The digitization of corporate working practices has accelerated since the Covid-19 crisis, amplifying a worrying shortage of cybersecurity professionals. While many organizations are investing in increasingly complex IT infrastructures, professionals capable of understanding the very nature of cyber risk are in short supply. And this talent shortage is worldwide.

But before starting the search for such talent, companies need to equip themselves with simple, effective and unifying means of accurately identifying their cybersecurity needs. This is the essence of Security Rating®, the cyber assessment solution developed by Board of Cyber.

Working on your "cyber posture

The Internet is one of the primary vulnerabilities for organizations. And with good reason: cybercriminals' tools for scanning the web have never been so effective. As a result, with the Internet, security flaws fall into the public domain.

"For a company, showing its vulnerabilities is like presenting the fruit at the foot of the tree

waiting to be devoured by the first visitor."

To avoid becoming this defenseless fruit, a company needs to work on its "cyber posture", assessing the state of its vulnerabilities before hoping to climb back to the top of the tree.

Third-party cyber risk a priority

In a recent study, the Ponemon Institute reports that cyber risk linked to corporate ecosystems is on the rise. The examples of the raids on Solarwinds and Kaseya prove, through their global consequences, that these "indirect rebound attacks via a service provider" are to be taken very seriously. After all, if my locksmith inadvertently gives the keys to my apartment to the whole neighborhood, I'm in serious danger. And if a company is to assess its cyber vulnerabilities effectively, it needs to do so in the right way.

While many organizations are launching Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) programs, often based on self-assessment questionnaires, these are doomed to failure because they are so time-consuming and declarative.

How, then, can a CIO or CISO assess all subcontracting and supply chains (Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management)? Faced with this third-party risk, Security Rating© becomes indispensable. Thanks to its non-intrusive approach, the Board of Cyber solution is one of the most effective tools available. But it's also fun and easy to use.

Towards the gamification of cyber issues

Managers tend to forget it, but their IT teams are sometimes made up of video game aficionados, employees for whom World of Warcraft, Fortnite or Mario Kart are synonymous with competition and "scoring". For these talents, the idea of "patching" a server or setting 2 or 3 options on a cloud provider's portal to improve their company's "cyber score" by 10 points can become a fun activity. If this practice is also encouraged and valued by their managers, cyber assessment can become one of the pillars of corporate cybersecurity.

By sharing with their teams the rating principles generated by Security Rating®, the Board of Cyber solution, managers will find new ways to improve cybersecurity in a pragmatic and fun way. Who will manage to climb above the 850 Security Rating® points in less than 3 months?

To be continued on our blog: non-intrusive cyber analysis techniques.