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What is Continual Improvement
Continual Improvement Defined
The concept of continual improvement as it relates to cybersecurity refers to ongoing small steps toward a stronger cybersecurity stance. This stands in contrast to an idea of doing perhaps one big thing a year to strengthen a organization’s cybersecurity. Dependent on cultural changes as much as anything in the technological world, continual improvement requires top-to-bottom participation, systematic and well-documented tactics, and evaluations of how all tactics are working.
Tactics in Continual Improvement
How does an organization carry out continuous improvement? Here are some key actions to take:
- Maintain best practices
- Training is essential, and the promotion of cybersecurity training needs to come from leadership, not just the IT department
- Schedule regular assessments and/or audits
- Make sure there is an incident response plan and a recovery plan, and make sure everyone knows how to access them should the need arise
PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
Plan, Do, Check, Act is at the core of ISO and most cybersecurity standards. What does PDCA look like when it comes to continual improvement?Plan: Before an organization can identify cybersecurity gaps, it needs to know its current cybersecurity stance. Conduct an assessment or a penetration test and find the gaps. Determine what the vulnerabilities are based on those gaps, and also incorporate what the organization needs to comply with because of industry. Determine the cybersecurity risk appetite, and plan how to address the gaps versus the risk appetite of the organization. What needs to be fixed first?
Do: Start carrying out the plan. Institute the agreed-upon controls, an example of which is multi-factor authorization (MFA) across the organization. Execute the tests and/or assessments as per the plan. Begin documenting how the tests and assessments go, what the policies are, and how the policies are working.
Check: Is the plan working? Are phishing attempts still infiltrating the workplace or have they decreased in frequency? Are all employees following policies and procedures for cybersecurity? Yes, that includes the C-suite as they are among the most vulnerable. Go back and check logs and determine what is working and what does not seem to be working.
Act: If something is not working, this is the time to fix the problem. Determine if new threats exist that had not been part of the plan previously.
The Benefits of Continual Improvement
Apart from the obvious benefits of helping an organization comply with a standard and strengthening its overall cybersecurity stance, continual improvement can offer the following advantages:
- Catch problems before they become serious
- A better allocation of resources
- Identify and fix vulnerabilities faster
What questions do you have?
If you would like more information, or if you are ready for a CMMC assessment or an ISO 27001 audit, contact us today. If you would like to measure your organization’s cybersecurity risk appetite, you can start with our cybersecurity risk assessment resource.