Rethinking GRC Strategies for SMBs

Small and medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) realize that Governance, Risk and Compliance strategies need to be robust to stand the risks of the future. While these enterprises are now dedicating resources and time to get their strategies to be effective, it is important for them to understand that only if they have a unified GRC approach will they be assured of true benefits in the long run. 

In general, most enterprises approach GRC based on 4 crucial components:  

1. Scale of the enterprise
2. Systems that the enterprise relies on
3. Geographies of the enterprise
4. Policies and  procedures of the enterprise

Such fragmented approach could be problematic, as GRC plans would end up in duplication of processes and also higher costs. Therefore, the key to an efficient governance, risk and compliance strategy for SMBs is to adopt an integrated and unified approach to security.

Governance, risk and compliance strategies cannot be seen in isolation. These strategies have to be holistic in nature in order to assure complete risk mitigation and IT Compliance for enterprises. Hence a flexible GRC approach can help by reducing complexities and ensuring that there is no wastage of time or resources. This implies that efficient usage of resources can be assured. 

Here are some tips to help organizations choose the right GRC software. A good GRC software solution has the following features: 

• Offers real-time 24x7 information security monitoring,  effective data capture and transfer, along with detailed analysis
• Is equipped to predict, control, analyze and mitigate risks
• Adopts a cloud based SaaS approach, which is most suitable for organizations of all sizes, especially SMBs
• Generates compliance status reports across departments, as well as departments spread across different locations
• Efficiently manages all compliance activities and provides an exhaustive audit trail
• Promptly alerts decision makers in case of security violations

A 2010 Forrester research titled ‘Trends 2010: Governance, Risk, and Compliance Aim to Support a Controlled Recovery’, claimed that GRC professionals’ role will increase in future, and also stated that “GRC professionals and the vendors that serve them must focus on efforts that support business performance, close the gap between business and IT, streamline compliance processes, leverage available content and guidance, and include consideration for myriad external factors. Future success of GRC programs depends on the ability to function as part of the business.” 

This clearly indicates the importance of GRC in any enterprise today. It is therefore crucial to consider the GRC strategy as an essential element of business. If the strategy meets requirements of risk mitigation and also functions in an optimized and unified manner, greater benefits and cost reduction are guaranteed.

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Intrusion Prevention Systems: What to Look For?

Prevention is better than cure, and this adage certainly holds true for any aspect of network security. Every organization tries to ensure that intrusions are blocked before they attack networks and impede processes. And this is why an Intrusion prevention system (IPS) is a prerequisite for complete security in today’s business environment. Such a system monitors the network and takes necessary action whenever an intrusion occurs. Continuing the adage, we should therefore say that intrusion prevention is better than intrusion detection!

From network based IPS to host-based IPS, there are innumerable advantages of installing an IPS that is able to patch vulnerabilities like vulnerability scanning and respond promptly to intrusions. Invented in the late 1990’s to solve the issues that existed with intrusion detection systems, Intrusion prevention systems were seen as being more effective than Intrusion detection systems (IDS) as they were more proactive and capable of mitigating risks.

IPS has the ability to block intrusions like Code Red, SQL Slammer etc. It analyzes previous intrusions and takes measures to protect the system and thereby prevent similar or new intrusions in future. Because it proactively detects, identifies and prevents intrusions, it is also a rather cost-effective solution affordable to businesses of all sizes.

Here are the characteristics that make up for a good intrusion prevention system:

• Intrusion prevention systems are best when they can monitor intrusions right at the encryption stage using integrity checks. They should be able to detect intrusions across the network and react promptly by reporting it and consequently blocking it. In other words, it should have the in-line operation capabilities - only by operating in-line can an IPS device perform true protection, discarding all suspect packets immediately and blocking the remainder of that flow

• Real-time intervention and protection is what makes IPS proactive and really effective against intrusions.

• A good IPS has several layers of protection and inherently has the ability to protect the network server efficiently. It offers a reliable and steady platform for protection across the enterprise.

• It should be easy to deploy and use.

• Most importantly it should be cost-effective, and bring in better ROI by efficiently protecting the enterprises network applications.

• From a performance perspective, it should have reliability and availability, resilience, low latency, High Performance, unquestionable detection accuracy, fine-grained granularity and control.  

Protecting against intrusion and ensuring security are on-going challenges. And therefore, simply having an IPS is not enough. There has to be a periodic review of security across all networks and applications. Only this can make IPS truly effective, and also bring about the desired results.

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Is your IT Data Safe in a competitive environment?

Competition, is it a bane or boon? A boon as long as it helps in providing better and more qualitative services at lower costs; a bane where unscrupulous organizations can resort to unhealthy practices to quickly maximize their benefits! From a bane perspective, Competition today has become more of a malady rather than a parameter to test the extreme capabilities of businesses. With competitions getting intense organizations are fighting tooth and nail to gain that extra edge over the others and secure an enviable position. The hunger for moving up has resulted in many unscrupulous and unethical means of procuring and distributing information. There is not an iota of remorse as information is divulged through unfair and illegitimate routes.

With such open and extensive forms of data manipulation security breaches have become a common occurrence, and with the advanced forms of risks threatening the IT environment there is a need to employ more sophisticated technologies to restrain these obtrusive violation attempts. It is no secret that your company’s confidential data is the lifeline of your business. Thus you need to ensure stringent measures to maintain a secure hold on your data security.

Key Strategies to Ensure a Secure Environment

The infrastructures in most of the IT organizations are ill-equipped to address the security issues effectively and employ capable IT risk management programs that can help identify the weaknesses that are exploited ruthlessly to gain unauthorized access. In order to make your organization an impenetrable fort you require compliance management software with automated processes to manage all the compliance regulations and security needs in a comprehensive manner.

How the Compliance Management Software Deals with the IT Challenges?

As your organization functions through a network you require a compliance program that handles information processing from a centralized platform with a high degree of visibility and monitoring capabilities. This gives you an advantage to have a regularized system and also be aware of the compliance status existing in your company. The feasibility of accessing information on demand and easy reporting facilities provided by the automated compliance program gives you an opportunity to encompass your governance, risk and compliance needs as a whole.

With multiple industry standardized compliance frameworks it can be quite frustrating to manage them all without interference. The automated compliance management solution resolves your management woes as it can integrate any framework thus providing practical solutions. This also helps you to avoid on added investments on different frameworks and infrastructures. The compliance solution with its vulnerability scanning and management capabilities scans all the systems to detect any vulnerable areas so that remediation measures can be implemented promptly and block all pathways to security breaches. The success of compliance software can be determined by the processes undertaken to measure the existing level of compliance. With regular internal audits and dashboard views of the audit reports you can assess the strength of your organization’s security parameters.

Combating cyber threats with a palpable defensive system that negates all encroaching attempts is what safeguards the interest of your company. An automated system addresses all your security concerns and risk management needs, and provides you with a flexible environment and also delivers high ROI. With competition gaining momentum the risks pertaining to data security are intimidating. Thus you need to strategize wisely and employ tools that are capable enough to provide you all round protection.

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Vulnerability Management: Secured IT, Assured Success

According to GartnerG2 (now Gartner Industry Advisory Services) a research unit of Gartner, 90% of cyber attacks leverage known security flaws and vulnerabilities, for which patches are already available. Gartner analysts also believe that several security attacks could have been avoided if organizations had focused more on vulnerability management efforts.

Effective vulnerability management is therefore a perquisite for every business. But unfriendly economic conditions have compelled organizations to maintain a safe business environment, while also keeping costs low. This poses a major challenge since organizations today are spread across multiple geographic locations and time zones. In such a scenario vulnerability scanning and management can be a formidable task.

But with cloud-based security solutions offered by advanced GRC software, IT security has assumed a new dimension. These solutions help streamline and automate vulnerability management processes and help patch security flaws.

Here are some other significant benefits of using a comprehensive security and vulnerability management solution:

Offers Complete Visibility- Vulnerability management solutions help in understanding the security posture of an organization, through comprehensive vulnerability assessment. This in turn helps in formulating security policies for compliance with regulatory standards.

Ensures Compliance- Compliance audits are carried out at regular intervals to assess the actual degree of compliance in the organization. This helps in effective compliance management software by enforcing compliance best practices and ensuring fully compliant processes and procedures.

Facilitates Risk Management- By proactively detecting vulnerable areas within the network, and identifying exposure to potential threats, these software solutions help in effective risk management.

Offers Holistic View & Prompt Reporting- Vulnerability management solutions help gain complete control over risks and vulnerabilities by offering total visibility through a centralized view. Their advanced reporting capabilities enable organizations to take prompt corrective and preventive action before security gaps are exploited.     

Improves Productivity & Lowers Cost- Since these security solutions are completely automated, they allow IT departments to focus on more critical tasks, thereby enhancing productivity. And they also help reduce administrative costs and management overhead, as a single efficient software solution, can effectively replace multiple disparate applications. 

Managing a diverse network environment can be quite overwhelming. But a proactive, integrated, vulnerability assessment and management solution can dramatically simplify this by offering a complete GRC framework that can patch vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and improve productivity.

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Can threat management solutions provide for best compliance management as well?

Security threats are only turning more vicious and sophisticated every day. All enterprises today worry for the safety of their data and network; therefore security has become a prime concern. From losing sensitive data about the company to actual revenue loss as well as image of the enterprise, security threats can tamper with a company in many ways. So in order to survive in the global market, enterprises need to address these threats effectively. With plenty of security solutions available enterprises are struggling to figure out which solution would work best for their enterprise and also work as the best defense against security threats of any kind.

Don’t just get a threat management solution that ignores compliance!

Enterprises prefer a threat management solution that involves installing firewalls, anti-virus systems, anti-spyware and other intrusion detection systems. The onus of such a solution’s actual effectiveness lies in its ability to manage and monitor threats automatically and constantly, which it is unable to efficiently deliver. So it would be sensible to opt for solution that can ably manage, monitor, report and take action on threats as well assist in compliance management software. So apart from providing you with abilities to detect threats constantly, it can also address and adapt to the ever-changing regulatory and compliance landscape. Therefore while choosing a threat management solution caution must be exercised because an erroneous choice could you’re your enterprise with several problems.

Get the 2 fold benefit

The perfect threat and compliance management solution would provide these benefits:

• Solve security issues ranging from insider threats to malware analysis
• Reduce compliance processes costs
• Achieve easy compliance irrespective of location and time constraints
• Achieve easy monitoring with an integrated dashboard ensuring optimized IT GRC
• Offer automatic end-to-end full enterprise security
• Cater to compliance and risk management needs
• Present a comprehensive audit trail for all compliance needs
• Identify and report violations immediately
• Real Time reporting
• Identify vulnerabilities and Vulnerability Scanning
• Mitigate these vulnerabilities

To manage security in-house can be a costly and complex affair, owing to the complications involved. Therefore instead of increasing your security budgets, it would be prudent to opt for a solution that increases the security efficiency for your enterprise and also effectively makes threat and IT compliance management a simple task. Don’t let your security issues be the Achilles’ heel for your enterprise’s growth and success! Choose wisely and act now!

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Is your Enterprise Mature to Handle Security and Compliance Solutions?

An enterprise that is adept at handling an IT environment rife with continuous changes and demands can be declared as one with capabilities to deploy mature strategies. The ability to identify the time and place to respond accordingly depicts the true character of an organization. It has to be sufficiently armed to tackle the various challenges and successfully handle any regulation issues, threats and sophisticated risks.

What Happens In The Absence of Stringent Protection Policies?

Your enterprise has several individuals with different roles and responsibilities. Are you sure that all of them are well-versed with the required company regulations and policies? Are your security processes resiliently built to provide you with a risk free environment? Can you rely on your workforce to employ the right decisions at the right time and are they aware of the correct information?

Most of the enterprises have incompetent compliance management solutions that deliver poor results.  Any kind of compliance misinterpretations can cost you dearly. To ensure a secure IT Compliance environment and enforce the right compliance regulations you need to have an understanding of the requirements in your organization. Determining the range of security threats and their malicious extent can help you control your compliance costs.

Here are some tips on what can help you address the compliance issues of your organization effectively

1. Determine the Forces Responsible for Handling Security and Compliance Departments – The department that handles the security and compliance matters needs to identify the necessary compliance frameworks and regulations which are in accordance with the business goals and requirements.
2. An Understanding of your Organizational Needs and Industry Standards – To have a befitting and mature compliance practice enforced you need to understand the nature of your organization and which industry it fits into. This helps you to acquire information on the best regulations and frameworks of that particular industry which is most suited for your organization.
3. Knowledge About Your Business Process – When you have the detailed information on the role of each department you can be clearer about the systems and processes that are in use. This gives you an advantage to collect and process the relevant information which is in concurrence with the environment.
4. Assessment of the Gaps – It is very important to analyze and identify the compliance regulations that are applicable. Expertise on how compliance frameworks can help secure your sensitive and confidential company data is relevant for assessment of prevailing gaps and missing links that requires attention to make your IT environment a completely secure one.
5. Enforcing Remediation, Assessment and Repetition – Once the missing gaps are identified you can be in a better position to implement a worthy and result-oriented plan that empowers you with enhanced techniques to control your environment. Vulnerability scanning, risk assessment and policy reviewing programs help you to identify and address the IT risks and implement remediation plans.

Compliance is not a onetime activity but a continuous process that needs to be monitored on a regular basis. With new acquisitions and mergers, development of new services and products the compliance frameworks and regulations keep changing. If you overlook the process of updating and maintaining your compliance frameworks it will result in non-compliance and cause you massive damages. To ensure that you are always well informed about the latest compliance requirements of your business you need automated IT compliance management software that handles all your processes in a simple, cohesive and uncomplicated manner. The software also ensures that your compliance metrics are in sync with the current requirements.

An unrelenting enforcement and maintenance of compliance regulations in an IT environment is a complex task. The current demand for an overall system capable of providing compelling and complete governance, risk and compliance solutions is very well addressed by the compliance software that has commendable integrating qualities and extraordinary features which can lower your management costs and restrict wastage of your productive time.

Achieving IT Compliance Goals with Identity Auditing

As organizations continue to battle the issue of securing confidential data, it is extremely important to ensure discretion in granting access rights to employees. Hence, there is a need to implement effective regulatory measures for identity management to promote a compliant and risk-free atmosphere.

However, not all identity management systems are capable of yielding desired results. While some are incapable of generating helpful reports, others are inefficient in correlating data. So, the need of the hour is an audit solution that can manage all identity issues, with real-time monitoring and reporting potential. Such a solution can effectively reduce the time, effort and cost required for IT compliance.

At any point in time, businesses are prone to risks, both internal and external. And often security policies may not be in sync with business goals. As a result security breaches may occur frequently. And irrespective of the reason, security breaches can be very harmful to an organization. Hence an identity auditing system should be put in place to provide a comprehensive solution to mitigate risks. Such a system can promptly forbid unauthorized access and prevent damage.

Prerequisites for Successful Identity Auditing

Identifying Policies - A clear understanding of the business goals can help in identifying suitable policies and frameworks. A flexible framework that provides practical solutions without compromising data security is the key. Therefore, an integrated, auditing solution with automated processes can prove highly beneficial.

Controlling Power – For optimum results the identity management process should provide preventive controls to eliminate instances with potentially high security risks. It should furnish appropriate IT risk management solutions that can help detect such occurrences and provide corrective measures for prompt action to nullify the effects of security breaches.

Monitoring Users – A clear visibility into the activities of users, their data sharing practices etc, is essential for effective identity management. Hence automated identity management solutions should provide real-time reports on users’ behavior with regard to handling of sensitive files and folders. Based on these reports, access rights can be determined or modified.

Organizations have to be prepared to deal with risks in order to ensure a smooth journey towards achieving business goals. And by implementing appropriate security practices along with suitable software solutions, complete IT compliance becomes much easier to achieve.

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