Case Study: Lessons Learned from Conducting a Cybersecurity Audit

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Cybersecurity is a buzzword, and an important one at that. But are your company’s cyber security policies being followed? Are operations and procedures in place to ensure your company is protected in an attack? In this episode, Vanessa shares her lessons learned from recently conducting a cybersecurity audit and what you can take away and implement from her experience.

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Some key takeaways from this episode include:

• Make sure you’re aware of gaps in cybersecurity liability insurance. We uncovered that our partner had $15 million in cyber assets that were not covered by insurance. Determine what monetary value of risk you’re comfortable with for what’s not covered.
• Perform an assessment first, and then an audit. The assessment will provide a high-level look of how things are going, and an audit is a much more detailed investigation of risks. The assessment will help you prepare for the audit.
• If you’re preparing to bring in a third party provider to conduct a cybersecurity audit, make sure you have all the right people at the table from your organization. This includes your IT team, legal team, and operations teams.
• A third party provider will sample a segment of your workforce to see if there are any cyber security issues with how your employees are storing or accessing data. We found several vulnerabilities that posed huge risks that the IT team was not aware of, and they were able to take steps to address those vulnerabilities immediately.
• Without a business continuity management program, your cybersecurity efforts will be rendered ineffective. You need teams in place to ensure that business operations and reputation management are happening while your data is being held hostage or another cyber security disaster presents itself.

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Vanessa Mathews, host

Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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Jon Seals, producer

Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.

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