Understanding the value of incorporating Cyber Scorings into Your Cybersecurity Strategy
With cyberattacks constantly threatening businesses, it’s imperative for them to continuously assess their information security maturity level, as well as that of their partners and suppliers.
To meet this need, external cyber scorings offer an interesting solution for objectively controlling the cybersecurity hygiene of organizations on Internet. However, it’s crucial to understand how this tool fits into a control approach. The purpose of this article is to enlighten cybersecurity stakeholders and decision-makers on the use of Cyber Scorings.
The principles of Cyber Scorings
External cyber scorings provide an objective and standardized measurement of an organization’s security posture by relying on several stable principles and factual criteria, including:
- Taking into account the organization’s digital footprint: This includes all the points of presence that the organization exposes on Internet: IP addresses, domain names, certificates…, as well as leaks of identifiers and passwords…
- Identification and analysis of vulnerabilities associated with identified assets: This refers to weaknesses or security flaws that a cyber attacker could exploit. Numerous vulnerabilities are evaluated, and their knowledge is regularly updated through continuous monitoring. Once cataloged, the identified vulnerabilities for each company are weighted according to their number and severity.
- Evaluation of associated cyber risks, using a scoring algorithm that takes into account the results of the evaluation reference framework’s control points, and also integrates the inter-comparison of companies, with the most vulnerable generally having a higher chance of compromise.
The result is a score and ranking that allows for assessing the cybersecurity posture of the organization and its evolution over time, as well as comparing it with similar actors or averages related to business sectors.
The 4 Benefits of Cyber Scorings for Organizations
- Enhanced continuous control and better anticipation of threats
Continuous monitoring is essential. It promotes effective detection and planning for the correction of security problems and weaknesses, and allows for the active management of cyber threats as they emerge.Cyber ratings enable businesses to strengthen the continuous control of their cybersecurity posture and that of their suppliers, with a marginal unit cost.
- Mastery of competitive positioning
The score provides a deep understanding of identified cybersecurity risks, allowing the company, investors, or insurers to make better decisions. The continuous evaluation of the company’s score allows for the integration of threshold criteria into contracts.
- Informed decision making
The score allows for positioning the organization within its sector. This positioning is a differentiating factor for clients and investors interested in the business.
- Improved management of risks related to subsidiaries, suppliers, and partners
This solution, in the logic of continuous control, helps companies to quickly identify and control risks associated with their third parties throughout the duration of the relationship, by reporting identified risks back to the concerned organization, triggering in-depth audits on demand, and even assisting third parties in resolving their risks.