Any enterprise operating at scale understands the need for standardization and strong corporate governance. Having served Fortune 50 companies for decades, I have seen the importance of robust governance for ensuring that an organization grows securely. These business processes can inform how an organization approaches security and provide structure to how each line of business embraces certain growth strategies.
Standardizing Process
The foundation of any modern cybersecurity program is the people processes that ensure the organization is aware of the risks they face - phishing or more complex attacks. Within these processes, though, there needs to be standardization. While each team across the enterprise may have its norms and practices, information security leaders must ensure that standardized policies govern the necessary aspects to keep the organization secure. Using tools that integrate these standards helps catalyze that standardization process. Since the procedures will take the most time, start with working to integrate and standardize processes.
Collaboration In Information Security
Many mature GRC strategies use a modular approach to their organization - when implementing an integrated system, organizations must change how these teams communicate. Integrated GRC platforms or integrated risk management tools can help with this. Often, these tools foster information sharing and allow for asynchronous communication and increased visibility across the whole organization. This increased visibility becomes all the more important as we roll the program data up the chain of command.
Faster Delivery of Information
With solid and standard processes in place and more integrated risk and compliance, technical and business leaders must be able to see and digest the data effectively. Robust data visualizations are a critical tool for leaders. These dashboards vary widely in quality within GRC tools and integrated risk management solutions. Without strong integration of risk and compliance data at the director and manager level, reporting to higher-ups will break down.
More and more, Boards and CEOs call in technical leaders for executive-level discussions. With a comprehensive, integrated view of governance and risk management activities, these leaders can deliver in these conversations with comprehensive dashboards and quantitative metrics.
Reporting in Business Terms
More traditional GRC technology has been focused on technical reporting - reports like SSPs and POAMs necessary for an internal audit or in the event of a breach. To integrate GRC, especially governance activities, the reporting that your solution does must do more.
The greatest change facing governance teams is the increased interest from the CEO and Board in the organization's cybersecurity posture. An integrated GRC solution or integrated risk management tool needs to be able to support that new need. While CEOs and Boards typically manage financial, strategic, and operational risk, cyber risk can be a mystical unknown. A capable integrated solution will help bridge that gap.
Integrated Governance Needs to Move Up and Down
All parts of the organization must be involved to integrate governance activities effectively. From standardizing processes at all levels of the organization to improving and automating the way, senior technical leadership reports to the Board and CEO. These changes are only made possible by powerful tools that enable these changes.
Centralize, standardize, and automate are the core tenets of the CyberStrong platform and are essential to integrated risk management. Contact us to learn more about how our all-in-one automated solution can transform your organization.
