Cybersecurity is a necessity for all organizations, regardless of their industry, size, or location. While you can find materials on how to improve your cybersecurity on the web, in the end, it is all general advice. You will need a specialist to address your specific cyber risks – this can either be in-house or a third-party cybersecurity advisor. A cybersecurity advisor will assess and analyze your business’ cybersecurity position and then construct a cyber plan based on the needs of your business.
Cybersecurity Advisor
A cybersecurity advisor can provide expert security advice that aligns with your business needs. Answering the question, “Is an organization secure?” requires a comprehensive assessment of your operating environment and its specific business needs.
Your advisor will assist you and help implement a cost-effective cybersecurity framework with careful consideration of how you identify, protect, and recover critical assets, as well as detect and respond to security breaches. They work collaboratively with you to develop and implement programs that are both effective and sustainable.
Here are some of the areas they can assist you:
- Information security leadership and guidance
- Advise senior executives and audit committees
- Strategic information security planning
- Security program and project management
- Minimize disruptive impacts of a security breach
- Cybersecurity Roadmap Development
- Risk and Vulnerability Assessment
- Security policy, process, and procedure development
- Leading, coaching, and mentoring your team
- Employee Security Training
- Disaster Recovery Planning
As a result, your cybersecurity advisor will make the process of improving your cybersecurity feel less intimidating. They will help you understand cybersecurity products and services that you can (and should) use for your organization. They will also figure out how to implement the cybersecurity software while ensuring your business continues to run efficiently.
A cybersecurity advisor brings their expertise to ensure the safety of your cyber network. They will use technologies, processes, and people in your organization to assist in improving your cybersecurity. They will also help maintain a secure system in the long run. This is necessary because cyber security is a continuous process that must be evaluated and maintained over time.
The information above are the basics a cybersecurity advisor can provide. However, each company has different needs in their cybersecurity system. Therefore, you must consider what you would like to prioritize in your network before selecting a cybersecurity advisor.
1. Strong Social and Personal Skills
Cybersecurity advisors need to have great communication skills to effectively inform you of what needs to be done for your cybersecurity system. Additionally, they should understand what pertains of an advisor-client relationship. During this relationship, they will need to adapt to the client’s needs and respond appropriately.
Furthermore, you should feel comfortable with your cybersecurity advisor. They will be working with you for an extended period of time, so you should ensure that your working style and the cybersecurity advisor’s working style will not conflict one another. This is crucial to ensuring your cybersecurity system will improve effectively and efficiently.
You might also want to consider your cybersecurity advisor’s network. What connections do they have? Who can they refer you to? Do they know anyone within the (cybersecurity) industry that can help or provide a solution? Having these connections will ensure your cybersecurity advisor will have resources they can use to help improve your cybersecurity systems.
2. Strong Professional and Technical Skills
Of course, you would want your cybersecurity advisor to understand the cybersecurity industry. While your cybersecurity advisor might not directly deal with the technology, they should have knowledge and understanding of how the system works. This is important because if they do not understand the system, then there is a higher chance for human error to occur.
Furthermore, the cybersecurity advisor should have a good gasp on how cyber risks will threaten your business and processes. Being able to inform you of the effects will help you and your team understand what would happen if a cyber breach occurred. As a result, you will increase your efforts in improving certain functions in your cyber network.
3. Previous Experience Backing Their Strengths
Cybersecurity advisors might have gone through different paths to get to where they are today. However, regardless of their previous jobs, you should consider if the cybersecurity advisor has previous dealt with a security issue. What kind of experience do they have and what advice can they provide? Advisors with real-world experience and knowledge will be much more helpful because they can provide an approach tailored for your company’s needs.
4. Unbiased View of Company’s Security Posture
Having an unbiased view of your company’s security posture is crucial to determining how effective previous security decisions were. Cybersecurity advisors should be able to analyze the data provided and determine how relevant the information is to the business.
Your cybersecurity advisor should be able to provide data and information to prove where your system needs improvement. They will also examine how effective your incident response is and review security indicators to show if your organization has had any progress in improving your cybersecurity.
5. Trustworthy
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you must consider if the cybersecurity advisor is trustworthy. Can you trust them with your system’s ins and outs? Do they have the best interests in mind for your company? Clearly, you would not want to hire or partner with someone with malicious intent.
However, something to keep in mind is that even if you trust your cybersecurity advisor, you should still implement measures that will limit their access to your company’s sensitive information. While the advisor is there to help improve your security, your organization should still have their own team or individual that will protect the organization from outsider (in other words, a third-party cybersecurity advisor).
Conclusion
In the end, your organization will need to select a cybersecurity advisor to help improve your security systems. Improving your cybersecurity will only help your organization protect its critical assets and data. This will also improve trust between you and your clients or partners.
Zartech also provides a board advisory service from senior-level IT and cybersecurity practitioners. We tailor each of our cybersecurity reports for board members or senior executives.
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