What is Information Security Management

March 11, 2024

| Executive Management

Information security management is an organization’s approach to ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of IT assets and safeguard them from cyberattacks. A Chief Information Security Officer, IT Operations Manager, or Chief Technical Officer, whose team comprises Security Analysts and IT Operators, may carry out the tasks involved in information security.

It’s obvious that virtually every organization has information they wouldn’t want to be exposed to or wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands.

Regardless of whether this data is stored physically or digitally, Information Security Management is crucial to securing the data from being stolen, modified, or other accesses without authorization. You should consider what your organization owns so you can prioritize their protection.

Pillars of Information Security Management

Today, business organizations produce, amass, and store huge amounts of information from their customers, such as credit cards and payment data, behavioral analytics, healthcare information, usage data, and other personal information. All these have increased the threats of cyberattacks and data theft, which has resulted in important developments in the field of information security management.

The core six pillars of information security management must be properly understood to be effective for information security management strategies. They include:

Information Security Controls

What Are Security Controls?

Information security controls are safeguards or countermeasures implemented to minimize, detect, avoid, or counteract information security risks, including data theft, information systems breaches, and unauthorized access. These security controls aim to help protect the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of data and networks.

3 Forms of Security Controls

Preventive security controls intend to counteract cybersecurity incidents

Detective Some security controls are targeted at detecting unusual cybersecurity activities. They also detect both potential and successful breaches and notify the cybersecurity professional of the incidents.

Corrective Also, some security controls are intended to be corrective. They are implemented following a cybersecurity incident to reduce data loss or damage to the network or system and quickly restore critical business processes and systems (resilience).

Types of Security Controls

Physical Controls

This involves applying countermeasures and safeguards in a specified structure to prevent or discourage unsanctioned access to critical information assets. This includes using motion or thermal alarm systems, locks, security guards, or even closed-circuit surveillance cameras.

Access Controls

This strategy ensures that users are who they claim to be and that they have proper access to specific data. Examples of access controls include passwords.

Procedural Controls

These are the measures implemented to validate and maintain a computer system and guarantee that users understand how to use it. Procedural controls often adopt the form of typical user manuals and operating procedures (SOPs). Some common SOP topics include backup and recovery, SOP development and maintenance, computer system verification and validation, records management, user account management, change control, organization, personnel, and training, etc.

Technical Controls

These are the security measures that the computer system executes, such as firewalls, antivirus software, multi-factor user authentication at login (login), and logical access controls. Technical controls help to prevent unauthorized access or abuse and enable automatic detection of security breaches.

Compliance Controls

Controls are a central feature within compliance risk management and the appropriate implementation of these security measures is vital to mitigating risks. Examples include cybersecurity standards and frameworks and data privacy laws.

Information Security Standards and Control Frameworks

These outline suitable cybersecurity practices and create a structure that individuals can apply for managing their information security controls. The most common information security standards and control frameworks are:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard ISO 27001, Information Security Management.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Training and Certification Around Information Security Controls

Relevant training and certification ensure that the leader can implement and execute the Information Security Controls recommended by the council, and perform audits based on the standard. Training makes them familiar with processes and tools used to track/control/prevent/correct use of system and application accounts.

InfoSec professionals who want to take their career to the next level should attempt the leading security risk management courses.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)

Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) mainly deal with structuring risk management for organizations. Governance and risk management is a strategy that is structured to help you align IT tasks with corporate goals, mitigate risks efficiently, and stay up to speed with compliance.

Governance

What Is Governance?

Governance is the combination of procedures supported and implemented by the executives to guarantee that all organizational tasks, such as managing IT operations, are managed, and aligned to back up the organization’s business goals. Governance is a key element in an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution.

Best Practices

Corporate adopt several different practices, but the best practice for corporate governance are

Accountability
Having a competent board
Having a high level of ethics and integrity
Outlining roles and responsibilities
Effectively risk management solutions
Aligning business strategies with goals

Standards

Corporate Governance Standards are constructed on the premise of the following principles of corporate governance, implemented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):

The rights of shareholders and key ownership functions
The appropriate role of all stakeholders in corporate governance
The equitable treatment of shareholders
Disclosure and transparency of information about the organization
The appropriate responsibilities and roles of the board created within the organization

Risk Management

What Is Risk Management?

Risk management involves forecasting and dealing with risks or opportunities linked to your organization’s activities, which could hold back your organization from suitably realizing its aim in uncertain situations. In the cybersecurity environment, risk management is applying a comprehensive IT risk management methodology incorporated into your organization’s enterprise risk management functions.

Types of Risks

Risk Management Process

This refers to the framework for the actions that need to be implemented to mitigate risk. This begins with identifying risks, proceeds to analyze risks, prioritizing risks, treating risk, and finally, monitoring and reviewing the risk.

Principals of Risk Management

The ISO 31000-2018 standard, Risk Management–Guidelines, outlined the following principles for an effective risk management solution:

Risk Management Training and Certification

Risk management certifications help practitioners identify and implement a course of action to mitigate IT risks by learning the organizational skills to assess and prioritize real and potential risks using matrices in the risk assessment process. It also helps to understand the organization’s risk tolerance and avoid decision-making errors.

Compliance

What Is Cyber Regulatory and Compliance?

Cyber Regulation and Compliance are the yardsticks that ensure you meet the numerous controls, typically endorsed by the law, a regulatory authority, or industry group, to safeguard the CIA Triad (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) of data.

Here are some IT Compliance Standards that impact the business

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program)
FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act)
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
NY Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR 500).
CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act).
PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).
CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification).

Risks

The following are the potential risks of non-compliance in your employee certifications

Huge financial consequences, litigations, and fines for breaching regulations.
Access to markets and product delays
Loss of productivity and revenue.
Reputational damage
Government sanctions and license suspensions.
The risk of injury and potential lawsuits due to an unsafe working environment.

Here are some of the best practices surrounding regulatory compliance

Determine your end goals
Understand your industry's regulatory environment
Create and implement effective policies and procedures
Identify compliance program improvement opportunities by conducting reviews and evaluations.
Compliance training
Establish metrics to measure compliance program improvements
Conduct a compliance audit
Track and evaluate the cost of violations

Governance, Risk, and Compliance Training

There are hardly any job roles that don’t benefit from GRC training, including those of an IT Security Analyst, CIO, Business Information Security Officer, Security Engineer or Architect, etc. Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Training empower security professionals to discover unique insight into GRC activities across the business by fulfilling obligations by enforcing policies. Professionals who have gone through specialized governance, risk, and compliance training are equipped with the tools to help an organization design sound policies.

GRC training and certifications help you improve all GRC disciplines by bridging gaps in your education or experience.

Cybersecurity Audit Management

What Is Cybersecurity Audit?

A cybersecurity audit aims to serve as a ‘checklist,’ which authenticates that the policies a cybersecurity team indicates are really on the ground and that there are controls available to implement them.

Purpose of Cyber Audit

Internal Audit

Internal audits analyze an organization’s internal controls, such as its accounting processes and corporate governance. They ensure that organizations comply with relevant laws and regulations and that financial reporting and data collection are executed in an accurate and timely fashion.

External Audit

This is an independent assessment of the company’s financial statements and is often executed for statutory reasons since the law mandates it. The external audit is performed by a registered firm of accountants with established professional qualifications, including ACCA, ACA, and CPA.

Third-Party Audit

A third-party audit happens when an organization determines to construct a quality management system (QMS) that corresponds to the standard set of requirements, like the ISO9001 and utilizes an independent auditing firm’s services to conduct an audit to authenticate that the organization has thrived in meeting these standards.

Audit Management

This involves the process of ensuring that board-permitted audit directives are executed. Audit management simplifies and organizes the collaboration and workflow process of collecting audits. It manages the internal, external. And third-party audit employees hire and train suitable audit professionals and establishes audit programs.

Regulations and Standards

IFIAR: The International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators established independent audit inspections to enhance the level of audit quality.
FASB: The Securities and Exchange Commission accepts the Financial Accounting Standards Board as the chosen accounting standard setter for public companies.
PCAOB: through the establishment of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 halted the auditing profession's self-regulation framework to oversee the profession.
GAAS: The Generally Accepted Auditing Standards are the set of systematic regulations implemented by auditors when performing audits on an organization’s financial records.

Cyber Audit Management Training and Certification

Given the escalating amount of cyber-attacks, it has become essential for audit management programs to include cybersecurity measures. The certification equips audit or assurance experts with necessary knowledge and skill to succeed in cybersecurity audits and it gives IT risk personnel the understanding of cyber-based risk and prevention controls.

Security Program Management

This is made up of projects, processes, activities, technologies, and policies, which are combined to realize a shared objective.

The Objective of a Security Program

A security program aims to provide a documented set of an organization’s cybersecurity standards, policies, guidelines, and procedures. Your information security program must guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, availability, and nonrepudiation of your client and customer data via efficient security management controls and practices.

Components of Security Program

To accomplish all your operational, strategic, and tactical information security objectives, you need to implement the following are key components:

Training and Certification for Security Program Management

The information security officer training program or certification should also focus on information security projects that include integrating security requirements into other operational processes. Security program management is like a day to day responsibility of a CISO. Such certifications help the security leader understand the security maturity levels, how security engages with the business, its strategy overall and the business goals. It enables the leader to create a security road map and define exactly where they need to set their security benchmark.

Vendor Risk Management (VRM) OR Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)

VRM includes all the processes of evaluating suppliers, partners, and vendors to ensure they meet certain requirements⁠⁠. Although vendor risk management (VRM) and third-party risk management (TPRM) are often used interchangeably, they don’t mean the same thing.

What Is Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

TPRM is an assessment of vendor risk introduced by a firm’s third-party relationships along the whole supply chain. It involves identifying, evaluating, and monitoring the risks represented throughout the lifecycle of your relationships with third-parties. This often begins during procurement and reaches the end of the offboarding process.

Types of Risks while Onboarding Vendors

Operational risk: Example includes a data breach.
Regulatory risk: You could pay the price if a vendor violates the law or organizational policy
Reputational risk: For instance, a rug company outsources production to a factory that violates child labor regulations, resulting in penalties and destructive publicity.

How to Select a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Framework?

There is a growing need for a consistent third-party governance framework as companies are becoming more decentralized. Nevertheless, your selection of a third-party risk management framework would be dependent on your organization’s use of third-parties, compliance requirements, regulatory requirements, business processes, acceptable level of risk, joint ventures, and the general risk management policy.

Best Practices Around Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

You are only as tough as your weakest link:

Step 01

Identify third-party risk

You can identify risks at different levels of engagement with third parties. This can be done through penetration testing, threat modeling, red teaming assessment, and so on.

Step 02

Evaluate third-party risk

It is important that you perform a careful evaluation to assess and account for the impact. You can rank the assessment of critical third-party tools and services, perform periodic assessments, or evaluate each third-party tool risk’s general potential business impact.

Step 03

Mitigate Risk

You must assess risk in a time-and-cost fashion if you’re to mitigate third-party risks effectively.

Does Your Business need Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

TPRM is vital to mitigate unnecessary risk and excessive costs linked with third-party cyber risks. Designing a solid TPRM program minimizes the destructive impact that your organization’s technology business decisions may have on your financial solvency and customers.

Vendor / Third-Party Risk Management Training & Certification

Certifications in the vendor risk management space have become the norm for the organization. Business operating in an outsourced economy demands expertise to meet the necessary strategies, processes, and practices for evaluating and managing vendor risk and overseeing the security of sensitive data with third parties. The third-party or vendor risk management training helps in understanding the risks to your organization, manage program, and IT risk controls to concentrate on during an assessment.

Strategic Planning

An information security strategic plan can place an organization in a position to accept or avoid, transfer, or mitigate information risk associated with processes, people, and technologies. A solid strategy can also help the enterprise effectively protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

The Strategic Role of a CISO

Aligning Cybersecurity Initiatives with Business Objectives

Aligning your cybersecurity initiatives with your business objectives begins with understanding, describing, and ultimately aligning the relationship between your critical business functions, IT assets, and data.

When you take a careful look at how these components are interconnected, you’ll find it easier to determine which security controls you should apply for each of them. You should also note that business functions will depend on IT assets, IT assets will produce data, and data will provide business functions

Trends in Cybersecurity

There’s increasing recognition of the significance of cybersecurity solutions
Data breaches continue to be the top cyberthreat
Risks associated with IoT devices
Demand for cybersecurity personnel remain above supply even though IT teams have to handle more security threats than ever before
Automation and integration in cybersecurity are becoming a necessity
Cloud-based security issues continue to grow
AI on both sides of the barricade
Mobile devices as a major cybersecurity risk
Phishing attacks remain a constant threat
The growing impact of state-sponsored cyber-attacks

Return on Investment (ROI)

The appropriate metric in today’s cybersecurity environment is to get a return on investment (ROI). Cybersecurity professionals must be able to validate and account for every amount spent on information security. Assessing actual cybersecurity ROI involves assessing attacks controlled and reporting attacks that may have happened but didn’t due to a cybersecurity framework’s strength.

Vendor Management

This process authorizes an organization to take suitable procedures for mitigating possible risks associated with vendors, regulating cost, guaranteeing exceptional service deliverability, and developing value from vendors in the long-run.

Role of a CISO in Managing Information Security Operations

The CISO is the executive-level manager responsible for directing operations, strategy, and the budget needed to ensure and manage the enterprise information assets’ security. The role of a CISO will cover communications, identity and access management, applications, infrastructure, and the procedures and policies that apply.

CISO an Integral part of Business Enablement Process

The CISO is an integral component of any business enablement process, even though most companies are still not used to the role. The responsibilities of a CISO goes beyond IT functions to include every aspect of a business function.

A CISO’s business enablement responsibility includes the following components

Why CCISO?

One of the most prominent cyber risk management online certification courses you will find today is the EC-Council’s Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO) course. The objective of this training and certification program is to produce top-level information security executives.

The top security officer training available is the CCISO program, which covers five crucial domains, including

Governance and Risk Management
Information Security Controls, Compliance, and Audit Management
Security Program Management & Operations
Information Security Core Competencies
Strategic Planning, Finance, Procurement, and Vendor Manage

Sign-up now to begin your information security journey!

If you’re contemplating whether to take the CCISO training program or not, here’s why you should. Aside from the reason that the CCISO is written for information security executives that want to be CISOs through improving their skills and knowledge to integrate information security programs with business objectives and goals, the CCISO is essential for the following reasons:

Accredited by ANSI

In case you’re not aware of it, the EC-Council’s CCISO certification program is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which is one of the many certification authorities primarily focused on guaranteeing that the information security expert meets the ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 Personnel Certification Accreditation standards.

Written by Seasoned Experts

The CCISO is written by seasoned experts who designed the program that draws from their daily tasks as a guide. The board is made up of security leaders from HP, Universities, the City of San Francisco, Lennar, Amtrak, the Center for Disease Control, and other consulting firms. These advisory boards have shared their vast knowledge to construct a program that deals with the absence of a leadership training program within the information security setting.

Acknowledges the Value of Real-World Experience

To obtain a holistic understanding of what to expect while in the information security domain, CISOs must have prior knowledge before securing a C-Level job. This is why the CCISO certification program consists of various real-world events that confront modern CISOs worldwide.

Focused on C-Level Management through the Five Domains

By concentrating on the five domains, including governance and risk management; Information Security Controls, Compliance, and Audit Management; Security Program Management & Operations, Information Security Core Competencies; and Strategic Planning, Finance, Procurement, and Vendor Management, the EC-Council is not only able to assure you that their beliefs align with those of the NCWF, but they are also able to match the demands of businesses and other organizations globally.

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