What is Cybersecurity Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?

Cybersecurity is an important part of a company's Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and policies and procedures pertaining to key technology and sensitive data protection must be considered.

The process of developing preventative and recovery measures to cope with possible cyber threats to a company or to assure process continuity in the aftermath of a cyberattack is known as business continuity planning (BCP).

• In business continuity planning, it's critical to incorporate guidelines for recognizing, controlling, and decreasing cyber threats.

• The secondary purpose of BCP is to maintain operational continuity before and throughout catastrophe recovery. This facilitates cross-departmental coordination and ensures that companies have a plan to respond to any assaults promptly.

The cybersecurity team's aims are comparable to those of the business continuity and disaster recovery teams in many aspects. As a result, these groups should collaborate to develop a comprehensive business continuity strategy that considers all parts of the company. Teams can ensure effective security for crucial areas of emphasis, such as complete data and asset management, recovery and response, and the people engaged at every step of the process by using an integrated strategy.

How to Integrate Cybersecurity in Business Continuity Planning?

Now let's check how cybersecurity can be integrated in a company's Business Continuity Planning −

Business Impact Analysis

The many parts of an organization's cybersecurity risk management approach must be taken into consideration throughout the business impact analysis (BIA) process. Teams should include reputation, revenue loss, customer service and experiences, legal and/or regulatory requirements, and increases in operational costs as a result of a cyber-attack in their impact categories.

It's critical to comprehend the organization's possible long-term or residual consequences throughout. Organizations may make better-informed judgments about how to ensure business continuity in the event of a data breach or assault by laying out the entire breadth of the effect.

Make a Risk Assessment for Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity risk assessments give your company a holistic view of its cybersecurity as well as those of its third- and fourth-party vendors. A cybersecurity assessment may aid security teams in determining not just their existing degree of security and the actions they'll need to take to keep the entire network safe while developing a business continuity plan.

A business continuity evaluation should be carried out in the context of an organization's business objectives. Organizations may acquire a better awareness of their security gaps by performing both of these things, which can be utilized to guide the BCP better.

Maintaining Total Vision and Keeping an Eye on Everything at All Times

Enabling both total visibility and continuous monitoring is the most effective strategy to proactively manage risk and alleviate business continuity problems related to cybersecurity. This enables IT, security teams to have a complete picture of the organization's cyber hygiene at any given moment, enabling more confident, well-informed decision-making and continual compliance monitoring — which is becoming increasingly important in many sectors.

Organizations should use technologies that enable complete visibility over their entire network infrastructure, including vendors and the whole supply chain. The threat landscape is rapidly evolving, and companies can no longer rely on point-in-time assessments to accurately represent their security posture.

Consider Risk Management in the Supply Chain and with Third Parties

Organizations frequently disregard supply chain and third-party risk management until it poses a danger to their assets or image. This reactive strategy is no longer adequate. Supply chain risk management is more critical than ever as firms increasingly collaborate to carry out commercial activities.

Teams must consider the effect of various cybersecurity risks across the whole supply chain in order to allocate additional resources and strategies to respond properly to these threats.

Implement Fundamental Controls

Basic controls such as remote working policies, mobile device management, and VPN technology should all be included from a technological standpoint. In the case of an emergency, automation may be used to ensure that key cyber security duties are still completed. To ensure appropriate steps are implemented at each level, the security team should be incorporated in Crisis and Business Continuity Planning Sessions throughout the Enterprise.

Emergency Access

Enabling adequate access to third parties and incidents during a crisis should be a vital aspect of any business continuity plan.

Challenges in Implementing Cyber Security in BCP

One of the biggest challenges for firms when they execute their BCP is ensuring that cyber security is adequately evaluated and that their vital systems and data are secured. Organizations may not apply the required controls on non-corporate devices in their eagerness to deploy remote working. Simultaneously, opportunistic hackers are focusing their efforts on vulnerable home workers.

The impact of lower staffing numbers in essential cyber security and IT teams exacerbates the issue. The easiest approach to prepare for these risks is to make sure they're addressed in your business continuity plan.