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Cyber Resilience
An increase and evolution of cyberattacks has prompted the need for companies to make cyber resilience a top priority. End-to-end, tailored testing programs measure the “readiness” capabilities of an organization and help improve incident response, therefore strengthening organizational resilience.
#Cybersecurity
#Resilience
#Testing
The context
Cyber resilience describes the ability of a company or an individual to protect themselves from and respond to cyberattacks, as well as the knowledge of how to anticipate and adapt to the steady evolution of cyber threats.
A key element of cyber resilience is the shift from a “prevention” mindset to a “resilience mindset”, preparing for ‘when’ not ‘if’ cyberattacks will occur. This has been reflected in cybersecurity investment allocations, as recent years have seen a shift in spending to improve response management capabilities.
It is therefore necessary to focus not only on how to prevent adverse events, but also on how to deal with these events once they have already happened: implementing a cyber resilience testing program has become a mandatory activity for organizations.
Key enablers
Considering the increase in frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks and their impact on a company’s business, organizations should be cognizant of key enablers for building a cyber resilient organization.
Third Party Risk Management
Thinking even more holistically, it is no longer enough to mitigate cyber risks in your own ecosystem because risks can come from throughout the supply chain. Focusing on building secure and reliable third-party systems and processes is fundamental, starting from the contractual aspects up to the monitoring of the risks associated with the supplier lifecycle.
Cyber incident response framework
But as incidents are increasingly perceived as an inevitability, having in place a cyber incident response framework in alignment with the Crisis Management model is crucial for minimizing loss and destruction and quickly resuming operational conditions.
Security culture
The human factor is widely recognized as one of the most relevant risks organizations currently have to face: security awareness is the first step in nurturing a security culture and reducing such human-related risks.
Business Continuity & Crisis Management
These disciplines address the organization’s ability to ensure that core business operations are not severely impacted by exceptional events and unexpected incidents or disasters (organizational resilience).
Cyber resilience testing
To help companies practice and verify the effectiveness of their readiness capabilities, simulations, cyber exercises, and training plans are used to test and optimize response capabilities.
Resilience testing
Cyber resilience testing can be approached in different ways so as to challenge different targets and practice different skills, either by focusing on testing response processes, on people, or on technical detection and response capabilities.
Cyber crisis simulation
Cyber crisis simulations are designed to evaluate the awareness and ability of people as well as the maturity of the processes involved in the incident response framework.
Red and purple teaming
Red team testing attempts to reproduce techniques and tactics by real threat groups in order to test the cybersecurity staff. Purple team testing involves more interaction between the red team and the defenders (the blue team), providing insight into how to improve defense strategies.
Adversary emulation
Adversary emulation goes one step further than red teaming, with the red team imitating real attackers’ behaviors in a more realistic scenario.
Capture the threat/virtual lab
To help improve the skills of the cybersecurity staff, organizations can mimic an attack scenario in a ”safe” environment such as a virtual lab.
How we can help
Reply can support your company thanks to its unique expertise, know-how, and technical experience concerning cybersecurity activities. Our step-by-step approach is tailored to the customer’s needs and maturity level, allowing us to evaluate an organization’s readiness capabilities and design a suitable solution. Reply can support its customers throughout all the phases of Cyber Resilience Testing, from the design of the activity to its execution and follow-up support.
