As organizations move towards more sophisticated security technologies, the necessity for effective governance, risk, and compliance policies becomes increasingly important. In fact, it is probably accurate to say that unless an organization's GRC policies are robust enough to support all aspects of a company's GRC program, advanced security technologies will only provide minimal protection.
With that said, below are 10 of the most critical GRC Policies for an organization to have in Place when it Comes to Managing Cyber Risk.
An organization's Information Security Policy will form the basis for the organization's Cybersecurity Framework. The organization will put a commitment to how security will be managed, what its security objectives are, and what the high-level policies/rules will be for managing the protection of its information assets.
Modern-day risks such as cloud usage, remote work, third-party access, and AI driven threats must also be addressed in this Policy along with traditional on-premises environments.
Cyber risk management policies outline procedures for identifying, assessing, and managing cyber risk exposures. Cyber risk management policies promote consistent evaluation of cyber risks and management responses based on business impact rather than emotions or assumptions.
Without a clearly defined risk management policy, organisations may react too late to potential risks, invest too heavily in low-priority controls while not adequately addressing higher-level exposures.
A critical threat vector in cyber-attacks today is identification as the primary attack vector. An access control policy should outline the process by which access to systems and/or data is given, reviewed, and revoked for all users.
The access control policy should include language that prohibits or severely restricts user privileges to the minimum required to perform their job functions; implement multi-factor authentication for all access; provide for the periodic reassessment of users to determine if they should continue to retain active access credentials.
The acceptable use policy provides guidelines regarding acceptable employee usage of company systems, hardware and data. This includes usage of email, internet, software downloads, and the use of your company-owned hardware while working remotely.
It is essential because human behaviour is still responsible for the largest proportion of security breaches.
A company's incident response policy describes the organization's process to identify, notify, and react to security incidents. The policy outlines each person's job duties, establishes timelines to impose escalation, and defines communications protocols required throughout the incident management process.
Documentation of an incident response policy is critical; otherwise, the company will likely waste valuable time while responding to an incident, leading to increased financial and operational impacts.
Vendors, service providers, and cloud platforms are critical components to an organization’s overall security model. A well-defined third-party risk management policy outlines the way in which vendors will be assessed, approved and monitored for security risks.
As supply-chain and vendor-related attacks become more frequent, it is crucial that organizations develop and implement a third-party risk management policy to ensure their data remains protected and that they remain in compliance with applicable regulations.
This policy outlines how sensitive data is to be classified, stored, processed, and shared. In addition to ensuring compliance with data protection regulations, it minimizes the likelihood of creating data leaks.
As organizations continue to see an increasing amount of data and as more stringent regulations are put in place regarding the use of data, having an established set of processes established by an organization allows it to prove it has established accountability for and controls over the handling of both personal and private/secret information.
As part of its cybersecurity program, a company’s Vulnerability Management Policy outlines the steps and actions taken to find and prioritize vulnerabilities and address them when they are identified through assessments to mitigate risks.
If a company does not have a Vulnerability Management Policy in place, it will typically identify vulnerabilities but do nothing about them, which puts its information technology infrastructure at risk.to malicious behaviors.
Natural disasters can cause major disruptions to a business-Cyber Incidents can also cause major disruptions to a business just as a natural disaster would be disruptive. By developing a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Policy, businesses can develop a strategy to restore critical services as quickly as possible following an incident.
Three of the main elements of this policy include Ransomware Resilience, Data Backup Protection, and the creation of a Recovery Plan that has been thoroughly tested.
The Compliance Policy is in place to support the identification, tracking and regularly reviewing of all Regulatory and contractual obligations. To aid in the development of Internal Control systems, Compliance Policies align with Standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2 and industry specific Regulations.
The Compliance Policy enables companies to shift from a reactive approach to Compliance Management to a Continuous Compliance Readiness approach.
A sound Cybersecurity Program is based on GRC Policy Frameworks, which allow organizations to manage risk, provide compliance support and build resilience to today’s modern-day threats.
Additionally, organizations that audit and update their GRC Policies regularly have a much better chance of overcoming Cyber Security Incidents, Cyber Security Audit Challenges, and Business Disruption Events.
Ancrew Global offers the total Cybersecurity Solution, GRC Services. Call us today to schedule a demo and elevate your GRC Policy Framework to the next level!