Why a Focus on Cybersecurity is Critical?

Cybersecurity Auditing, data breaches, and other digital era dangers show up in headlines every day.  The even more sobering reality is that most of these events never become public knowledge.  In other words, we only hear about a small percentage of the incidents.

Just within the past few months, several major US cities have been hacked and chose to pay significant ransoms to free their stolen electronic data.

There are many more examples of similar events all over the world happening to all types of organizations, even some of the largest technology companies.  Regardless of an organization’s industry, size or location everyone is a target.  Personal and corporate information has become modern-day thief’s “gold” and cybercriminals are on the hunt.

Protecting Information – What is a Cybersecurity Audit?

Cybersecurity Auditing take two different forms.  Manual audits are performed by human professionals.  They incorporate employee interviews, examine access points, test hardware and software, and scan for system vulnerabilities.

Automated audits include system-generated reports providing a wealth of data and analysis that will add insight to operations.

In both cases, IT professionals that have specific experience in your organization’s field can apply the best possible analysis and recommendations based on the information collected.

Digital Security Guidelines Grow More Complex

Complexity and responsibility continue to change in the digital era, with more burden than ever placed on companies using and storing data.

An auditor must understand basic Cybersecurity Auditing best practices and various industry standards.  For example, companies that accept credit or debit payments must follow PCI guidelines.  Understanding how to apply the guidelines can keep small businesses safe and compliant when using payment technology. It can also make it easier to avoid the risk of losing personal purchase data.

ISO 27001 establishes strong rules and standards for cybersecurity. It not only guides companies, organizations, and government agencies in establishing standards to prevent breaches, but it also serves as a guide to creating education programs for cybersecurity workers.

Federal law continues to tighten controls over personal data, especially in education, social work, and health care. HIPAA guidelines place responsibility for data protection on those who control and use the data. The European Union has extended this new concept of data responsibility to almost every organization that engages with the European Union.

One of the most important lessons to learn from regulatory changes in the past few years is that responsibility for data breaches will increasingly be thrust upon organizations using it. With the stakes being higher than ever, you need the best in cybersecurity auditors protecting your interests.

Hiring an Auditor with the RIGHT Experience

As with anything else in life and business, one size definitely doesn’t fit all – and the same is true when hiring a Cybersecurity Auditor.  Many organizations have been lulled into believing that hiring a large household-name audit firm is the only/best way to do so.  Times have changed and organizations are realizing that when choosing an audit firm, its critical to look for the RIGHT kind of auditor.  Large audit firms typically end up assigning a junior auditor with limited real-world experience to their small & midsize clients.  Unfortunately, this practice often results in an audit process that’s very inefficient, time consuming and frustrating – not to mention the high price tag from the blue-chip audit firm.

Therefore, it’s important to hire a senior level auditor with solid real-world experience that extends beyond solely working as an auditor.  The audit process can be made much easier, cost-effective and efficient when an auditor has worked on the customer’s side of the desk in a senior-level cybersecurity role. 

Auditors with specific field experience understand the needs of the field and conventional ways in which the law gets applied.  The Interactive Security team is exclusively comprised of former CISO senior auditors with significant experience in various industries.

Reach out today to learn more about how experienced IT auditors can give you a more comprehensive and actionable analysis, especially with advanced systems and techniques at their disposal.

Interactive Security, Inc. has been at the forefront of providing industry leading expert information technology security services to clients across the globe – focused on IT Security Auditing & Compliance.

We pride ourselves on Making ~ IT COMPLIANCE OBTAINABLE, SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE.

Vulnerability / Penetration Assessments ~ Application Security ~ PCI DSS ~ HIPAA ~ HiTRUST ~ ISO 27001 ~ FEDRAMP ~ FISMA/NIST ~ GDPR ~ Privacy Shield