable for most agencies, it’s important they become more active with cyberdefense and increase their ability to detect and rapidly respond to attacks.

Fortunately, in GovLoop’s recent online training, Improving Resilience with Active Cyber Defense, topic experts discussed best practices for becoming cyber resilient.

But first, what is cyber resilience?

Cyber resilience is the ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions, withstand and quickly recover from disruption. This includes recouping from deliberate attacks, such as cyber attacks, accidents, or threats.

Our experts outlined six steps to achieving cyber resilience.

1. Move from check box compliance to risk-based thinking. Following a standard framework or regulation for your organization’s security measures will not effectively defend against cyber attackers. You need to understand what your business’s risks are and come up with a security plan that will protect those specific needs.
2. Move from protecting the infrastructure to supporting organization outcomes. It’s common for organizations to focus on infrastructure security but it’s important to create security strategies that align with business outcomes. Find out what your business cares about, such as business performance, a military mission, or public service delivery, and use that to focus your security strategy.

3. Move from being righteous defenders of organizations to acting as facilitators of balance. Work with your organization to negotiate the appropriate security measures. Refrain from trying to dictate what your organizations should do and how much risk it can handle.

4. Move from controlling the flow of information to understanding how information flows. With the continuous growth of digital platforms comes the increased volume of information that an organization will need to understand and protect. You can’t control how the information is protected if you don’t know where it is. Know what information your organization has, where it is, and where it will go in the future.

5. Move from a technology focus to a people focus. You can’t simply rely on technology to protect your organization from all cyberthreats. Educating employees about the signs of phishing emails and other security threats can help prevent breaches caused by human error.

6. Move from “protection only” to “detect and respond.” It’s not enough to implement security plans and assume you will be protected. Organizations need to stay active in detecting when a breach occurs so they can rapidly respond to defend against attacks.

It’s not a matter of if an organization will be hacked, it’s a matter of when. View the training on-demand here, to learn more about how your organization can protect itself.