Benefits of a Cyber Security Audit
November 23rd, 2021 by Roger Wentowski
No matter your business scope, size, or industry, invest in cyber security audits routinely if you want to improve your company's security. Cyber security audits are more crucial than ever. A cyber security audit is primarily an independent and systematic examination of the cyber security of the organization.
The audit ensures that proper security policies, controls, and procedures are working effectively and aligned with the industry standards.
The purpose of a cyber security audit is to offer a checklist that validates whether or not the company's security measures are adequate to keep away risk. It is an assessment of the security posture of the company. Hence, an audit is useful and even vital, especially in today's time when cybercrime is growing massively, putting organizations of all sizes at risk.
Current State of the Industry
Here's a quick overview of some vital statistics to know about cyber security and why audits are the need of the hour:
- Cyber attacks are up by 600 percent due to the pandemic. Criminals pretend to pose as WHO or CDC tricking recipients into taking action by downloading malicious attachments and suspicious links.
- The average data breach cost due to remote working culture has increased by $137,000.
- Forty-three percent of cyber attacks are targeted towards small businesses as compared to large enterprises. But that doesn't mean large enterprises are safe. If you have valuable information, hackers will be after it.
- According to HIPAA Journal, nearly 9.7m healthcare records were breached and compromised in September 2020 alone.
Based on these statistics and figures, now you'd know how common and costly cybercrime is and the dire need for tight cyber security measures in place. For this, cyber auditing is a must as it can help you identify potential risks and threats and take effective measures—preventing cybercriminals from doing your business harm. These audits evaluate:
- Operational security (review of procedures and policies)
- Data security (network access control review and data security during transmission)
- System security
- Network security
- Physical security (disk encryption and role-based access controls)
Unlike a cyber security assessment that offers a snapshot of the organization's security, an audit provides an in-depth and 360° examination of the entire organization's security position.
Now that you know the importance and use of a cyber security audit let's take a deeper dive to see how a simple audit can benefit your business in multiple ways.
Top Benefits of a Cyber Security Audit
Identify Security Gaps and Non-Compliance in Systems and Practices
When you work with a professional team of seasoned cyber security auditors, the first benefit you will experience is learning about the business areas of non-compliance and security gaps.
Every company must conform to privacy laws and regulations on operating and keeping confidential and sensitive information of the business, partners, and customers safe. Failure to conform to the industry standards and regulations can pose penalties and expose you to the risk of cyber attack and data breach.
However, by routinely investing in cyber security audits, you can identify and resolve these issues and ensure conformance before they escalate into full-blown non-compliance problems or result in an information leak.
With the auditing team's assistance, you can identify gaps, achieve compliance and keep your business protected against crime. They may also provide recommendations for:
- Security improvement
- Improvement in efficiency and consistency
- Develop a document management strategy
- Create thorough security policies and procedures
Safeguard Data
Cyber security audit provides an additional layer of assurance that you're doing everything needed to safeguard your mission-critical and confidential data. The auditor will always look for ways to improve your organization's cyber security and will never be satisfied with the status quo.
This helps your business because you'll always have quality measures to combat the latest cyber threats and all kinds of criminal activities.
Moreover, a cyber security audit helps safeguard your data by being proactive. This is essential for limiting the risk of a data breach while protecting your organization's reputation. It further gives you the peace of mind that you are ahead of cybercriminals and prepared to tackle any situation.
Improve Efficacy of the Network Security Protocols
As work from home has become the new norm in many organizations, this has heightened the activity of cybercriminals on unsecured networks, thereby exploiting the users and taking advantage of their vulnerability.
But through regular cyber security audits, you can ensure your network security protocol efficacy as you identify security gaps promptly and act fast. Plus, the use of multi-factor authentication along with zero-trust architecture can easily help your business mitigate cyber security risks.
For more information or assistance with cyber security audits and services, contact us. We are cyber security experts and can provide you with the best services to reduce risk exposure and protect your business environment. Book a quick call free of charge.
Posted in: Cyber Security
