How can you balance cybersecurity with business agility in your program?

CyberSecurity and Business agility are primarily two sides of a coin. Balancing these two is as difficult as balancing a coin. Some of the key points to consider are as below, 1. Aligning the respective objectives 2. Find out all such interfaces where, the objectives are aligned and not-aligned (getting to middle-ground) Unfortunately, the business agility is perceived as highly important as the success-impact is generally high; so it becomes a herculean task for CyberSecurity teams to pitch the same level. One wise way here is to make the stakeholders consider the failure-impact rather than success-impact. So, the team should always pose both the questions, what is the success-impact and what is the failure-impact to take a decision.

Defining cybersecurity objectives for your organization is a challenging task. To effective execute objective management you need to define a list of key performance indicators (KPI), and for each one assign a control value and a timeline. These KPIs help you track your cybersecurity program's effectiveness and ensure that your organization's security posture is continually improving, by not affecting the business agility. Balancing security and business agility is crucial for the overall success of any organization.

Three tips for defining good Cybersecurity objects are: Tip #1 Start with your business vision, not your security vision Tip #2 Make sure each outcome is measurable. Tip #3 Align security initiatives to each outcome. Consider abandoning initiatives that don’t reduce risk in your cybersecurity posture or create value for the business.

This approach helps organizations effectively manage their cybersecurity efforts while still allowing for flexibility and adaptability in their operations. Using this approach the organization will be better on identify and focus on their most significant cyber risks and allocate their cybersecurity budget more efficiently by investing in protective measures where they are needed the most, reducing unnecessary spending on less critical areas.

I think good risk management skills is one of the key skills that always get missed out Pragmatism is something that every CISO needs to be good at if they want to survive long term in the industry The business and cybersecurity will inevitably clash and knowing when to say YES and when to say YES BUT is easily the most important skill in such a situation

Implement a risk-based approach to cybersecurity, which involves identifying and prioritizing security risks based on potential impact to the business. This allows for a more agile response as resources can be focused on addressing the most critical security concerns.

Often, cybersecurity leaders fall into the trap of delivering fear-based security, or security of the moment. In reality, it's much more efficient to learn to prioritize our risks using algorithms. Using data, such as the likelihood of a type of security event happening for range impacts to the business, provides a more scientific and accurate framework over time. Two great resources exist to implement risk-based prioritization: FAIR Risk Management and "How To Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk."

In today’s threat heavy landscape, having robust information security is an absolute necessity in many supply chains. An effective ISMS can provide many benefits to a business, including resilience to cyber attacks, preparedness for new threats, data integrity, confidentiality, and availability, security across all supports, and organization wide protection. It can also help the organization win new business, enter new sectors, strengthen relationships with existing customers, build the organization’s brand and reputation, and protect the business from security breaches.

In my experience, it's more effective to focus on a customized InfoSec framework, integrating ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOC 2, NIST, etc., based on your specific goals and risks, rather than a generic ISMS approach.

DevSecOps its a valuable approach for organizations seeking to enhance their resilience in the complex and evolving cybersecurity landscape. It promotes early detection and mitigation of security issues, automation, collaboration, and a proactive approach to managing security risks, so this approach can be use to go further in the adoption of the risk-based approach.

The practice of DevSecOps works towards removing time-consuming events that create delays for the business. No one wants to get a deployment rejected because it uses a vulnerable dependency or contains a code vulnerability. DevSecOps shifts the implementation of security scanning into the development pipeline or even into the developer IDE. By scanning for security issues earlier in the development process, research has shown that it's far easier and faster to make corrections as opposed to waiting until the production deployment to preform security scans.

Cloud computing offers numerous benefits, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. The suitability of cloud computing depends on the specific needs and circumstances of an organization or application. The decision to adopt cloud computing should be based on a thorough assessment of an organization's needs, goals, and constraints. In many cases, a hybrid approach that combines both on-premises and cloud resources may be the most suitable solution, allowing organizations to leverage the advantages of both models while addressing their specific requirements.

Foster a collaborative culture of no wrong door policy. Have joint planning and strategy sessions involving security experts in business strategy sessions and business stakeholders in security planning. This collaboration ensures that security measures support business goals and are adaptable to changing business needs.

- Embed security practices into the development and deployment process of new business applications and services. This requires collaboration between security and development teams to ensure that security measures do not hinder the agility of business operations - Implement continuous monitoring of the IT environment for security threats and vulnerabilities. This proactive approach enables agile responses to emerging security threats and ensures that business operations are not unduly disrupted. - Invest in security automation tools and technologies to streamline security processes and response to security incidents, allowing for a more agile and efficient security posture.

Achieving cybersecurity-business agility balance demands a strategic approach. It ensures robust security aligns seamlessly with dynamic business needs, fostering resilience and enabling agile responses to evolving challenges. Balancing Cybersecurity with Business Agility: -Risk-Informed Decision Making -Agile Framework Integration -Continuous Risk Assessment -Cross-Functional Collaboration -Automated Security Testing -Scalable Security Solutions -Employee Training and Awareness -Agile Governance Structures -Flexibility in Compliance -Incident Response Planning Strategically incorporating these components ensures that cybersecurity remains a proactive and adaptive component of the business, enhancing resilience while preserving agility.