Situation

Cybersecurity is a hot topic right now, justifiably so considering that cyber-crime damage costs are expected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021, and global spending on cybersecurity products & services is predicted to exceed $1 trillion over the next 5 years (per Gartner).

However, it’s not unusual for executives to misunderstand effective cybersecurity risk management. They often consider it an issue for IT to deal with, when in fact it is an enterprise-wide issue.

That being said, how would an executive know if their business is protected? Where would they begin if it was necessary to implement a new cybersecurity program and strategy?

In our work with all types of businesses we’ve observed that effective cybersecurity risk management must include the following:

  1. Proven and Effective Framework – A framework should be adopted that is relevant to an organization’s particular industry, circumstances and data. Executives need to establish governance within the organization’s people, process and technology.
  2. Comprehensive Scope – A cybersecurity program must protect all data within the organization, and plan for its resiliency accordingly. An organization can only be effective in risk management if it considers everything from end-user devices to third-party vendors within the program scope.
  3. Risk Assessment and Threat Modeling – Identify risks to your organization, prioritizing effort and resources based on likelihood and its potential damage to the business.
  4. Proactive Response and Recovery Planning – It’s important to understand that your systems will be breached eventually, it’s a matter of “when” not “if”. Therefore it’s critical to take a proactive approach within recovery capabilities and incident response planning. Consistently test, remediate, improve and train all resources within your response and recovery systems.
  5. Dedicated Cybersecurity Resources  Establish clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the implementation, management and maintenance of the organization’s cybersecurity program.

How many critical cybersecurity components does your organization have?

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Cybersecurity in the Life Science Industry

Cybersecurity in the Life Science Industry

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