Cyber resiliency refers to an organization’s ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that need the internet to work. It describes an entity’s ability to continue to deliver desired results in the face of challenging cyber events, such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or economic slumps.
Cyber resiliency is not to be confused with cyber security. While cyber security and cyber resiliency may seem similar in context, they are quite different. Cybersecurity is a component of cyber resiliency that is itself made up of several subcomponents — endpoint security, network security, and security awareness training.
In contrast to cyber security, which is designed to shield systems, networks, and data from cyber attackers, cyber resiliency guards against the failure of systems and networks if security is breached. Cyber resiliency requires that an organization defends itself against cyber threats, has adequate cyber risk management, and can guarantee business continuity during and after a cybersecurity incident.
Why Cyber Resiliency is Important
Today, responding to and recovering from security breaches is just as crucial as being able to avoid them. Since standard security measures are insufficient to guarantee proper information security, data security, and network security, cyber resiliency is necessary. The importance of cyber resiliency is also predicated on the fact that IT security teams believe that hackers are constantly trying to gain unauthorized access to their organizations.
Cyber resiliency is necessary for business continuity. Besides enhancing an organization’s security posture and reducing the risk of exposure to its critical infrastructure, cyber resiliency offers other enormous benefits.
1. Reduce Financial Loss
It helps reduce financial loss. When a business loses money due to a cyber attack, it could cause stakeholders in the company, including shareholders, investors, employees, and clients, to lose confidence in it. According to the 2020 cyber resilient organization report by IBM security TM, more than 50% of firms experienced cyber security incidents that seriously affected information technology (IT) and business activities.
2. Gain Customer Trust
If a company has a cyber resiliency certification, it inspires confidence and trust in its clients and customers. Some businesses comply with international management standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001 provided by the International Organization of Standardization, to draw clients and grow their business. To manage the security of assets like employee data, financial information, intellectual property, or third-party entrusted information, the company’s information management system (ISMS) must meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 27001.
3. Increase Competitive Edge
A cyber-resilient organization can maximize the value it generates for its clients, boosting its competitive advantage through effective and efficient operations. Business processes with management systems based on industry standards, such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), run relatively successful businesses. They do the same when creating a management system for cyber resiliency. These systems consequently add value for their clients.
4. Regulatory and Legal Compliance
Cyber resiliency is a legal requirement for many industries. For example, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) established a framework for managing information security. This framework must be adhered to by all information systems used or run by a U.S. federal government agency. And it is binding on both the executive or legislative branches, and external vendors that work for such an agency.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published standards and guidelines for the framework, including the NIST 800 series and the FIPS 199 Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems. This further helps to reduce exposure to cyber risks.
Elements of a Successful Cyber Resiliency Strategy
The four elements of a successful cyber resiliency strategy are:
1. Manage and protect
This requires having the ability to implement risk-appropriate information security measures to safeguard the privacy, integrity, and availability of your information assets, business operations, and infrastructure. It also calls for the defense of data and systems against hacker attacks, hardware malfunctions, and unauthorized access. This category may cover asset management, information security policies, identity and access control, system security, security competence, and training.
2. Identify and detect
This entails the use of continuous security monitoring and attack surface management to find anomalies, potential data breaches, and data leaks before any serious harm is done. This element may cover threat and vulnerability intelligence, and security monitoring.
3. Respond and recover
This involves implementing adequate incident response management programs and business continuity measures in the event of a cyberattack, to continue operating and swiftly resume normal operations.
4. Govern and assure
The last element is to make sure that your program is managed at the highest levels of your organization and integrated into daily operations. Over time, it should gradually converge more and more with your larger corporate goals.
Conclusion
Without serious efforts toward ensuring cybersecurity and cyber resiliency, many organizations will eventually experience a cyber attack. The best way to maintain an IT security system that is impossible to breach is to double down on cybersecurity and cyber resiliency.
Still trying to figure out where to start? Here at Randori, we help you stay one step ahead of cyber-criminals, hacktivists, and nation-state attackers. Now is the best time to develop a cyber resiliency strategy that will protect your organization from potential cyber threats. Armed with the attacker’s perspective, Randori helps companies of all sizes better secure their attack surface.
