January 21, 2025

The critical role of cyber security resilience in tackling digital threats

Chris Harvey

Security Solutions Specialist at Data^#3 Limited

Connect

Cyber threats are evolving at an alarming rate, presenting a never-ending barrage of challenges to organisations worldwide. It’s no longer enough to just have a solid defence—you need to think bigger. You need to build cyber resilience to adapt, respond, and recover, no matter what comes your way.

What is cyber resilience?

At its core, cyber resilience is about staying operational—even when you’re under attack. It extends beyond traditional protection measures, probing an organisation’s ability to adapt to, respond to, and recover from cyber threats. It’s a holistic approach integrating cyber security, business continuity, and enterprise resilience. The objective is not just to thwart attacks, but to ensure that you can continue to keep your organisation running smoothly even when under siege.

How do you measure cyber resilience and maturity?

Measuring cyber resilience involves assessing how well your organisation can anticipate, withstand, and recover from cyber threats. A robust measurement framework would look beyond conventional security metrics and include elements of recovery and adaptability. Consider:

1. Maturity Models:

There are several maturity models designed to help organisations assess their cybersecurity strength and resilience. These models, such as the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Zero Trust Model, Essential Eight or the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, offer a set of criteria for gauging your current capabilities. Organisations will often use aspects from each model to categorise their maturity, or readiness, into levels – from initial (least mature) to optimised (most mature), so that it’s easier to then identify areas for improvement.

2. Benchmarking:

If you’re looking for effective ways to measure and enhance your cybersecurity posture while comparing yourself to industry standards and peers, tools like Microsoft Secure Score and CIS CSAT (Critical Security Controls Self-Assessment Tool) are excellent options to consider.

Here’s why:

Microsoft Secure Score is ideal if your organisation relies on Microsoft products and services. It provides actionable feedback and shows how you stack up against industry averages. Discover how to check your current score here.
CIS CSAT offers a broader perspective by assessing your implementation of the CIS Critical Security Controls, enabling you to benchmark your maturity against peers across multiple industries and implementation groups.

Using both tools gives you a well-rounded understanding of your cybersecurity strengths and areas for improvement. They don’t just tell you where you stand—they help you take actionable steps to build a stronger, more resilient security posture.

3. Resilience Metrics:

Want to see measurable results? Start tracking things like:

Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How quickly you can recover after a cyber incident.
System Uptime/Availability: The percentage of time services are operational and unaffected by cyber incidents.
Incident Response Time: How fast can you respond to a detected cyber threat?
Employee Awareness Levels: Measured through phishing simulation success rates or training completion percentages.

4. Continuous Assessment:

Cyber resilience is not a one-off exercise. Regularly scheduled reviews and updates to the resilience plan ensure that an organisation remains prepared as new threats emerge. This also includes continuously training staff and updating them on new threats and best practices.

How to build cyber resilience

Improving your cyber resilience and maturity level involves a strategic approach integrating processes, technologies, and people. It requires commitment from all levels of the organisation, from executive leadership to individual team members. Key steps include:

Implementing a Cyber Resilience Framework: Adopting and tailoring a framework to the specific needs and context of your organisation can guide the development of effective resilience strategies.
Investing in Employee Training and Awareness: Employees are often the first line of defence against cyber threats. Never underestimate the risk reduction that regular training to identify and respond to threats can have.
Establishing an Incident Response Plan: A well-defined and regularly tested incident response plan ensures your organisation can react swiftly and effectively to limit the impact of cyber incidents.
Leveraging Technology and Intelligence: Utilising advanced tools like XDR and threat intelligence solutions can provide proactive defence mechanisms and insights into emerging threats.

Why regular assessments of your cyber security maturity are key

Here’s the thing: threats aren’t going to slow down. That’s why it’s so important to regularly assess your security maturity – it’s crucial to strengthening your resilience. Regular assessments will illuminate current security posture, identify vulnerabilities, and provide actionable insights for continuous improvement. It’s like taking your car in for a service—you might not think you need it until it’s too late.

Working with experts can make a big difference here. They’ll bring fresh eyes to your challenges, ask the tough questions, mitigate the influence of organisational bias and help you spot gaps you might not even realise exist. (Shameless plug for my Security Resilience Assessment Workshop I’ve developed with Cisco here.)

The four pillars of cyber security resilience

Using the updated CISA Zero Trust Model that we mentioned earlier, we can focus on four critical pillars of cybersecurity resilience: Zero Trust, Secure Network, Extended Detection and Response (XDR), and Security Operations. Let’s delve into how each contributes to fortifying an organisation’s cyber resilience.

Zero Trust A very widely used term that has become the mainstay of every modern cybersecurity approach. The principle of “never trust, always verify” rejects the traditional notion of a trusted internal network and an untrusted external one. Threats can originate from anywhere, and the Zero Trust approach mitigates the risk of unauthorised access and lateral movement within the network by requiring verification of every user and device, regardless of their location. While almost every security solution claims to be ‘Zero Trust’, many organisations have struggled to achieve this utopia.
Secure Network is the principle that data in transit is protected across both public and private networks. It relies on the implementation of robust encryption standards, secure protocols, and network segmentation strategies. By safeguarding the network infrastructure, organisations can prevent eavesdropping and manipulation of data, crucial components in maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) goes beyond traditional detection and response mechanisms by providing a holistic, integrated view of threats across multiple security layers—email, endpoint, server, cloud, and network. By harnessing advanced analytics, machine learning, and automation, XDR can detect subtle and sophisticated threats and respond more effectively. This comprehensive visibility and swift response capability are pivotal in minimising the impact of breaches.
Security Operations encapsulate the continuous processes and technologies employed to detect, analyse, respond to, and prevent cybersecurity threats. Central to this pillar is the Security Operations Centre (SOC), which orchestrates the monitoring, assessment, and defence of an organisation’s information assets. Effective security operations are characterised by their agility, adaptability, and the ability to leverage insights from past incidents to enhance future defences.

Let’s get started

With today’s constantly evolving threats, adopting a cyber resilience framework is not just beneficial; it’s a necessity. That’s why, Data^#3, a Cisco Master Security Specialised Partner, has collaborated with Cisco to develop a Security Resilience Assessment Workshop. This is a free to attend, hands-on session where you’ll assess your organisation’s security posture with guidance from experienced experts.

Want to learn more? Consider participating in a Security Resilience Assessment Workshop or reach out to your account manager today. Let’s build your resilience together.