The 6 Stages of an Information Security Program

Cyber attacks are growing in frequency.
Security Magazine shares that there are over 2,200 attacks each day.
This is about 1 cyber attack every 39 seconds.
Over the last four years specifically in the healthcare industry, there has been a 239% increase in large breaches due to hacking.
Organizations should not take these statistics lightly.
Think of it like this: it’s not a matter of if your organization experiences a cyber attack attempt but when.
What would you do? How would you fix it? Let’s back this up all the way up to the beginning.
What’s even the first step?
Are you seeing the importance of a plan?
Today we’re talking about the information security program lifecycle.
I’ll be explaining the six stages of the information security program…we will see what exactly goes on in each of these stages.
Before we get into that, let’s go over what an information security program is.
It’s a process that manages and improves the security of all of an organization’s information systems from unauthorized access.
In the event that a cyber security breach occurs an information security program serves as the general rule of appropriate action or initiatives steps to follow.
It guards key business processes, IT assets, and employee data from hackers.
As I said there are six phases or steps to this process.
Let’s go through each.
Planning
We’re starting in the development stage. In order to carry out policies and procedures for protecting sensitive information, we must create them first.
Start with identifying your security goals. (a goal) What are you looking to achieve? The more specific you are in identifying any goals or objectives, the better.
The strength of your program will depend on the goals at hand as well as your resources available.
The planning phase also includes a risk assessment. Assess your organization’s current state of information security as well as potential threats and vulnerability areas.
It goes beyond a risk assessment. As I said, the more information, the better.
Lay everything out on the table. Get your priorities in order and figure out strengths and weaknesses.
Your plan should go beyond risk assessment and prevention recommendations. It must actively target issues and mitigate risk through diverse, inclusive projects.
Implementation
The implementation stage is where you introduce these thought out policies and procedures into your organization. This means making your employees aware of them.
Security awareness is crucial. Users are often the weakest security link.
88 percent of all data breaches are caused by an employee mistake.
Employees must understand the policies and procedures to cultivate safe practices against various threats.
Training for employees in security procedures is a huge part of this phase. As well as installation of the necessary software and hardware.
Operation
The operation stage is putting the procedures and security measures into practice. Carrying out day-to-day operations or functions in order to see the response. The fluidity of how everything is working. There is also monitoring the network for security breaches and responding to incidents which takes us to our next step.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a regular review of the security procedures to detect any changes. In order to ensure that everything is working properly, there is a system of checks and balances. It involves regular testing which identifies any individuals or technological assets that may impact security or confidentiality.
Maintenance
Step 5 is maintenance. This is regular updates to security policies and procedures.
Disposal
We’re at the last step. This is when an organization removes all the data associated with its security system. This is done to prevent sensitive data from being accessed by unauthorized individuals.
An information security program that’s aligned with business objectives can better protect sensitive data and other information from cyber attacks and threats.
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Good job