As regulatory compliance requirements continue to evolve across a broad range of industries from law firms to financial services, it can be challenging for businesses to keep up with the ever-growing scope of compliance.
Gone are the days when a quarterly risk assessment was enough to understand whether your security posture was still in good standing.
With security breaches becoming more prevalent than ever, government and industry regulators have increased requirements to ensure organizations enforce more well-rounded security controls. Law firms are especially at high risk of data breaches due to continuously storing and collecting sensitive client information.
That’s where a Managed Services Provider (MSP) can help. As a full-service MSP with over 20 years of experience, ArchonOne has helped numerous businesses improve the security of their IT infrastructure to meet and maintain compliance.
In this article, we’ll cover the exact steps ArchonOne takes to help your business maintain compliance and manage security risks.
5 Steps ArchonOne Takes To Ensure Security Compliance
To better understand our strategic process for maintaining compliance, we’ve provided a list of five essential steps to expect.
1. Map Your Assets
First, we map your assets to understand the totality of assets that need to be monitored and protected within your organization. Mapping your assets involves taking inventory and tracking all hardware and software assets.
Assets may include:
Hardware Assets:
- Portable and mobile end-user devices
- Network devices
- Non-computing/Internet of Things (IoT) devices
- Servers
Software Assets:
- Operating Systems
- Applications
This process is crucial in helping to identify any unauthorized or unmanaged assets to remove or remediate security risks.
2. Assess Vulnerabilities & Remediate Risks
After getting a full understanding of your organization’s assets and network infrastructure, ArchonOne develops a plan to assess and track potential vulnerabilities.
Perform Risk Assessment:
In order to remediate and minimize the window of opportunity for bad actors to infiltrate your company’s sensitive data, we must perform automated vulnerability scans using a SCAP-compliant vulnerability scanning tool.
From there, we will maintain a documented remediation process that includes monthly or more frequent reviews of asset and network vulnerabilities.
Risk Remediation:
After ArchonOne has analyzed any potential areas of risks and weaknesses, we will remediate detected vulnerabilities. Additionally, we will establish and maintain a risk-based remediation strategy to mitigate those security risks.
Some examples of remediation include:
- Replacing older technology with a newer version
- Modifying an existing policy
- Working closely with third-party vendors to close security gaps
3. Implement Email Protections, Web Browser Protections, & Malware Defenses
Once we’ve remediated the risks and developed a remediation process, it’s time to improve the protection and detection of security threats.
Email & Web Browser Protection:
To protect all company email accounts and web browsers, ArchonOne will ensure that your business:
- Only uses fully supported browsers and email clients are allowed to execute within the organization
- Uses DNS filtering services on all assets to block access to known malicious domains
- Enforces and updates network-based URL filters to limit a company asset from connecting to a potentially malicious or unapproved website.
- Blocks unnecessary file types attempting to enter your organization’s email gateway.
- Deploys and maintains email server anti-malware protections including attachment scanning and/or sandboxing.
Malware Protection:
To protect all company devices from malicious activity, ArchonOne will ensure that your business:
- Deploys and maintains anti-malware software on all company assets
- Configures automatic updates for anti-malware signature files on all assets
- Disables auto-run and autoplay auto-execute functionality for removable media
- Configures anti-malware software to automatically scan removable media
- Enables anti-exploitation features on assets
- Centrally manages aunty-malware software
- Uses behavior-based anti-malware software
4. Establish an Incident Response Program
Developing and maintaining an incident response procedure will help to prepare your company should any future security risks occur.
For this process, ArchonOne will help establish a procedure and designate one key person and at least one backup person within your organization to manage the company’s incident-handling process.
Assigning key roles and responsibilities for incident response is crucial in addressing any security issues in a timely manner.
ArchonOne will also help determine which primary and secondary mechanisms will be used to communicate and report should an incident arise. Lastly, we will help your company differentiate between what is an incident versus what is an event.
Some examples may include:
- Abnormal activity
- Security Vulnerability
- Security weakness
- Data breach
- Privacy Incident
5. Penetration Testing
A penetration test, also known as a pen test, will evaluate any weaknesses in controls (people, processes, and technology), and simulate the objectives and actions of an attacker.
Once a penetration test is performed, we will help validate all security measures and modify rulesets and capabilities if deemed necessary.
After performing the first penetration test, it’s important to perform periodic external penetration tests based on program requirements, no less than annually to ensure your security posture is secure and up-to-date.
Ready for a Security Risk Assessment?
Regardless of whether your business is a law firm, financial services company, or non-profit organization – every employee within your business has a part to play in maintaining the security of your assets and data.
Before involving a third party, make sure your business understands the importance of maintaining compliance.
Are you interested in scheduling a security risk assessment with ArchonOne or looking to learn more? Contact us today for a free consultation or to sign up for a free demo of our security management software