In today’s digital landscape, where every company is a potential target for cyberthreats, building resilience within an organization is essential. Cybersecurity is no longer solely the responsibility of the cybersecurity team—it requires a joint effort from all departments. This blog post aims to highlight the importance of collaboration among various departments to establish a unified front against evolving cyberthreats and to ensure company resilience in the face of emerging risks.
Building Cyber Resilience in an Organization
In order to grasp the concept of cyber resilience, it is essential to establish a clear meaning. Over time, various entities have fine-tuned its definition. According to the World Economic Forum, “cyber resilience refers to the ability of systems and organizations to withstand cyber events, adapt to changing conditions, and quickly recover from disruptions while continuing to deliver their intended objectives.” The International Standards Organization states that “cyber resilience is the ability of an organization to absorb and adapt to changing environments while delivering objectives.” NIST states that cyber resilience is not just about preventing breaches but assuming breaches will occur and planning for continued mission execution.
We can draw inspiration from the “Jurassic Park” movies, which showcase the struggle of characters who must adapt and survive in a dangerous and unpredictable environment filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs. The characters exhibit resilience as they face unforeseen challenges, make quick decisions and find innovative ways to protect themselves and others. Similarly, in the realm of cyber resilience, organizations must be prepared for unexpected cyberattacks, adapt their defenses and respond swiftly to mitigate the impact and ensure business continuity.
Collaboration and Communication: The Cornerstones of Resilience
In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, organizations often prioritize technical aspects and sophisticated tools, inadvertently overlooking the critical importance of relationships and collaboration between departments. However, effective cybersecurity relies on collaboration and communication as the cornerstones of resilience.
Successful collaboration requires open and transparent communication, inclusive decision-making and a willingness to embrace fresh ideas and diverse perspectives. By breaking down silos and promoting collaboration, organizations can tap into the collective intelligence of their teams, resulting in more comprehensive risk assessments, stronger incident response capabilities and better-informed decisions.
Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and automation, have the potential to revolutionize collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience within organizations. These technologies provide advanced capabilities that significantly enhance the processes of threat detection and incident response. AI and ML algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, enabling organizations to identify patterns, variances and potential cyberthreats more efficiently and accurately. By automating routine tasks, such as data collection and analysis, these technologies free up human resources to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives and more complex cybersecurity challenges.
Moreover, incident response can be bolstered by AI-powered systems that swiftly identify and mitigate threats, thereby minimizing their impact on organizational operations. This integration of emerging technologies into collaboration efforts not only improves the efficiency and effectiveness of cybersecurity practices but also enables organizations to stay ahead of evolving cyberthreats.
The Partnership Between Internal Audit and Cybersecurity
To establish a secure and resilient environment, it is crucial to foster a partnership between the internal audit and cybersecurity functions. While maintaining the integrity, objectivity and independence of auditors, organizations should aim for a collaborative approach that strengthens their relationship. By doing so, organizations can enhance their cybersecurity efforts and overall resilience.
Tactical approaches to strengthening collaboration:
- Mutual respect and communication channels: Collaboration should be built on mutual respect and friendly interactions. Establish channels of communication, such as Microsoft Teams, for peer-to-peer collaboration and knowledge sharing. Encourage open conversations and healthy discussions, even if differing opinions arise.
- Regular meetings and crucial conversations: Depending on the organization's size, set up monthly meetings between the cybersecurity and internal audit teams. Discuss risks, vulnerabilities, upcoming audits and any issues or concerns. Encourage “crucial conversations” that address differences in opinions and find constructive resolutions.
- Involvement in project management: Include cybersecurity and auditors in larger project management meetings where existing projects are reviewed and new ones are approved. This allows security and audit perspectives to be considered upfront, minimizing risks.
- Knowledge sharing and proactive monitoring: Conduct annual or bi-annual audit methodology overview meetings tailored to the cybersecurity audience. Share high-level expectations, audit processes and procedures. Similarly, involve auditors in cyber teams’ knowledge sharing programs to understand tools, processes and team collaborations. This sharing of information enables proactive monitoring of emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
- Joint problem-solving initiatives: Engage auditors in cybersecurity testing scenarios such as tabletop exercises (TTX) with a cyber focus. Collaborate on robust control evaluations to assess the effectiveness of existing cybersecurity controls and identify gaps or weaknesses.
- Robust control evaluations and cyber risk assessment: Combine the expertise of internal auditors in evaluating controls and processes with the technical knowledge of the cyber team. This collaboration enables a comprehensive assessment of cybersecurity controls, identification of gaps or weaknesses, and alignment with the organization’s risk management framework.
- Foster a culture of trust, transparency and constructive feedback: Top management should encourage increased audit attention to information security issues and welcome constructive feedback. Trust and transparency facilitate critical insights, improve risk assessments and enable a proactive response to emerging threats.
Strengthen Communication and Trust
The quality of relationships between internal auditors and cybersecurity professionals directly impacts an organization’s cybersecurity effectiveness. By fostering a strong collaboration between these two functions, organizations can leverage their combined expertise to build a robust cyber resilience framework. Strengthening communication, knowledge-sharing and trust will enable organizations to effectively respond to cyber threats, enhance their cyber defenses and ensure the continuity of their mission in today’s challenging cyber environment.
Editor’s note: To continue exploring how to empower your team’s success, learn more about ISACA’s enterprise resources.