Form a Hierarchical Cybersecurity Policy
Formulation of hierarchical cybersecurity policy is another good approach to ensure cyber defense. It involves a multi-personnel or hierarchical approach involving the following:
- Influencers: Influencers are the driving force of any cybersecurity policy, as they give direction to policymakers about what to mitigate and against what enemy they have to work. Influencers can be both external as well as internal.
- Policies: Policies are basically those high-level expectations that provide a path to due diligence so as to comply with the said requirements.
- Control Objectives: Control objectives support the policies by providing the scope of standards that are based on the acclaimed industrial practices.
- Standards: Standards give IT administrators the goal/aim to which they should look forward to. In simple words, they tell the organization about the requirements that are mandatory to be met.
- Guidelines: Guidelines provide assistance to the IT team for meeting the said standards.
- Controls: Controls are usually assigned to the stakeholders so that they can assign responsibilities in order to comply with the standards that must be enforced.
- Risks: Risks are those harmful agents or bugs which have the potential of causing harm to the organization’s cybersecurity. Since, there is no risk-free environment, especially in the cyber world, so it is always wise to list down potential risks and then enacting counter-strategies to mitigate this risk.
- Procedures: Procedures are the formal document or SOPs that must be performed to complete respective tasks, which would ultimately lead to compliance with the standards of cybersecurity.
- Metrics: Metrics are oversight evidence of the whole cybersecurity policy, where administrators or stakeholders can gauge the progress as well as compliance of the whole cybersecurity policy by measuring performance against a specific criterion.