Sirius Solutions Blog

In today's age of interconnected electronic information, securing information and monitoring the IT security environment is of increasing importance to a growing number of constituents – individuals, corporations and the government. Cybersecurity affects you across all three.

Individuals are impacted by cybersecurity in ways which include identity theft, compromised personal information, personal computer infestations and account and password complexities. Businesses may suffer from corporate espionage, intellectual property theft, service interruptions and fines from regulatory non-compliance. The federal government must deal with possible compromise of military secrets and critical infrastructure damage.

While cybersecurity is a growing concern, IT audit can be used to play a role in improving protection programs. While there remains some traditional disconnects between IT and internal audit groups, including a lack of funds in IT budgets for additional audit programs and limited corporate sponsorship in enforcing security policies, common ground does exist. Audits provide IT with visibility into potential problem areas, assistance on compliance efforts, policy reinforcement and prioritization for remediation efforts.

Best practices for ensuring successful cybersecurity audits include the following:

• Defining purpose and scope
• Developing an audit checklist
• Performing the security assessment
• Mitigating flaws and weaknesses
• Implementing on-going protection measures

Organizations such as Infragard, the SANS Institute and US-CERT are excellent sources for the latest in security information and intelligence, so be sure to stay alert and involved!

   categorized under:  Compliance