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Sydney And Melbourne’s Leading Cyber Security Strategy & Design Firm

Design, Create, Review, Maintain.

Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy & Design Experts

Cyber security strategy and design is a vital element of securing your company’s data. It involves assessing your current cyber shields and security measures and identifying where you need to proactively prevent, detect and respond to cyber threats against your business. As part of the process, your cyber security status is assessed across a variety of controls and compared to that of your peers in the industry. The results shine a light on key areas that need improvement.

Why You Need to Get Cyber Security Design Right

Your company needs to get cyber security strategies and critical infrastructure right the first time. If you don’t, you’ll end up wasting valuable resources on cyber defences that are either inadequate or unnecessary within the context of your organisation’s unique needs.

Guides To Cyber Security

In an increasingly digital Australia, organisations are looking for ways to improve their cyber efficiency and resilience and are turning to Gridware, a leader in cyber security, to achieve this aim.

Australian cyber security strategy is our area of expertise. Our talented team of governance, risk and compliance professionals work with you to address a variety of security risks to best mitigate your security vulnerabilities.

Elements of Cybersecurity Strategy

We’ve identified some of many factors that will affect how you shape your cyber security design and strategy.

Effective Information Security Policies

Most companies that suffer a cyber breach admit to having immature processes around key security controls. Lack of documentation and poor implementation are usually a symptom of poor security processes, putting organisations at a greater risk of a cyber breach. Depending on the size, complexity and industry of your business, your information security policy will need to be guided by your cyber strategy to ensure there is management oversight in the right areas, and that detection and monitoring are appropriately assigned to the responsible people in your business.

Identity and Access Management

Designing appropriate remote access policies is instrumental to controlling who is accessing internal systems, the devices that are used, the security status of those device and the location from which access is being requested.

Staff Cyber Awareness Training

Research has shown that cyber awareness training offers invaluable protection against the threat of social engineering. Social engineering has been classed as one of the single largest threats for data leaks given the high likelihood of human error. According to latest OAIC data breach figures, close to 35% of all data breaches are caused by human error, making it one of the largest risk factors in assessing your cyber maturity. Gridware actively works to facilitate staff seminars, workshops and training to help improve staff cyber knowledge and awareness. With effective policies and training, threats such as phishing, scams and malware can be mitigated at the source when your employees are armed with the knowledge to detect and prevent.

Cyber Insurance

Data leaks can not just cause financial damage, but the effect on company reputation can far outweigh the former. Often when traditional protection falls short, cyber insurance is another line of defence in reducing the impact of a breach. Things you may need to consider when looking for cyber insurance are that you are covered for data liability, meaning the financial consequences of a data breach and unauthorised access to sensitive customer and client information. It is also worthy considering protection for cyber espionage or extortion, often referred to as ransomware, being the theft of data from your company being extorted by an attacker for a ransom payment. Finally, and in light of recent changes to Australian legislation, it may be worthwhile having your cyber insurance cover you for fines which may result from failing to report a data breach to the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner. We can work with you and your insurance broker to assess and recommend the appropriate cyber insurance for your business.

Privacy And Compliance

With recent changes to the Privacy Act, in addition to new regulations by the EU GDPR, we can guide your team to understanding your procedures and systems need to adapt to comply with the law. We also work with your teams to integrate those regulations and standards into company procedures. Gridware can review the benefits of implementing existing technologies on the market that might make managing compliance with these laws more economical for you. for example, instead of hosting customer information on secure servers in the cloud, we could asset off-site backup technologies that might be more suitable for your business, or vice-versa. You can rely on us to manage your legislative requirements because we’re not just cyber security experts, but we’re compliance, risk and governance experts.

Extent Of Cyber Security Solutions

Any cyber security strategy will have a technical aspect in addition to risk-based assessments of your company’s cyber security exposure. It is best to have your security architecture analysed in light of the services or products you offer, to ensure your cyber security strategy is heading in the right direction. There are abundant resources out there that can be utilised in your business to help improve security, but it can be burdensome and overwhelming to decide where resources should be prioritised. Gridware can provide you with industry experts who can advise on the best cyber security solutions your company can implement to improve security and comply with regulation.

Cyber Risk

Managing your risks is fundamental in preventing cyber crime and protecting many aspects of your business include confidential data, your revenue and reputation. A cyber strategy is defined by what cyber risks, when effectively managed, will offer the best overall outcome to your business objectives. The link is vital and the relationship between cyber risk and cyber strategy is synonymous. A well planned cyber strategy will ensure you protect not only company data, but the financial health and customer confidence in your service. Work with Gridware to turn your company security ideals from ideas to a comprehensively implemented cyber security programs.

Security Vulnerabilities

What many anti-virus software doesn’t pick up or assess, is the fact that most cyber breaches will occur from zero day exploits, bugs in software which is not known to the original vendor, make normal and ‘safe’ everyday software vulnerable for attack. The issue with zero day exploits, is often knowledge of their existence is only known on the deep web, and often inaccessible to the everyday analyst. Gridware has a comprehensive presence and knowledge of deep web vulnerabilities, as well as in-house developed tools, to regularly scan all installed software across a network, and cross-check our vulnerability database for security exploits. This is a key area that is overlooked in traditional cyber security audits, and one we are proactively mitigating.

Technical Due Diligence

Whether entities are being assessed for mergers and acquisitions or venture capitalists looking to invest, a thorough review of existing cyber security architecture assessments can be conducted on the product or software the entity is providing, the policies and procedures that govern the entity or any existing security vulnerabilities that might affect the integrity of the business. We can use specialised tools to perform penetration tests to determine if a cyber breach was ever possible with their existing systems and defences.

Third Party Risk

Your company also needs oversight into the information security programs of your key service providers.

Our Approach to Cyber Design and Architecture

Cyber security strategy enables you to understand your cyber risks, how they should be prioritised and which areas need further action and assessment. It’s integral in the cyber security design process and the key to ensuring you don’t waste valuable resources in other areas.

Here’s what we do as part of our cyber security design services:

We start by assessing and understanding your cyber exposure and maturity (the level of security controls in place).

We move on to interpreting your cyber risks, assessing them within the context of your business objectives.

We develop a cyber and information security program that outlines business continuity and processes and addresses your unique needs.

We implement regular testing, spot checks, incident response management, compliance and governance to ensure that your business stays safe now and in the future.

We utilise data analytics to adapt architecture and design to changing dynamics and future data breaches and cyber-attacks.

Reach out to us to discover how our cyber security strategy and design services can reduce the risk of cyber incidents and protect your business.

Cyber Risk Assessments and Audit FAQs

What is cyber strategy?

Cyber security strategy is the plan of action an enterprise puts in place when they define their cyber risks and plan to mitigate them. Defining your cyber strategy is the stepping stone to a comprehensive cyber security program which deals with procedures, protocols and responsibilities.

How do I come up with a cyber strategy?

A cyber strategy is decided after having your cyber maturity and cyber risks assessed. It is influenced by your business objectives and the vision for where your company needs to be to proactively protect against threats.

What are the elements that influence cyber strategy decision making?

Your business objectives and cyber risks are the main factors which drive cyber strategy, but there are various other factors which will contribute to the strategy. One such influence is the degree of digital solutions implemented by company, and perhaps any anticipated reliance on digital solutions will impact the extent of your cyber security strategy. For example, if you intend to move your business to the cloud, then it’s necessary to consider how the cyber risks might change in the future. Some questions to consider are: what are your threats? where is the company heading with digital solutions? what are the digital opportunities? what is the cyber maturity of peers in the industry? Furthermore, how will options such as cyber insurance affect the extent of your cyber security solutions?

What does a good cyber security strategy look like?

Defining any strategy is a difficult task for any company. A successful cyber security strategy will tell you where the company is trying to go, and how it will get there. More importantly, it will tell you why. A good strategy will logically link your business objectives through to the cyber security program. It should be based on your information risk appetite and business objectives and done in a way that will engage the business to help achieve compliance with the program.

Customer Stories

Gridware has acted for hundreds of companies and helped them recover from potentially disastrous situations. Read about how our services have helped others: