Organizations and businesses are often at significant risk because they are overly dependent on reactive countermeasures and vulnerability scanning tools. This risk is of concern not only because of the high probability of an attack on our IT systems, but also because of the low priority given to information security compared to other operational “necessities”. This complex organizational problem results in information and K9 Cybersecurity not being prioritized until an organization experiences a significant loss of information or system availability. This risk, left unmanaged, exposes all stakeholders to the loss of our privileged information and the high cost of system and incident recovery.
Attacks on our systems often target core tasks and system services to gain privileged information and deny access to critical services. Fortunately for our customers and us, risk management solutions exist to maximize security and provide significant resource and cost savings throughout the business development and operational lifecycle (not just when vulnerabilities are discovered). Once implemented, these risk management solutions provide mission focus and continuous monitoring while aligning security requirements with business vision, system capabilities, and operational capabilities.
Solutions
The solutions should integrate the organization’s experience with operational activities to address its own critical information security (IS) and cybersecurity gaps. Each company or peer group has its own risks to manage. These solutions have roadmaps and experienced professionals who control the cost and/or complexity of increasing security levels. These experienced professionals help identify and translate specific business requirements into policies and plans that support the activities required by both the mission and the supporting IS (cybersecurity) standards.
Solutions are implemented through multiple, often overlapping activities and include: 1) aligning the business mission, vision, goals, and IS value through early definition of IS requirements, 2) providing experienced program managers and industry IS professionals to work with the various stakeholders, 3) assessing requirements and value, recommending solutions, integrating services, and maintaining IS value, features, and capabilities to mitigate risk, 4) providing value-based system features, capabilities, scalability, and performance that enhance the mission and mitigate risk to stakeholders, 5) leveraging IS services for value-added continuous monitoring and automation.
Risk management ultimately encompasses many projects and tasks that align with your vision and expectations to deliver valuable services at every level of your organization. Projects have distinct and important phases that occur sequentially; the success or failure of these project phases directly impacts and ultimately affects the success of the organization. IS is an important component of many ongoing activities in a diverse and competent environment. A combined approach of program management, systems engineering, and IS professionals will maximize mission effectiveness most rapidly while improving the fundamentals required to meet and implement security controls. Management and technical activities focused on mission requirements should follow tailored industry best practices to maximize operations, manage risk, and meet IS security requirements.
Improving IS operations and sustainment is best done from the top down, at both the leadership and technical levels. This approach has resulted in improved operations and avoided many issues related to managing risk and change. We must recognize that risks must be managed regardless of reductions in available funding, and we must realize that any waste of resources and costs is unacceptable. Therefore, all activities must be done “on purpose,” as activities without purpose unnecessarily create risk and cost to the organization.
