While organizations understand the importance of cybersecurity, there is an opportunity for many to enhance their security readiness further. Various factors contribute to this. Often it boils down to security measures or a lack of awareness regarding existing vulnerabilities.
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For organizations it’s not a matter of “if” they will face targeted attacks but when.” This is where security audits can serve as an asset, in assisting businesses in taking the required measures to prevent potential disasters down the line.
What is a Cybersecurity Audit?
Most businesses are familiar with the concept of auditing. As an organization scales, there is no shortage of due diligence required to make sure it regularly meets both the expectations of financial institutions and legal authorities. Auditing should be viewed as a proactive and valuable practice, regardless of legal requirements.
Auditing can also be an important element of your cybersecurity readiness. A cybersecurity audit is a systematic process you can apply using internal and external teams to help you identify potential vulnerabilities in your operational state while providing the perspective needed to address them effectively.
There are various types of cybersecurity audits that organizations can partake in:
- Network Security Audits – Auditing various parts of your networks, including the configuration of routers and firewalls, is an important part of keeping connected systems and databases secure. Auditors will typically take a detailed look at the architecture of your business network and look for potential weaknesses regarding its layout.
- Penetration Testing – Many companies hire outside security staff to improve their security. Penetration testing services use hacking techniques to test the capabilities of a company’s security framework. This is done to spot any potential weak links that could be exploited. BUsinesses can then implement the right fixes.
- Vulnerability Assessments – Similar to penetration testing, vulnerability assessments use various security solutions to take automated scans of business systems and applications to identify weaknesses that have been identified in certain firmware or driver versions. Although vulnerability assessments on their own won’t give a complete picture of the overall effectiveness of your security measures, they do offer an important first line of defense when scaling your business and changing systems regularly.
- Security Certifications – Security audits are an important part of the process of verifying the credentials necessary to obtain certain business certificates associated with cybersecurity readiness. These certifications are often required in highly regulated industries that require specific data privacy compliance standards to be followed. HITRUST CSF certifications, for example, are a common requirement in healthcare spaces as they relate to the collection and protection of sensitive medical information.
Benefits of Cybersecurity Audits
Cybersecurity audits are critical for business for a variety of reasons. Some of these include:
Improved Security Posture
The main reason to conduct a cybersecurity audit is to find weaknesses that could already exist in your company’s system and allow you to correct them.
Audit templates like ISO (International Organization for Standardization) help you use established industry norms as reference points for your business. This lets you build a security framework that benefits all areas of your organization.
Compliance Adherence
Each industry has its set of rules and regulations established by governing bodies to govern how businesses operate. This also applies to the security protocols implemented to safeguard customer information.
Businesses must stay aware of these standards to remain compliant. Examples of compliance guidelines include PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR. Conducting audits is critical when confirming compliance levels. It also assists organizations in avoiding repercussions like fines that may result from noncompliance with these regulations.
Better Risk Management
Every business operates within a certain amount of acceptable risk. These risks can be financial, operational, or even security-based. However, the goal shouldn’t try to eliminate all types of risk since that’s likely not to work. Rather, organizations should be aware of the risks they take day-to-day and be able to manage them effectively.
Still, you can manage risks that you don’t know are there. This is where auditing can be a helpful tool. By helping to provide your business with additional insight regarding its risk profile, you’re able to prioritize risk mitigation strategies that matter to you and take progressive steps to harden your overall security readiness.
Increased Brand Confidence
There are other benefits that come with conducting regular security audits that go beyond just keeping your organization safe. When stakeholders, investors, and your clients see that you prioritize security, this instills more confidence in your brand and builds more trust as you move forward.
Having your clients trust you is absolutely critical when creating additional opportunities for growth. There is nothing that derails this trust as much as complacency when it comes to protecting sensitive customer information or their privacy. Auditing your systems regularly shows you’re doing the due diligence necessary to keep your clients’ security a top priority.
Cost Savings
Audits may be viewed as another expense but can be a money-saver. You may need to put some resources in initially, but the payoff regarding improved security and reduced risk is huge.
When a security breach happens, it’s not just about the initial costs of fixing the problem. It can also lead to a domino effect of lost sales and long-term damage to your reputation. Investing in prevention is the smartest way to protect your bottom line and your brand.
The Cybersecurity Audit Process
Cybersecurity audits vary in both their depth and purpose. However, there are some foundational aspects to the process that you should know about in order to get the most benefit from the process:
Planning Stage
To get the most value from your cybersecurity audit, it’s important to take certain steps to prepare your systems for review. This includes picking the audit type you need and letting any relevant parties (internal or external) know that may be involved in the process.
During the planning stages, auditors will often meet with different stakeholders to get a better understanding of certain operating procedures and document all physical or digital assets involved in the assessment.
Data Gathering
The accuracy of a cybersecurity audit rests on the quality of the data it can extract. This is why a large part of the auditing process will involve detailed data-gathering exercises, including information about your business’s systems and any policies surrounding their use.
At this point, auditors may want to interview different staff members and review the IT structure of the business. Depending on the type of audit being conducted, they may also use specialized software tools to help them identify specific strengths or weaknesses of connected networks or systems while documenting the results.
Analysis
After all the pertinent data has been collected, auditors will compile and categorize the information so it can be analyzed more intensively. Using a combination of comparative reporting and data visualization tools, they’ll be able to see where your business sits on the security spectrum in relation to other organizations and document industry-specific best practice standards.
Once all of this analysis is completed across a broad range of categories, an accurate threat assessment can be finalized and shared with the organization.
Reporting
Cybersecurity audits can be a complex undertaking, which is why part of an auditor’s responsibility is translating the findings into an easy-to-digest format for the businesses that conduct them. This includes presenting the evidence in a pass/fail format in different areas while highlighting the recommended actions to remedy areas that are less than adequate.
Remediation
Although planning for an audit report is good practice, what you do with that report is what’s important. The ultimate goal of an audit is to help you prioritize your remediation initiatives, not just let you know where things are lacking.
After receiving your audit results, you’ll want to implement an organized remediation strategy that systematically addresses any areas that are lacking. In some cases, this may mean needing to complete various improvements in stages or over a certain period of time. Although this can provide a certain level of disruption to your day-to-day processes, the time you put into your remediation strategy will benefit the organization and its stakeholders in the long term.
Don’t Underestimate the Value of Security Audits
The accuracy of a cybersecurity audit will rest on the quality of the data it can extract. This is why a large part of the auditing process will involve detailed data-gathering exercises, including information about the systems your business has in place and any policies surrounding their use.
At this point, auditors may want to interview different staff members and review the IT structure of the business. Depending on the type of audit being conducted, they may also use specialized software tools to help them identify specific strengths or weaknesses of connected networks or systems while documenting the results.
Author Bio Information
Nazy Fouladirad is President and COO of Tevora, a global leading cybersecurity consultancy. She has dedicated her career to creating a more secure business and online environment for organizations across the country and world. She is passionate about serving her community and acts as a board member for a local nonprofit organization.