Cyber Governance, Risk and Compliance

IT (Cyber) Operating Model

A Cybersecurity Operating Model is a framework that outlines how your organisation identifies, assesses, and mitigates cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. It provides a common understanding of the cybersecurity roles, responsibilities, and ownership of the cybersecurity capabilities. It also helps to further develop the workforce through training and awareness.

The operating model serves as a bridge between strategy and effective execution, reinforcing the connection between business/mission drivers and cybersecurity activities. A well-structured operating model integrating cybersecurity with the overall business strategy ensures your organisation is more cyber resilient.

A Cybersecurity Operating Model should include people, processes, and technology. It seeks to enhance your organisation’s ability to withstand cyber threats, operate within acceptable cyber risk levels, reduce your attack surface, and build on digital opportunities while having the right cyber competencies in place.

The approach starts with understanding your organisation, setting the cybersecurity vision, and defining the design principles. Next, the Cybersecurity Operating Model is co-created, and finally, assistance is provided during the transition and implementation of your new cybersecurity organisation.

In essence, a Cybersecurity Operating Model is a unique approach that provides defensibility, detectability, and accountability. It is based on the idea that you can’t protect what you don’t know and aims to provide a holistic view of your organisation’s security posture.
At Global Sentynel, we can assist you assessing, creating and enhancing your organisation’s Cybersecurity Operating Model.

IT (Cyber) Operating Model

Cybersecurity Policies and Procedures are guidelines, and protocols established by your organisation to protect your digital assets, data, and resources from unauthorised access, misuse, and attack. These policies are developed to outline your organisation’s approach to managing and securing its information technology infrastructure and to help ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its data. They should comprehensive, regularly updated, and must be aligned with industry regulations, best practices, and international standards.

Examples of cybersecurity policies include:

  • Data Protection and Privacy Policy,
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • Incident Response Plan
  • Working from home/remotely
  • User Access and Authorisation
  • Data Classification

These policies guide the implementation of technical controls, spell out the intentions and expectations of senior management in regard to security, and are translated into specific technical actions by the security or IT teams.

Aligning these policies and procedures with your organisational values ensures that the company’s approach to cybersecurity reflects its mission, vision, and ethical commitments. This alignment also helps to foster a culture of security within your organisation, promoting awareness and adherence to cybersecurity measures among all employees.

At Global Sentynel, we offer a range of cybersecurity services tailored to address the unique needs of businesses and enhance their security posture. The services include:

  1. Policy Development and Update: assist in identifying policies that require creation and/or update to reflect your organisation’s cybersecurity commitments.
  2. Policy Assessment: Analysing your existing policies and standards to determine alignment with your organisation’s strategic goals and regulatory and industry requirements.

Cybersecurity Process Improvement

Cybersecurity Process Improvement refers to the ongoing efforts to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of your organisation’s cybersecurity measures. It involves identifying areas of weakness or inefficiency in current cybersecurity processes, implementing changes to address these issues, and then monitoring the results to ensure that the changes have had the desired effect.

The goal of Global Sentynel’s cybersecurity process improvement is to reduce the risk of cyber threats, improve your organisation’s ability to respond to incidents, and ensure that cybersecurity measures align with your organisation’s business objectives.

This process is often guided by a framework such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which provides a structured approach for managing cybersecurity risks. The framework includes steps for identifying vulnerabilities, protecting critical infrastructure, detecting threats, responding to incidents, and recovering from them.

Continuous improvement is a key aspect of cybersecurity. This means regularly reviewing and updating cybersecurity processes to adapt to new threats, technologies, and business requirements.

In essence, cybersecurity process improvement is about making sure that your organisation’s cybersecurity measures are as effective as possible, and that they continue to improve over time.

IT Policy maturity assessment

IT Policy Maturity Assessment is a systematic process that evaluates the development and implementation of your organisation’s IT policies. It’s a way of assessing current IT performance and outputs, using quantitative and qualitative data.

The assessment involves comparing your organisation’s current state with a desired future state, identifying gaps, and creating a roadmap for improvement. This helps organisations understand where they stand in terms of IT maturity and what steps they need to take to reach their goals.
The maturity model provides a structured way to measure the progress of people, processes, and technology. Maturity levels may range from low-level chaos to high-level strategic partnership.

Assessing IT maturity is not a one-time activity. It’s essential to reassess maturity to monitor progress and continually improve. An IT maturity assessment may follow a four-step approach: assess, analyse, address, and monitor.

Cybersecurity control testing and assurance

Cybersecurity Control Testing is the process of evaluating the extent to which security controls are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and producing the desired outcome with respect to meeting the security requirements for your information system or organisation. This involves using various methods and tools to validate that all security controls are in place and working effectively.

Cybersecurity Assurance is the verification that systems and processes meet the specified security requirements and that processes to verify ongoing compliance are in place. It provides confidence that your organisation’s information systems are protected against security threats.

Together, cybersecurity control testing and assurance help your organisation maintain a strong security posture by ensuring that their security measures are effective and compliant with relevant standards and regulations. They are critical components of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

Vendor cybersecurity assessment

Vendor or third-party cybersecurity assessments are essential processes that your organisation undertakes to evaluate and manage the security risks associated with their external partners, suppliers, and service providers. The goal is to ensure that these external parties meet the minimum-security standards set by your organisation.

These assessments aim to assess the security posture of third-party entities (such as vendors, contractors, consultants, or intermediaries) that have access to your organisation’s systems, data, or networks.

Global Sentynel’s vendor cybersecurity assessment include:

  1. Comprehensive Evaluation: conduct a thorough evaluation of the third party’s security practices, policies, and controls to identify security control gaps when compared to your organisation’s cybersecurity expectations.
  2. Risk Identification: The assessment identifies gaps, vulnerabilities, and potential threats posed by the third party.
  3. Alignment with Standards: It ensures that the third party’s security practices align with industry standards and best practices.