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Cybersecurity Dashboards That Empower Decision Making

Data is only as good as what you are able to do with it. In a cybersecurity program, the audits and vendor risk assessments that we conduct are only as good as their ability to empower us to make decisions. Too often, risk and compliance solutions visualize data for the sake of visualization without asking “what does this mean?” The race to create cybersecurity dashboards that empower better decision making is on. For CISO’s, they must look to an integrated risk management platform. Under an integrated risk management approach, all data collected is aggregated and rolled up under a single platform without the hindrance of modules. This single-pane-of-glass not only saves time for managers, but it also increases the ability to get a true sense of the cybersecurity posture of the organization on one cybersecurity dashboard.

The value of an executive dashboard

More often than not, CISO’s and their top lieutenants are analyzing the status of their cybersecurity program and need a fast way to measure progress from a high level – enter the executive dashboard. Sitting a layer of abstraction above the assessment level, an executive cybersecurity dashboard allows senior leaders to take stock of current activity and posture without getting lost in the details and granular data.

Layer 1-1Rollups

Elegant user experiences use color coding such as the traffic light protocol to convey information as fast as possible. For executives this is critical – it grants users the ability to see where the program is weakest based on assessment and immediately directs them to where they need to invest more resources.

 

 

Different lenses, different value

Especially with an integrated risk management solution, cybersecurity dashboards are illustrations of the same data only through different lenses. In the case of a cybersecurity risk dashboard, breaking the rollup data down into the CIA triad, risk by business impact, and risk by threat type gives immediate visibility into the greatest risks to the organization from a high-level.

 

CIA

 

business impact

 

threat type

 

Next level deep: Assessment dashboard

While an executive dashboard is valuable in that it gives a high-level overview of a program, there is another layer of granularity that sits between that high level and the controls: the assessment rollup. For an assessment-level dashboard to be of value, it must be able to illustrate where your organization sits in the context of that assessment when benchmarked against where you should be.

 

As_dash

 

Benchmark against the bestnist benchmarking

For mature cybersecurity program, it is paramount to benchmark against gold standards to ensure that the organization is secure as it grows – the NIST Cybersecurity is the recommended gold standard as it grants the flexibility to grow and scale with your organization and as the landscape shifts. An added bonus is being able to benchmark any assessment against a gold standard like the CSF, and in the case of the CyberStrong platform it does – the five functions appear on every assessment dashboard regardless of the framework you’re working with.

Gap analysis visualizationcontrol familis

The core reason to conduct audits and assess vendor risks is to understand where the gaps in your organization are. The faster you and your team can get a grasp on where the holes are in your program, the faster you and work to remediate. The more superior cybersecurity dashboards illustrate that information as expeditiously as possible.

 

Cybersecurity risk dashboards on the assessment level

While you can see the breakdown of cybersecurity risk on an executive dashboard – that is a rollup of all assessments and serves a different function. An assessment-level cybersecurity dashboard must also reflect risk information as it relates to that assessment and that framework. A cybersecurity risk dashboard that adds a risk breakdown by control family gives a deeper level of insight – when coupled with the gap analysis and gold-standard benchmarking, it empowers leaders to make data informed decisions faster. Again, the value of an integrated risk management platform in this case in unparalleled given that IRM dashboards are not broken into the modules that limit legacy GRC platforms.

 

Screen Shot 2019-03-12 at 1.39.18 PM

 

Tools are here to make your life easier

There is a flawed argument in the risk and compliance space today that a complex program needs a complex solution. To those that argue for a complex legacy GRC solution, we’d ask: what are you paying for then? In a time when automation is running rampant, to expect a tool to not make things simpler and easier is ludicrous. If anything, a complex cybersecurity program needs a powerful solution that is capable of uniting and integrating the pieces into a greater whole. An integrated risk management solution can serve two functions: a true IRM solution is powerful enough to act as a standalone product. Especially for organizations with a newly matured cybersecurity program, jumping from spreadsheets to an IRM platform helps build the cybersecurity program of the future. For enterprise level organization that do employ a legacy GRC platform, the use of an IRM platform changes but the value is no less present: the powerful aggregation capabilities of an integrated risk management solution coupled with its visualization gives a higher level of access for executives without requiring their access multiple modules and go hunting for the information.

For a cybersecurity program to thrive and for the assessment processes to be effective, the tools you use must turn the data collected into actionable insights. The faster the information is conveyed, the faster you can remediate and stay secure. To see the CyberStrong IRM platform and its visualization dashboards, schedule a demo here.

Data is only as good as what you are able to do with it. In a cybersecurity program, the audits and vendor risk assessments that we conduct are only as good as their ability to empower us to make decisions. Too often, risk and compliance solutions visualize data for the sake of visualization without asking “what does this mean?” The race to create cybersecurity dashboards that empower better decision making is on. For CISO’s, they must look to an integrated risk management platform. Under an integrated risk management approach, all data collected is aggregated and rolled up under a single platform without the hindrance of modules. This single-pane-of-glass not only saves time for managers, but it also increases the ability to get a true sense of the cybersecurity posture of the organization on one cybersecurity dashboard.

The value of an executive dashboard

More often than not, CISO’s and their top lieutenants are analyzing the status of their cybersecurity program and need a fast way to measure progress from a high level – enter the executive dashboard. Sitting a layer of abstraction above the assessment level, an executive cybersecurity dashboard allows senior leaders to take stock of current activity and posture without getting lost in the details and granular data.

Layer 1-1Rollups

Elegant user experiences use color coding such as the traffic light protocol to convey information as fast as possible. For executives this is critical – it grants users the ability to see where the program is weakest based on assessment and immediately directs them to where they need to invest more resources.

 

 

Different lenses, different value

Especially with an integrated risk management solution, cybersecurity dashboards are illustrations of the same data only through different lenses. In the case of a cybersecurity risk dashboard, breaking the rollup data down into the CIA triad, risk by business impact, and risk by threat type gives immediate visibility into the greatest risks to the organization from a high-level.

 

CIA

 

business impact

 

threat type

 

Next level deep: Assessment dashboard

While an executive dashboard is valuable in that it gives a high-level overview of a program, there is another layer of granularity that sits between that high level and the controls: the assessment rollup. For an assessment-level dashboard to be of value, it must be able to illustrate where your organization sits in the context of that assessment when benchmarked against where you should be.

 

As_dash

 

Benchmark against the bestnist benchmarking

For mature cybersecurity program, it is paramount to benchmark against gold standards to ensure that the organization is secure as it grows – the NIST Cybersecurity is the recommended gold standard as it grants the flexibility to grow and scale with your organization and as the landscape shifts. An added bonus is being able to benchmark any assessment against a gold standard like the CSF, and in the case of the CyberStrong platform it does – the five functions appear on every assessment dashboard regardless of the framework you’re working with.

Gap analysis visualizationcontrol familis

The core reason to conduct audits and assess vendor risks is to understand where the gaps in your organization are. The faster you and your team can get a grasp on where the holes are in your program, the faster you and work to remediate. The more superior cybersecurity dashboards illustrate that information as expeditiously as possible.

 

Cybersecurity risk dashboards on the assessment level

While you can see the breakdown of cybersecurity risk on an executive dashboard – that is a rollup of all assessments and serves a different function. An assessment-level cybersecurity dashboard must also reflect risk information as it relates to that assessment and that framework. A cybersecurity risk dashboard that adds a risk breakdown by control family gives a deeper level of insight – when coupled with the gap analysis and gold-standard benchmarking, it empowers leaders to make data informed decisions faster. Again, the value of an integrated risk management platform in this case in unparalleled given that IRM dashboards are not broken into the modules that limit legacy GRC platforms.

 

Screen Shot 2019-03-12 at 1.39.18 PM

 

Tools are here to make your life easier

There is a flawed argument in the risk and compliance space today that a complex program needs a complex solution. To those that argue for a complex legacy GRC solution, we’d ask: what are you paying for then? In a time when automation is running rampant, to expect a tool to not make things simpler and easier is ludicrous. If anything, a complex cybersecurity program needs a powerful solution that is capable of uniting and integrating the pieces into a greater whole. An integrated risk management solution can serve two functions: a true IRM solution is powerful enough to act as a standalone product. Especially for organizations with a newly matured cybersecurity program, jumping from spreadsheets to an IRM platform helps build the cybersecurity program of the future. For enterprise level organization that do employ a legacy GRC platform, the use of an IRM platform changes but the value is no less present: the powerful aggregation capabilities of an integrated risk management solution coupled with its visualization gives a higher level of access for executives without requiring their access multiple modules and go hunting for the information.

For a cybersecurity program to thrive and for the assessment processes to be effective, the tools you use must turn the data collected into actionable insights. The faster the information is conveyed, the faster you can remediate and stay secure. To see the CyberStrong IRM platform and its visualization dashboards, schedule a demo here.


*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from CyberSaint Blog authored by Ethan Bresnahan. Read the original post at: https://www.cybersaint.io/blog/cybersecurity-dashboards-that-empower-decision-making