Cyber threats are constantly evolving and recent studies and statistics highlight the growing severity of cyber risks to businesses. In fact, false sense of security is the primary reason hackers succeed in their attempts.
They target a company’s people, processes, procedures and weakest links. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime will cost the global economy a staggering $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. This projection highlights the huge financial impact that businesses could face if they fail to address cyber risks effectively.
In light of this, it is crucial for an organization to stay ahead of the threats and consequences. This is where a cybersecurity audit is very important in an organization’s overall risk management framework.
A cybersecurity audit is a systematic examination of an organization’s information security controls to determine whether they are effectively protecting sensitive data and information systems.
The objective of a cybersecurity audit is to identify vulnerabilities, threats and how they can be prevented from being exploited by hackers. There are many kinds of cybersecurity audit that can be conducted but it depends on the type and size of an organization.
It is worth reiterating that the general objective of a cybersecurity audit is to help reduce cyber risks and improve an organization’s overall security posture.
Signs your company is lagging behind in its cybersecurity risk management
- Thinking your business is “too small” for a cybersecurity audit. Regardless of size, companies are increasingly outsourcing their services and thereby enabling a third-party to get close assess to their critical systems and practices.
- Outmoded technology- Continuous reliance on outdated technologies by way of software and hardware practices can leave a company’s systems vulnerable to emerging threats.
- The Fear Factor- The fear to adopt a new technology with the concern that such changes or technologies will expose the existing IT infrastructure to new threats.
Apart from those indicators, the following incidents also reveal why a company needs a cybersecurity audit.
- The company does not have a clear cybersecurity policy.
- Lack of existing benchmarks for cybersecurity performance.
- It is unclear who is in charge of various aspects of cybersecurity.
- You are experiencing unexplained hardware or software glitches.
- Firewall protections are incomplete or disorganized.
- Lack of an incident management and business continuity plan.
- Employees have low level of cybersecurity awareness.
- Recent changes to network including hardware or software.
- A business in your industry has recently experienced cyber-attacks.
Cybersecurity audits should be performed regularly and their outcomes must be measured against an established internal baseline, industry standards and cybersecurity best practices. A third-party organization with technical expertise can conduct those audits.
The Scope of a Cybersecurity Audit
A cyber-security audit covers various areas of a company’s IT infrastructure including:
Network Security – audit requires a review of network and security controls, anti-virus configurations, security monitoring capabilities, etc.
Operational Security- It involves a review of security policies, procedures and controls.
Data Security– It involves reviewing network access control, encryption use, data storage, transmission and protection systems for sensitive information.
System Security– This review covers hardening processes, patching processes, privileged account management and role-based access, etc.
Physical Security – A review covers disk encryption, role-based access controls, biometric data, multifactor authentication, etc.
The scope also covers compliance requirements, education and training programs as well as overall policies and procedures. Cybersecurity audits require a variety of technologies and processes to evaluate an organization’s networks, programs and devices.
Cybersecurity Auditing Tools
Cybersecurity auditing tools serve various purposes, inspecting all potential vulnerabilities and safeguarding against threats. These can be on-premise network security auditing tools and cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) tools. Cybersecurity auditing tools can categorized in respect of function. These include:
Vulnerability Assessment Tools: Evaluate systems for known vulnerabilities, providing insights into weak points within an IT infrastructure.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS): Actively monitors networks and systems for malicious activities, blocking and preventing issues as they are discovered.
Penetration Testing Tools: These are also referred to as “pen-testing.” This tool mimics cyber- attack scenarios to evaluate cybersecurity posture.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Tools: Aggregate and analyze event data from endpoints to provide a consolidated view of information security, detecting activities that might indicate a data breach or other threat.
Web Application Security Scanners: Scruntize web applications for known security vulnerabilities while working with developers to identify problematic coding practices.
Incident Response Tools: Manage and mitigate security incidents and breaches including incident detection, investigation, and response.
Compliance Management Tools: Ensure cybersecurity policies, practices and controls adhere to regulations and standards or frameworks. Some of the frameworks are the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO/IEC 270001, created in partnership with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
Security Configuration Management (SCM) Tools: Ensure configurations and maintain system integrity throughout an IT system’s lifecycle, align with security policies and addressing non-compliant systems.
Endpoint Security Tools: Protect network endpoints (user devices, servers, network devices) from malicious activity by securing the network and ensuring connected devices have predefined security standards.
Conducting a cybersecurity audit requires a comprehensive and risk assessment of the types of potential threat to the organization (e.g. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, malware, shadow IT, accidental and malicious insiders, zero-day exploits or phishing). To note, an understanding of the risks and threats helps to define the audit objectives as well as resource allocation. Interviews and site visits also help to gain in-depth understanding of the issues.
As part of a cybersecurity audit, security logs, application data and user activity reports should be culled to find and analyze incidents. These reviews should include information from all available sources (security policies, procedures and controls) that may hold clues about suspicious activities or indicators of compromise. An analysis of information can facilitate the detection of ongoing and future attacks, policy violations, gaps in controls and unauthorized access attempts.
During and after a cybersecurity audit, it is also important to document all the findings with the necessary recommendations and timelines to resolve any identified vulnerabilities or weaknesses. The recommendations must be prioritized based on the potential impacts. In respect of the recommendations, systems should be continuously monitored to provide a roadmap for the next or subsequent audits.
Benefits of a Cybersecurity Audit
These include:
- Confirms and validates that a company’s cybersecurity controls are in place and adequate to enforce policies and procedures.
- It helps to meet requirements for internal and external compliance rules. This in effect helps to avoid penalties related to violations of laws and regulations.
- It ensures that sensitive data is adequately protected from unauthorized access.
- It increases incident response preparedness and improves security of systems and processes.
- It also helps to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks thereby maintain risk baselines and security thresholds.
- To verify that people and systems are following security policies while optimizing security training and education programs.
- To reinforce trust and credibility with customers, employees and other relevant stakeholders.
Conclusion
In closing, it is worth re-emphasizing that cybersecurity is crucial in today’s digital world. Cybersecurity audit is essential and therefore empowers organizations of all sizes to help identify and mitigate their cybersecurity risks. However, conducting an audit in-house may not resolve all the emerging risks. External cybersecurity audits can offer a more cost-effective and result-efficient solution. A third-party professional can bring their expertise and provide a fresh perspective which can enhance an organization’s overall security architecture.
BERNARD BEMPONG
Bernard is a Chartered Accountant with over 14 years of professional and industry experience in Financial Services Sector and Management Consultancy. He is the Managing Partner of J.S Morlu (Ghana) an international consulting firm providing Accounting, Tax, Auditing, IT Solutions and Business Advisory Services to both private businesses and government.
Our Office is located at Lagos Avenue, East Legon, Accra.
Contact: +233 302 528 977
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Website: www.jsmorlu.com.gh
