What is a Cyber Security Audit?

A cyber security audit is a systematic, independent review and analysis of an organisation’s current cyber security posture and IT infrastructure set-up – with the purpose of identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities, to expose weaknesses and high-risk practices.

Depending on the size and scale of your business, your organisation will need to have some cyber security policies and procedures in place regarding how you process and protect the data you handle on a day-to-day basis. A cyber security audit provides a standardised ‘checklist’ to validate that your current controls are working as they should. However, if your cyber security infrastructure is not as strong as it is required to be, a cyber audit can identify the holes within your security posture, providing management with the necessary understanding and scope to becoming cyber compliant, while also providing vendors and customers with peace of mind that your organisation takes their security seriously.

By not actively auditing your current cyber controls, your business is at high risk of a threat actor exploiting a hole within your security posture, leading to consequences such as non-compliance with laws & regulations such as GDPR and the resulting hefty penalties. The cost of actively performing periodic cyber security audits is miniscule compared to the fines your business could face. Furthermore, another alternative could be if a threat-actor were to gain access to your organisation, they could perform a DoS attack (Denial of Service attack) that could completely lock management or all staff out of your systems/applications that are crucial to the day-to-day running of your business. There is no predicting how costly this could be – there may be no coming back.

The three different Cyber Security Audits

At JC Cyber Security we offer three different types of cyber security auditing solutions to help your business achieve ongoing compliance and cyber security competence. We understand that a cyber audit can be a big commitment, especially If you aren’t 100% sure what an audit cover.

We recommend our Cyber Advice Audit to organisations who are looking for a better understanding of their security posture before committing to a longer auditing process such as our Security and Weakness audits.

Cyber Advice Audit - an Advisory Audit which is where you tell us what you have in place, and we tell you where the gaps are

Cyber Security Audit - looks at your cyber resilience, staff training and awareness, response plans and will provide action points.

Cyber Weakness Audit - assists in identifying the vulnerabilities and configuration issues that hackers use to penetrate your network.

If you would like to know more about our Cyber Audits, and how each package can help your organisation, contact us today or visit our dedicated audit page.

How a JC Cyber Security Protection Plan can help your business post-audit

We at JC Cyber Security understand that it’s difficult, especially for SMEs to implement their very own qualified, certified, and specialised cyber security department. Creating a cyber security first culture within your organisation is also a long-term achievement that takes a lot of investment and time to achieve. To counter this, we have created the Cyber Security Protection Plan to help organisations achieve ongoing compliance and safety through access to many of our Cyber Security Solutions for a manageable monthly fee.

Through auditing your business, you may identify a whole range of vulnerabilities within your organisation that may seem impossible to fix due to the scale of the issues at hand. A JC Cyber Security Protection Plan offers many solutions that can help you achieve ongoing compliance such as:

• Endpoint Protection
• Mobile Threat Defence
• Vulnerability Assessments
• Managed Email Security
• Managed Firewall Protection
• Remote Support
• Penetration Testing

All for a fixed monthly fee. If you would like to know how a Cyber Security Protection Plan can help your business, contact us today and one of our Cyber Experts will be happy to assist you.

Is active cyber security auditing the end goal?

If your business is serious about:

• On-going compliance
• Safeguarding your assets
• Business continuity
• Having a more cyber aware workforce
• Improved management control
• Meeting customer/supplier criteria
• Competitive advantages

Then a pratical step after sucessful cyber security auditing perspective would be to become ISO 27001 compliant. As certification with ISO 27001 is not mandatory - not all organisations may choose to achieve it. However, there are many benefits to becoming certified as it’s a proven, externally validated proof of your organisation’s willingness to confirm to internationally accepted information standards. ISO 27001 certification includes a two-stage auditing process to becoming certified and would be the best course of action once your organisation has becoming compliant through active cyber auditing.

What do Cyber Security audits cover?

A cyber security audit focuses on cyber security standards, guidelines, and policies. Furthermore, they focus on ensuring that all security controls are efficiently optimised, and all compliance requirements are met.
Specifically, an audit evaluates:

• Operational Security (a review of policies, procedures, and security controls)
  
• Data Security (a review of encryption use, network access control, data security during transmission and storage)
• System Security (a review of patching processes, hardening processes, role-based access, management of privileged accounts, etc.)
• Network Security (a review of network and security controls, anti-virus configurations, SOC, security monitoring capabilities)
• Physical Security (a review of role-based access controls, disk encryption, multifactor authentication, biometric data, etc.)

Unlike a cyber security assessment, which provides a snapshot of an organisation’s security posture, a cyber security audit is a 360 in-depth examination of your entire security posture.

Cyber Security Audit Benefits

A cyber security audit is the highest level of assurance service that JC Cyber Security Service can offer. As previously mentioned, it provides stakeholders within your organisation the confidence that you take their security seriously and can provide that competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, cyber threats and data breaches are more prevalent than ever before. As a result, business leaders and consumers increasingly prioritise and value cyber security compliance.
An audit adds an independent line of sight that is uniquely equipped to evaluate as well as improve your security - the following are some benefits of performing an audit:

• Identifying gaps in security
• Highlights weaknesses and provides prioritisation
• Ongoing-compliance
• Reputational gains
• Testing controls
• Improving security posture
  
• Keeping one-step ahead of threat actors
  
• Assurance to vendors, employees, and clients
  
• Confidence in your security controls
  
• Increased performance of your technology and security

How often should my business audit?

How often your business will need to perform an audit depends on what compliance or security framework your business follows - failure to comply with laws that require cyber security audits can result in fines and penalties.

Some compliance regulations require annual audits. Some require none. How often you perform audits is entirely dependent on what type of data your company works with, what industry you are in, what legal requirements you must follow, etc. However, even if you are not required to perform an audit, most security experts recommend you perform at least one annual audit to ensure your controls are functioning properly.

If you have any concerns regarding the security posture of your organisation and how JC Cyber Security can help, we’re happy to discuss this with you further.