Creating An Effective Cybersecurity Program For Your Organization

Abstract

Imagine a situation where it is discovered that customer accounts have been breached, a computer virus spreads across the network, or the purported identity of a staff member turns out to be false. These are all significant security breaches that require effective countermeasures to contain damage, bring sanctions, fix issues and prevent future occurrences. What guiding principles or mechanisms can be used to inform management and staff on not only what needs to be done, but how? A well developed and enforced cybersecurity program involving defined strategies, procedures and controls would provide a guide or standard of practice in responding to these and other breaches. In this increasingly connected digital society it is very important for companies to find ways to protect their critical information infrastructure and assets, including human resources. Cybercrime and cybersecurity are some of the top global concerns as cybercriminals continue to find innovative methods to breach organizational defenses. In response, cybersecurity is now at the top of national and organizational agenda. Despite this development many organizations still suffer from governance lapses and are without current or well-defined programs to help inform stakeholders on approaches to maintain security and enterprise continuity. In Jamaica for example, many businesses and areas of government unfortunately do not have formal security programs and in some cases cybersecurity is not even on the radar. The security program provides a holistic view of the actions needed to achieve sound cybersecurity management across the enterprise. It defines not only technical but operational, management and legal and regulatory baseline measures.

For further discussion on this subject, see chapter: Designing an Effective Cybersecurity Programme in the Organization for Improved Resilience

In book: Cybercrime and Cybersecurity in the Global South: Concepts, Strategies and Frameworks for Greater Resilience Edition: 1st Chapter: 8 Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Routledge

DOI: 10.1201/9781003028710-11