Companies and organisations that exchange a lot of data via networks must organise their information systems (IS) protection against external and internal threats. Security specialists need to know which IS strategy to design to fight these risks. An IS dashboard is an effective IT security tool to apply this strategy.
The importance of IT security
Commercial data, customer files, health data… more and more sensitive information is exchanged and stored digitally worldwide. The more valuable this data, the more attractive it is for cybercrime, and the more devastating its loss or damage to attacked organisations.
IT security has become a major stake for companies. France’s national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) noted a “high level of IT threats” in its 2022 cyber-threat panorama, counting a 37% rise in intrusions vs 2021.
Yet many companies do not know how to react correctly. Common reasons: lack of internal skills, lack of risk information, low prioritisation.
The need for regular IS strategy follow-up
Any company deploying an IS strategy must be able to steer and evolve it over time — adapting to new threats and fixing IS gaps.
Not long ago, some companies still relied on simple Excel tables to analyse data from their IT security tools. That is no longer sustainable. A company wanting an effective IS dashboard must have advanced reporting tools.
The different reporting tools
Reporting tools fall into 3 essential categories:
A) Monitoring tools
They actively evaluate your IT system’s performance to detect gaps or slowdowns. They can also monitor displays, firewalls, servers and sensitive software.
Benefits:
- Fast reaction when a problem is detected
- Admin alerts for failures or faults
- Detection and prevention of failure causes
- IT security tool obsolescence prevention
Monitoring tools watch all your IT security devices 24/7. In case of failure or attack, they immediately alert IS leads. They can also be used preventively. Valuable allies for CISOs.
B) Dashboards
The IS lead must factor in many indicators. IS dashboards are essential synthesis and visualisation tools.
Benefits:
- Ease IS-policy application
- Define resource-intervention priorities
- Show how objectives are being met
- Compare KPIs across organisations
- Help improve service quality
Security leads consult dashboards daily to verify IT system status in real time. They use them to plan and prioritise every security-maintenance and improvement action, consistent with the strategy.
C) Activity reports
An IS activity report evaluates the current security level of your information system and identifies actions to improve IT security.
The activity report summarises events for the IT system over a period, often annual. Many official or private organisations publish their own activity reports. In cybersecurity, information circulation and knowledge sharing are essential.
Benefits:
- Cybersecurity threat-level evaluation
- Company vulnerability identification
- Help for IS-strategy evolution
- Action-plan preparation
- Presentation of overall IS results
The activity report is both a risk-measurement tool and a detection tool — an essential monitoring tool.
How to choose tools suited to your IS strategy
A) Preliminary step: evaluate reporting needs
Every company and public service faces risks tied to its own activity. Press coverage shows how health-data theft can lead to hospital ransomware, or how hacking a subscriber file can leak millions of personal data records. Choose tools that match your own IS strategy.
When a company works with many subcontractors, it needs solutions capable of third-party analysis. If the organisation has subsidiaries, it needs a tool for group-level steering. For supply-chain companies, set up a Supplier Security Assurance plan (SSA).
B) Tool selection criteria
Depending on the tools, you’ll have more or fewer KPIs matching your needs. Define the information you want on your IS dashboard first, then pick tools that provide every desired indicator.
The common CISO mistake is selecting a tool just because it offers many indicators — you risk drowning in data.
Information relevance
Information surfaced must speak to your audience. When the CISO reports to the executive committee, KPIs must quantify financial, legal and reputation impacts. When convincing the CIO of training urgency, KPIs must factor in budget constraints.
Ease of use
Reporting tools must be as simple as possible — intuitive use enables safer, more effective security. Particularly important when simulating attack scenarios or running pentests.
Cost
Cost of use, plus initial investment (budget, hardware and human resources), matters. Companies with young revenue must be able to invest without too much difficulty.
They open the door to a potentially fatal attack (80% of companies that suffer a data loss after a cyberattack file for bankruptcy within months).
Interoperability
An IT security steering solution must collaborate with other company tools. Open file formats (HTML, XML, CSV) help. Connectors or APIs let the tool exchange information with other IS solutions — for example, to integrate security in projects (Security by Design).
How to report effectively on your IS strategy
Despite spectacular press cases, managers often struggle to prioritise information surfaced by CISOs or DPOs. Define a reporting frequency adapted to the situation.
Make IT Safe recommends regular follow-up meetings (at least monthly) presenting a synthetic reporting with an objective list to track meeting by meeting. Don’t hesitate to call a crisis meeting when a new cybersecurity risk is announced.
For every stakeholder to be involved in the company security strategy, they need KPIs that speak to them and valorise actions already taken. The CISO’s job is to communicate clearly on results and remaining objectives.
Conclusion
IT risk has become unavoidable for organisations, and cybercriminals target those that haven’t yet deployed an IS strategy capable of stopping them.
In the face of this danger, having the right tools is vital — capable of preventing risks, detecting gaps and synthesising data on effective, relevant IS dashboards.
The CISO must provide activity reports understandable by all to keep every department alert. Quality reporting is their main asset to convince and involve management.
Aware of the growing importance of these security stakes in a more and more competitive world, Make IT Safe has developed an innovative, complete solution that handles every cyber risk.
