Benefits of Integrating Technology into Your InfoSec Program
Information security (InfoSec) is a critical aspect of keeping an organization’s computers, networks, sensitive information, and users safe from potential threats. Integrating technology into a financial institution’s InfoSec program can make it easier to manage risk and protect their information and infrastructure assets. Institutions can utilize automation to capitalize on a variety of other benefits, including:
Simplicity
Banking is a complex business. Banks and credit unions maintain a wide assortment of information technology devices, systems, and applications to support their operations. They also have multiple personnel, partners, and third-party providers spread across different geographic areas. The interconnectivity of their operations can make it even harder for institutions to protect the hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of assets they must maintain. An automated system can make it easier for institutions to inventory and classify their assets—without having to create enormous, time-consuming spreadsheets. It provides a centralized solution for tracking the criticality, location, and risk exposure level of each asset. Identifying the source of risk is the essential first step to effective risk management. Technology and various Software as a Service (SaaS) applications can greatly simplify the process of inventorying assets, assessing the risk, and selecting controls. Technology can also create automatic updates to ensure that all policies and procedures are current and based on industry standards and regulatory requirements. Additionally, on-demand stakeholder reporting can be generated to provide the requisite documentation to management committees, board of directors, and regulatory authorities, respectively.
Completeness and Transparency
Integrating technology can help financial institutions get a clearer sense of their security posture, so they can develop a more complete InfoSec program. Automation makes it easier to identify and categorize each asset, along with its related risks, threats, and controls. This can enable institutions to make a more accurate assessment of where their security risks actually lie. With enhanced transparency, institutions can determine the most appropriate level of protection for each of their assets. As a result, they can more effectively use, manage, and secure these assets. Proactively identifying risks, threats and controls can also better position them to minimize the impact of security incidents in the future.
Better Intelligence and Insights
Some financial institutions rely on manual spreadsheets to manage the vast amount of information and other assets in their InfoSec program. But manual spreadsheets are not always the most effective tracking and reporting mechanism. People can inadvertently feed the wrong data into spreadsheets and produce unreliable results (“garbage in, garbage out”). Plus, since creating spreadsheets is such a repetitive and time-consuming process, information may be infrequently updated—which can make it less timely and thus less useful. However, integrating technology can help institutions enhance the accuracy of the intelligence that supports their InfoSec program. In turn, their board and management can have better insights into the important issues that impact the information security of their organization, which in turn empowers them to make better decisions.
Enhanced Reporting
To make the best decisions for their institution and perform their fiduciary oversight duties, boards and management committees need accurate, relevant, and timely information. By incorporating technology in their InfoSec program, institutions can put an efficient process in place to generate, collect, and analyze data to support board and committee reporting. This can enhance the overall quality of the information being reported to the board, shareholders, and auditors, and regulators. Optimized, on-demand reporting can improve governance, foster compliance, and potentially reduce negative consequences from inadequate board reporting.
Resource Collaboration and Augmentation
InfoSec resources are limited at many financial institutions, and most community banks and credit unions do not have a dedicated InfoSec specialist in-house. Additionally, information security officers (ISOs) tend to wear multiple hats and are often stretched thin by their broad range of responsibilities. An automated application can create a centralized solution that creates a multi-user approach to allow the ISO to leverage internal resources wherever and whenever possible. For example, a department head or process owner can be a valuable internal resource for assessing vendors impacting the department’s functionality. Similarly, the process owner (and not necessarily the ISO) would be the most logical choice to perform the process Business Impact Analysis. In this way, InfoSec becomes an “all hands on deck” operation, with all personnel sharing ownership of the process. Outsourcing additional aspects of InfoSec via a virtual ISO solution can provide an institution with additional subject matter expertise and solutions to further support their designated ISO and the overall security of their systems and information.
Read more about the benefits of integrating technology into your information security. Download our white paper on “How Financial Institutions Can Use Technology to Build an Automated, FFIEC-compliant Information Security Program.”