RISK AND RESILIENCEResilience by Design
Risk by Management.
In the world of IT, risk and resilience are critical components of a robust and secure infrastructure. With the rapid pace of technological advancement and the increasing complexity of cyber threats, managing risk has become more challenging than ever.
Risks in IT can range from data breaches and system failures to network outages and natural disasters, each with the potential to disrupt operations and compromise sensitive information.
Resilience, therefore, is the ability to not only withstand these disruptions but also to recover quickly and continue functioning effectively. It involves implementing proactive measures such as regular data backups, robust cybersecurity protocols, disaster recovery plans, and continuous monitoring.
A resilient IT framework ensures business continuity by minimizing downtime and protecting critical assets. It’s about building systems and processes that can adapt to unforeseen events, learn from incidents, and evolve to better handle future challenges.
Ultimately, risk and resilience in IT are about preparing for the unexpected, mitigating potential damages, and ensuring the long-term stability and security of digital operations.
IT Infrastructure & Applications Discovery
A comprehensive IT infrastructure & Applications discovery is a critical step in ensuring that an organization’s technology environment is secure, efficient, and aligned with its business goals. The following areas will be covered as a part of the scope.
- Hardware Inventory: We will create an inventory of all hardware components in the Data Centre, including servers, networking equipment, SDWAN and associated hardware.
- Software Inventory: We will CatLog all software applications and licenses, to check for compliance.
- Network Architecture: A review of your network topology, Wi-Fi deployment, security measures, and performance.
- Link Architecture : Assess the connectivity, SDWAN deployment and sample store locations.
- Cloud Architecture review and mapping of the Hybrid setup deployed.
- Data Security: Assessment of data protection measures, encryption, access controls, and backup solutions.
- Compliance: Documenting adherence to relevant regulatory requirements and guidelines for the regulatory framework compliance. This will be a brief exercise.
- IT Policies: A review of your existing IT policies and recommendations for updates.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Assessment of your current plans and recommendations for enhancements.
- Vendor and Supplier Evaluation: Review of your relationships with IT vendors and recommendations for optimization.
- Cost Efficiency: Identifying areas where cost savings can be realized without compromising quality.
- Application assessment: Assessment of application, its integrations and go ahead strategy recommendations.
- Storage review and recommendation for DMS solution as appropriate.
- Software & Tools assessment with current practices and scope for improvement.
- VA/PT: Scope the VA/PT from cert-in certified providers for both black box and grey box testing
Methodology
Our approach will include a combination of on-site assessments, interviews with key personnel, and a review of documentation and systems. We will follow industry best practices and leverage our expertise in Information Technology to achieve the objectives.
Deliverables
- An in-depth documentation detailing finding, business critical changes for uptimes, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvement.
- A prioritized list of recommendations, with immediate, short-term and long-term action plans.
- A roadmap for implementation, (if requested, with estimated costs and timelines to be proposed).
- An executive summary for non-technical stakeholders.
Risk & Business Resiliency Services
When it comes to information security, threats are more persistent than ever before and are changing every day. Organizations all around the world are being asked to demonstrate what they are doing to keep their sensitive information secure. Business continuity, incident response and disaster recovery planning, and IT governance must be prioritized for any IT security and compliance department to succeed. As an industry leader in IT risk management & business resiliency services, FutureSight IT Compliance is your trusted partner in establishing, enhancing, and reporting on the IT controls you have in place. To assist in these areas, FutureSight IT Compliance offers the following services:
Deliverables
- Detailed assessment matrix that contains the reviewed controls, testing process, risks discovered and recommendations for mitigation
- Executive summary that will provide a high-level overview of the assessments, risks, and recommendations that can be shared with management or the board of directors
- Data flow diagrams using Visio for all reviewed applications. Diagrams will be high-level and show flow from the user access point through to the application itself.
Natural and man-made disasters are becoming more and more common, prompting organizations across all industries to enact their emergency response and recovery practices. Time is money and when your systems are offline, that downtime could be costing you significant money in lost revenue and lost employee productivity. The difference between those who are successful and those who fall victim to these disasters is having a formalized, documented Business Continuity Planning Program in place that outlines the critical business functions and allocates specific responsibilities to the key stakeholders in the organization.
FutureSight’s Business Continuity Planning Services use a phased approach to help your organization develop a methodical, systematic program, based on your organization’s specific needs, to recover faster and comply with regulatory requirements.
Phase 1 – Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
The objective of the BIA is to develop a comprehensive report of all of the departments, systems, and applications within an organization that need to be a part of the Business Continuity Plan. From there, FutureSight works closely with key stakeholders within the organization to outline the Key Business Processes (KBP), document these process, and identify the process owners. FutureSight will then help to determine the importance of these departments and systems to the operation of the business, the impact of losing data due to downtime, and the impact of time to recover. Once the business impact is understood, critical systems will be ranked by tier of importance to the business taking into account the Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).
Phase 2 – Business Continuity Plan Development
Based on the results from the BIA in phase 1, FutureSight will begin the process of developing the Business Continuity Plan. During this phase, FutureSight will perform a Risk Assessment to identify weaknesses in the current plan and develop a remediation strategy to strengthen the updated plan.
Phase 3 – Business Continuity Plan Training
The next phase in the Business Continuity Planning Program service is to train your staff on the Business Continuity Plan. The goal of this phase in the process is to ensure that your employees know and understand their roles and responsibilities should the plan need to be enacted. This allows for consistency and communication around who is supposed to do what when the time comes with the goal of reducing any downtime.
Phase 4 – Business Continuity Plan Testing
Testing your Business Continuity Plan is an often overlooked but critical step in your overall Business Continuity Plan Program. Testing of the plan allows for the simulation of an event to determine how well your plan works when it is needed. Testing the plan also allows you to make the necessary adjustments, a lessons learned exercise, to further strengthen your plan and program.
Information technology (IT) policies lay the groundwork for a culture of security inside an organization. These policies outline the technology do’s and don’ts for all employees to maintain proper information security, ultimately helping you mitigate the risk of a breach or incident.
- Access Control Policy
- Antivirus Policy
- Asset Management Policy
- Audit Logging and Monitoring Policy
- Backup and Recovery Policy
- BCP & DR Policy
- Change Management Policy
- Data Breach Response Policy
- Encryption Policy
- Incident Response Policy
- Information Classification Policy
- Information Disposal Policy
- Information Protection Policy
- Information Retention Policy
- Internet Security Policy
- IT Acceptable Use Policy
- Mobile Devices Policy
- Network Device Configuration Policy
- Password Management Policy
- Patch Management Policy
- Personal Device Policy
- Physical and Environmental Security Policy
- Problem Management Policy
- Remote Access Policy
- Risk Assessment and Audit Policy
- Security Training and Awareness Policy
- Segregation of Duties Policy
- Server and Computer Configuration Policy
- Social Media Policy
- System Acquisition and Development Policy
- Third Party Access Policy
- Third Party Management Policy
- Vulnerability Scanning & Penetration Testing Policy
Most organizations today rely heavily on a mix of internal and various third-party and local electronic systems to deliver their services and support to their customers. As a result, effective security controls are critical to ensure that the data contained within these systems are duly safeguarded and secured from unauthorized access.
The objective of this risk assessment is to assess the strength of the control environment and the adequacy of the related internal control framework in place over applications, both internally hosted and from third-party providers. FutureSight will use a multi-faceted approach that includes the following key tasks:
- Site walkthroughs to evaluate IT infrastructure
- Interviews with key stakeholders
- Review of applicable policies and directives, along with components from generally accepted information technology (IT) governance frameworks such as NIST, COBIT, and ISO
Deliverables
- Detailed assessment matrix that contains the reviewed controls, testing process, risks discovered and recommendations for mitigation
- Executive Summary that will provide a high-level overview of the assessments, risks, and recommendations that can be shared with management or the board of directors
- Data flow diagrams using Visio for all reviewed applications. Diagrams will be high-level and show flow from the user access point through to the application itself
In today’s dynamic technology environments, organizations are exposed to many different security risks that need to be mitigated by implementing the appropriate level of internal controls. These controls are critical and have two facets: design of controls and operating effectiveness of controls. In addition, organizations are required to comply with a variety of industry regulations and frameworks in order to operate.
FutureSight IT Compliance’s IT Risk Assessment (also referred as a Security or Cybersecurity Risk Assessment) reviews your information technology environment and identifies risks, internal control weaknesses, and gaps in controls. The assessment then breaks down the probability and impact of individual risks, and maps those risks to specific IT security and compliance regulations and frameworks.
At the end of the engagement, FutureSight IT Compliance will develop a detailed written report that outlines the following:
- Compliance requirement or security control in question
- What your organization has in place compared to that compliance requirement or control objective
- A risk rating that outlines the delta between the requirement and your current control
- Clear, actionable remediation strategy to mitigate your risk
FutureSight IT Compliance CISA-certified auditors perform IT audits to examine your environment and identify gaps in internal controls. Applying either ISO 27001 / 27002, COBIT, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, or other applicable regulations and frameworks, FutureSight IT Compliance will identify control weaknesses and provide you with a clear remediation plan.