How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Information Security Management Software

The information security management systems process is the central point of all security issues inside the organization. This place plays a key role inside the organization for all the security issues. What does security do for the business, what is your impact on risk, are you improving your service to business and how if management approached you with questions like these today would you be able to point to targeted data to back up your response quickly? Having key performance indicators in place, as part of a security measures and metrics program can give you the information you need to defend and justify your program and improve over time.

On an organizational level, key performance indicators or KPIs are measurable targets that show how well a company is meeting its overall business objectives. KPIs are also valuable at the business unit level. To measure progress toward each function key long-term goals are aligned with the company objectives.

Metrics come in many flavors and not every metric is a KPI. Simple counting metrics generally don’t act as key strategic measures. KPIs are more likely to deal with optimization and practicality because those most frequently reflect the business objectives for security. KPIs also incorporate targets that the function intends to meet and show progress toward long-term goals.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Information Security Management Software?

To audit, monitor, measure analysis, and evaluate requirements of the ISO 27001 information security management software, the auditor and auditee must know from an information security perspective. Measurement is a process to determine a value. For example, what is the size of a file attached to the email? Here size of a file is the value and the process by which this size is determined is called measurement.

Monitoring is determined by the status of a system, process, or activity. For example, for a threshold value of more than 5 MB file attachment, the system admin monitors the number of attempts to send emails with more than 5 MB. Information Security analysis involves the assessment of the potential consequences that would result from the data collected, identified, and the levels determined. Continuing with the above example, the total size of data attempted to send out of the organization, type of documents sent as attachments, number of attempts, tenured employee or new joiners, and so forth the analysis possibilities are endless as long as the analysis makes sense.

In fact, in analysis, you try to draw sense from the data. Information security evaluation involves comparing the results of information security data analysis with established criteria to prioritize action. For example, 3 employees who joined the organization under the employee referral scheme tried to send emails with attachments of more than 5 MB. This action could increase surveillance, stealth investigation, collecting cyber forensic audit trails, and so forth.

How to Evaluate the Performance of Your Organization?

In the ever-changing world of compliance, simply having policies in place is not enough. You need a robust monitoring strategy to ensure those policies are consistently adhered to. Compliance monitoring is a critical aspect of security management. It involves a continuous process of ensuring that an organization sticks to regulatory requirements and internal policies. Implementation of these policies includes training employees on compliance requirements. Integrating compliance checks into daily operations is also essential. Automated tools can be used to monitor compliance in real time. Regular audits either internal or third party are fundamental to compliance monitoring.

Unfortunately, more than 40% of the organizations audited don’t know the requirements of the International standard in the realm of information security measurement, information security monitoring, information security analysis and information security evaluation in a plant structured manner as required by the standard.

The organization must evaluate the ISMS software information security performance and the effectiveness of the information security management system software. The organization must determine-

  1. What needs to be monitored and measured including information security processes and controls.
  2. The methods for monitoring, measurement, and evaluation as applicable to ensure valid results.
  3. The methods selected must produce comparable and reproducible results to be considered valid.
  4. When would monitoring and measuring be performed and when results from monitoring and measurement are analysed and evaluated?
  5. Who shall analyze and evaluate these results? The organization must maintain appropriate documented data as evidence of the monitoring and measurement results.

Information monitoring, measurement, analysis, and evaluation audits are opportunities for an organization to perform a complete health checkup of the ISMS. In the matters of information security, ignorance is not bliss. Organizations need to abide by the requirements of the International Standard on ‘monitoring, measurement, analysis, and evaluation process’.

Monitoring is a way to confirm the project status against what was reported. The expectation guarantees that will be prepared to show progress at any time. Responding to requests for documentation and notification for monitoring with well-organized backup. Resolve any corrections from monitoring as quickly as possible and send documentation of corrections to the grant monitor. The status must be confident in the guaranteed ability to administer the project which provides accurate documentation. Employees must notify senior managers immediately of any non-challenges to identify appropriate solutions and ensure their success.

How Does ISO 27001 Management Software Support the Security System of an Organization?

To measure the effectiveness of your information security management software and determine the noncompliance in conformity with ISO 27001, it contains a downloadable Excel file with 4 sheets having more than 80 compliance checklist questions. These compliance questionnaires are made to meet the mandatory requirements of ISO 27001 clauses, controls, and domains. This will enable pinpoint noncompliance, focused remediation, and security performance analysis from one order to another audit over a while. The checklist has a complete inventory of clauses, clause numbers, clause titles, controls, control numbers, control objectives, and domains of ISO 27001 management software.

Each audit result is unique. The dynamic nature of outputs and audit results are required to be analyzed. Therefore in the Excel file you would receive, one sheet is dedicated to audit result analytics with 7 parameters analyzed in graphs and tables.

Securely save the original checklist file and use the copy of the file as your working document. During the preparation and conduct of the assessment of monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation process. The security assessments probe multithreaded investigation audit trials. The security checklist has numerous investigated questions. Effective measurement analysis and evaluation-related processes are at various levels of information security maturity. Therefore, use the checklist investigation questionnaires quantum apportioned to the current status of threats emerging from risk exposure.

The effectiveness of monitoring, measurement and analysis process, checklist on requirements of ISO 27001 follows the cardinals of risk-based thinking (RBT), process approach and plan, do, check and act (PDCA) methodology.

Conclusion

To implement compliance tracking effectively, organizations should establish a centralized repository to document and manage controls, gathering evidence of their effectiveness. A compliance tracking system with connectors to various business applications can streamline control assessment and validation by pulling relevant data from different departments. This approach simplifies workflows for managing alarms, communicating with the board, investigating alerts, and remediating control weaknesses.

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