In today’s digital age, cybersecurity is more important than ever before! With the growing number of cyber threats, it’s important to stay on top of your security measures to protect the personal information and sensitive data within your company. There are multiple ways to ensure that you are keeping up with your security and properly protecting sensitive information from cyber attacks, such as keeping up to date with quarterly vulnerability scans, annual penetration tests, risk assessments, internal security audits and more. One challenge that comes with implementing all of these services, however, is that they all require some form of time and scheduling. This scheduling element can sometimes present an obstacle for a business getting started, so in this blog we will be discussing some of the more important projects for cybersecurity and explore how your schedule may look once we begin.
Having a cybersecurity expert on your team will likely change your schedule in a few ways!
Depending on the scope of the services your business requires, your calendar may include regular meetings with the analyst to discuss ongoing security issues, project deadlines for implementing new security measures or updates, and occasional emergency meetings to respond to security incidents. For example, if your business would like to implement vulnerability scans as a service, there are multiple factors to consider for scheduling. Meetings with the analyst will be needed with some regularity, the frequency depending on scope of the vulnerability assessment. Past those meetings come performing the scans themselves – typically, vulnerability scans should be conducted every quarter, meaning you’ll need to schedule that block of time accordingly. Finally, vulnerability scans can help identify potential security weaknesses or gaps. These weaknesses may include weak passwords, outdated software and any other issues that would be easy for hackers to get into. These scan findings are important to address, so post-scan it’s best to leave some time available for the analyst to discuss the risks and remediation options.
Another service that should be added to your calendar is a ISO 27001 preparation and certification process. The frequency of these meetings can depend on a variety of factors including specific needs and goals. To achieve and maintain an ISO certification, your business may need to have regular meetings scheduled to implement and review security policies and procedures, including items like a business continuity plan, disaster recovery plan, and incident response plan. Additionally, a large part of the ISO process is the internal security audit, which typically requires walkthroughs from various business stakeholders – these can be tricky to coordinate and find time for depending what other projects are going on, which makes them important considerations for the ISO schedule. Past that, when it comes to maintaining an ISO certification, your business needs to have quarterly information risk council (IRC) meetings. IRC meetings are meant to help ensure that your business is at its best practices and ensure that your risk management strategies are up to date and often the party is expected to ultimately approve/review policies by auditors, so these routine meets are critical items to coordinate and account for. The ISO process can sound like a lot on paper, but with attentive scheduling and prioritization the process can often be accomplished fairly smoothly.
Overall, your calendar may become more structured and planned out as you work with a cybersecurity analyst to implement and maintain your security measures. It’s important to prioritize cybersecurity and set aside enough time and resources to ensure your systems and data are properly protected. All in all, there are several reasons why a business should maintain cybersecurity services. A business stores a lot of sensitive data such as financial information, customer data, employee records, and confidential business plans. A successful cyberattack can interrupt business operations, and most importantly, initiate loss of revenue. Therefore, by establishing and maintaining cybersecurity services on your calendar, you will help protect your business from cyber threats, maintain compliance, and most importantly build trust with customers.
To find out how to set up a compliance calendar and for a free consultation, please contact us. We assist hundreds of clients with their compliance calendar and perform other data privacy and cybersecurity services.