Top Tips to Prepare for Cyber Threats in the COVID-19 Era
The ISF Threat Radar is a visual aid created to accompany the Threat Horizon reports that can be leveraged by organisations to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the threat landscape. These ISF tips can help you to make the best use of the ISF Threat Radar. For support creating a customised Threat Horizon scenario for your organisation, please get in touch.
ALIGN STRATEGY WITH THREAT FORECASTING
Carry out a review of your organisation’s business continuity and crisis management plans, ensuring they account for the new and emerging threats introduced by COVID-19. The ISF Threat Radar can be used to develop a coherent and resilient approach to information security.
EVALUATE THREAT PREDICTIONS
In the COVID-19 era, some threats may take on added importance. Review your existing threat forecast and determine its continued applicability to your organisation. You may wish to revisit previous ISF Threat Horizon reports to assist during this process.
IDENTIFY ADDITIONAL THREATS
Use the Threat Horizon’s PESTLE model to evaluate the new threat landscape in relation to political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that may be driven or influenced by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
RECORD RELEVANT THREATS
Use the ISF Threat Radar to plot the impact of threats related to COVID-19 and your organisation’s ability to manage each threat appropriately. Create a continuous process for the evaluation of threats plotted on your Radar.
MANAGE AND PROTECT CROWN JEWELS
Identify and record mission critical information assets that are exposed to the threats presented on the Threat Radar. Gain a clear understanding of the techniques and methods likely to be used by adversarial threats against these assets to determine their level of exposure and the appropriate security controls.
ENGAGE WITH STAKEHOLDERS
Use the Threat Radar as a visualiser to facilitate discussion with business leaders around threats introduced by COVID-19 and the potential risks they pose to your organisation’s information security. Validate identified threats with relevant parties – this may involve developing, modifying or removing threats from the Radar. You may also need to rethink and adapt some of your security policies.
PREPARE TO ADDRESS EMERGING THREATS
Develop and implement remediation plans for each threat, identifying changes required to controls, infrastructure and architecture in your organisation. Assign responsibilities to named individuals, set target dates for specific actions and align these actions with your existing risk management structures and frameworks.
PRIORITISE PLANS FOR REMEDIATION
Assess and prioritise all threats leveraging your organisation’s existing risk management tools and methodologies. Set the budget needed to remediate threats and gain business buy-in for information security investments
TEST BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES
Implement threat simulation exercises to gauge the preparedness of the workforce and security systems to handle new and emerging threats that stem from the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjust organisational strategies and remediation plans to improve threat resilience