Business Policies for Strong Information Security
Well Crafted Cyber Security Policies Keep You Safer.
Information security policies are a cornerstone of effective cybersecurity. Which policies and how many you need depends in part on your industry and size, but there are specific cybersecurity policies every organization should customize and implement. Clear policies both reduce the chances of falling victim to a successful cyber attack and help limit your damages if you do experience a cyber incident.
It is easier to see the big picture for information security protocols when you you break down IT security policies into a handful of distinct categories. We like to visualize it as your basic quartered donut, with Prevention and Recovery being represented on the x axis, People and Technology on the y axis and Management Policies making up the donut hole. There will always be some overlaps in coverage, as there should be. Ideally, when you build strong policies for humans in your network, and then back up your people and organization with strong technology tools to defend your network, you never experience any serious breach. Affordable cybersecurity that is both implementation and management friendly is entirely possible. You cannot eliminate 100% of risk, but when you implement, maintain, and regularly update a solid cyber defense plan, criminals generally opt for easier targets and remain unsuccessful if they do specifically target you for your information and assets.
Let’s break it down quadrant by quadrant.
Sectional Organization of Information Security Policies
               1. Preventative data security policies strengthen your position against an incident happening.
               2. Recovery policies can protect you from greater damages in case you do experience a breach or incident.
               3. Policies set protocols for people using your network.
               4. Policies set protocols for how your technology is structured.
               5. Management Policies create the structure for maintaining a good policy profile.
Well Crafted Cyber Security Policies Keep You Safer.
Information security policies are a cornerstone of effective cybersecurity. Which policies and how many you need depends in part on your industry and size, but there are specific cybersecurity policies every organization should customize and implement. Clear policies both reduce the chances of falling victim to a successful cyber attack and help limit your damages if you do experience a cyber incident.
It is easier to see the big picture for information security protocols when you you break down IT security policies into a handful of distinct categories. We like to visualize it as your basic quartered donut, with Prevention and Recovery being represented on the x axis, People and Technology on the y axis and Management Policies making up the donut hole. There will always be some overlaps in coverage, as there should be. Ideally, when you build strong policies for humans in your network, and then back up your people and organization with strong technology tools to defend your network, you never experience any serious breach. Affordable cybersecurity that is both implementation and management friendly is entirely possible. You cannot eliminate 100% of risk, but when you implement, maintain, and regularly update a solid cyber defense plan, criminals generally opt for easier targets and remain unsuccessful if they do specifically target you for your information and assets.
Let’s break it down quadrant by quadrant.
Sectional Organization of Information Security Policies
1. Preventative data security policies strengthen your position against an incident happening.
2. Recovery policies can protect you from greater damages in case you do experience a breach or incident.
3. Policies set protocols for people using your network.
4. Policies set protocols for how your technology is structured.
5. Management Policies create the structure for maintaining a good policy profile.
Connect:
Have questions? Let’s talk! Please tell us a little bit about your organization and any known cybersecurity issues so we can best pair you with one of our professional analysts. We’ll get back to you within 48 hours. We offer free 30 minute consultations and we’re happy to answer questions and provide recommendations for next best steps for reaching your cybersecurity goals. You’re also welcome to call to schedule a consultation.
Must Have Policies for Strong Information Security
People Protocols for Cybersecurity Protection
The first people policy to make sure you have in place is your Acceptable Use Policy for employees. Current reliable statistics show that between 88% and 95% of breaches are due to employee errors, making it extremely important that everyone knows what is and is not allowed within the network. As part of a defense in depth strategy, you should also invest in good supporting technology and employee cyber safety training, but having clear, documented network use protocols that all employees are required to read and acknowledge is an important step on the path to great cyber hygiene.
An AUP can be a full umbrella policy, or, depending on your size and business structure, you may also benefit from having separate technology use policies for various departments and job functions. Your Acceptable Use Policy, at a minimum, should clearly specify what is and what is not allowed on organizational technology. Often, you can include your Bring Your Own Device and Remote Access Policies as sections of your AUP. Your Acceptable Use Policy should be reviewed annually and updated as the technology landscape evolves. Building a safety forward AUP by incorporating best practice cybersecurity protocols at the base of your network is a great, cost effective form of network defense.
If you need assistance with building an cyber strong Acceptable Use Policy, we customize detailed employee AUPs with built in best practice protocols, including protocols for specific regulatory requirements as determined by your industry and any unique concerns for your organization. Prices for customized business cyber security policies start at $150 and we offer significant discounts for bundled services.
In addition to the Acceptable Use Policy, depending on the kinds of data your employees process, whether they work remotely, on premises, or both, as well as various other industry specific factors, you may also need separate data processing policies for specific job functions, non-disclosure policies, visitor policies or other policies specific to your organization. To develop a clear understanding of what information security policies are essential to construct and implement for your business model, we recommend starting with a cybersecurity posture assessment.
People Protocols for Cyber Incident Recovery and Remediation
Business policies for post incident response protocols most often apply to and are managed by the IT and Security teams and are more aptly categorized as technical responses. However, there are basic policies that apply to everyone in your organization. Often, post incident response policies as they apply to all employees can be included as sections in other employee policies and acknowledgements. Situations to plan for may include protocols for when an employee loses a laptop or other network connecting device. Also, what protocols should be followed when an employee thinks they might have clicked on a malicious link, both as they pertain to the employee and to management? To build a cyber strong culture, employees need to feel secure in reporting potential errors so you can investigate and conduct any needed clean up as soon as possible. This is where your policies can help define a cyber strong company culture.
Cyber Security Software Solutions
One of the most significant challenges faced by Security and IT teams is that they have too many monitoring tools that don’t always integrate well. Written policies for technical management and oversight of systems are much more effective when the systems work together seamlessly. The good news is that cybersecurity technology has significantly matured as industry leaders continue to invest heavily in research and development. Integrated IT Security services are now available that provide excellent, effective coverage and ease of use while being affordable for businesses of all sizes. Fortinet’s Security Fabric is a single vendor solution and is ranked first for SMB Use Case by Gartner in both 2021 and 2022. Fortinet solutions are also consistently the most affordable solutions for small and mid size businesses and enterprises.
To get a Fortinet Cyberthreat Assessment Report to identify security risks and better understand your organizational network usage, as a Fortinet Partner, we can run a free Fortinet scan of your network both on premises and virtually in Azure or AWS. Technical assessments will monitor your network traffic, generally for 3-7 days, to determine whether there are gaps in coverage in your current solutions. Fortinet currently provides a 40% market share, the largest of any one company, of Next Gen Firewall Services. This allows them to have the greatest understanding of threats within the threat landscape. For smaller entities, this is great news as it allows even micro-businesses to benefit from the knowledge learned about criminal campaigns waged against entities of all sizes across all industries. Get in touch if you’d like to schedule a free FortiNet technical network assessment.
Technology Policies for Cyber Incident Prevention
These are the policies handled by your Security and IT departments. There is some overlap with policies that apply to personnel company wide, but here, the IT and Security teams build and implement the structure for acceptable use of the network, and where they monitor activity on the network. Here, you build in redundancy. For example, including a protocol in your Acceptable Use Policy that says no one is allowed to plug in a USB device into any corporate device will ensure that most employees never introduce a Trojan horse into your network via USB stick, but you should simultaneously have IT policies that require unused ports to be blocked, and another that ensures attempts to connect via USB are flagged for review. When you are a smaller organization, sometimes the technical requirements can be overwhelming, but there are now excellent and cost effective small business solutions available in the marketplace that make setting up and managing your IT Security easier than it ever before.
Examples of other technical policies that should be well documented and reviewed at least annually are password policies, encryption and key management policies, data storage and backup policies, network architecture policies, change management policies and physical security policies. As a part of all IT and Security Technical Policies, include scheduled, periodic testing of all technical implementations and protocols for ongoing assessment of current solutions in the ever changing threat landscape.
Technology Policies for Incident Response and Recovery
A Cyber Incident Response Plan (CIRP) is one essential piece of documentation that will significantly reduce anxiety, stress, and damages if you do experience a breach. It may seem less important to build a response policy if you have strong cyber breach prevention protocols in place, but with the constant evolution of cybercrime, there will never be a guarantee that you are 100% safe from potential breaches. A CIRP is your peace of mind, a roadmap to follow to stop and limit greater damages. A good CIRP will include steps for fully identifying what has been breached and for implementing technical controls for containing damages. For after containment, have a plan for restoring your network to a clean state with your data in tact, and then for documenting the incident details and your response.
Management Policies for a CyberSecure Organization​
In some sense, all policies are management policies, but there are specific policies for management of cybersecurity that serve as umbrellas. A change management policy, for example, determines when and how changes can be made within your technology ecosystem. This will allow you to ensure that technology supports broad business objectives. Further, a change management policy creates a structure for authorization, order of operations and change documentation. It is crucial to include protocols for additions of new applications to ensure that all new software is fully vetted by management and security personnel before it is introduced into the network. HR related changes such as on-boarding and off-boarding new employees need clear protocols giving and removing resource access. Vendor relations may also need cybersecurity protocols if vendors access your network for business functionality.
Referring back to the Cyber Incident Response Plan, there is a management portion for breach response as well. There are strict regulatory requirements for informing parties whose data was breached that vary by industry, incident type and location. Your cyber breach response policies should be built around the requirements specific to your situation so protocols can be easily and quickly followed if you experience an incident. Informing third parties following a breach and adhering to regulatory requirements are protocols that can be worked into your CIRP, either as part of technical response policy or as a stand alone policy.
But, Do I have the Right Cybersecurity Policies in place?
If you’re thinking that’s a lot of policies, you’re not wrong. And if you’re wondering if you need all of them, or what information security policies can be combined, you’re developing a good understanding of what goes into a good cybersecurity defense strategy. The truth is, the only singular list that can correctly define which policies you need is the list you compile based on your unique organization and situation. This is why we always recommend starting with a cybersecurity posture assessment. When you conduct a posture assessment, it becomes clear what policies you already have and where you have gaps in protocol coverage for cyber incident prevention and cyber breach recovery.
If you already know specifically which information security policies you need to build and implement and would like advice on content, or if you’d like us to draft a specific cybersecurity business policy, we offer free initial consultations and can draft customized policies to implement best practice cybersecurity from $150.00 per policy, with deep discounts for bundled services.
Connect:
Have questions? Let’s talk! Please tell us a little bit about your organization and any known cybersecurity issues so we can best pair you with one of your professional analysts. We’ll get back to you within 48 hours. We offer free 30 minute consultations and we’re happy to answer questions and provide recommendations for next best steps for reaching your cybersecurity goals. You’re also welcome to call to schedule a consultation.
