The Problem:
Annualized revenue of $20 million, but $3 million was dependent upon cybersecurity requirements.
Starting cybersecurity maturity score: 35.
A firm’s Managing Director made a personal promise to clients that their firm would implement cybersecurity practices according to the client’s requirements to gain the business. The reputation of the firm, as well as millions of dollars in contract value each year, were at stake.
He understood that they needed cybersecurity measures that not only met their own requirements but also fulfilled the complete set of requirements of all their customers. This meant it was more complex than just avoiding ransomware and downtime. It required oversight to ensure compliance with customer requirements.
How They Increased Cybersecurity Maturity:
The firm implemented an oversight strategy including many of these items.
Assess & Oversee Policy:
Assess business-specific risks rather than following the generic practices of a managed service provider.
Use a publicly defensible framework to build trust with customers while implementing a Written Information Security Policy (WISP).
Protect revenue, reputation, and data with transparency for client trust.
Watch for Weaknesses:
Implement redundancy and long-term logging to detect breaches by deploying SIEM/SOC and MDR in the cloud and on-premises.
Raise awareness of the most important business risks through AI assisted risk alerting and incident response.
Educate Staff:
Lower the risk of phishing attacks with engaging training videos.
Audit and follow up on training to address current staff risks.
Detect New Weaknesses:
Identify insecure data pathways and storage mechanisms.
Use AI powered event management to find new risks.
Harden new risks to the network and map data flow.
Manage Vendor Weaknesses:
Audit vendors' access to data and evaluate their maturity and ability to protect information up and down the supply chain.
Lower the likelihood of a breach through vendor risk management.
Test Weaknesses:
Test what's been done for quality oversight.
Conduct penetration tests.
Use Qualified Oversight:
Select a battle-tested cyber information security officer (CISO) who has protected thousands of people for many years.
Have the CISO report to the CEO ideally, else the CFO or general counsel.
The Result:
Annualized revenue protected: $3 million per year and growth requiring cybersecurity maturity total revenues of $20 million per year protected from disruption.
Ongoing Cybersecurity maturity score moved from 35 to 73, surpassing the customer requirement of 70.
Within three months of implementing slashBlue cyberSecurity Oversight, our client demonstrated the ability to meet the target cybersecurity maturity requirements for both their firm and key clients.
The firm has ongoing reporting that gives confidence in meeting customer cybersecurity requirements.
In the event of a cybersecurity incident or breach, the firm is fully prepared to protect customer data.
By prioritizing customer protection, the firm safeguards revenue generation.
The firm leaders can now sleep better at night with greater peace of mind.