Resources

Guide

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance, or Generating Real Capability! How do we use GRC as a business enabler, and focus on the benefits it brings?
Guide

FISMA SI-7 Buyer's Guide

The FISMA SI-7 Buyer’s Guide focuses on one of the most difficult security controls agencies must adhere to: NIST 800-53 SI-7. Learn what solutions to look for.
Guide

The Executive's Guide to the CIS Controls

See how simple and effective security controls can create a framework that helps you protect your organization and data from known cyber attack vectors. This publication was designed to assist executives by providing guidance for implementing broad baseline technical controls that are required to ensure a robust network security posture. In this guide, we will cover a wide...
Guide

Essential PCI DSS v4.0 Transition Checklist

The proliferation of online transactions isn’t the only reason the PCI Council created the new 4.0 standard. Recent years have also seen increasingly sophisticated methods among cybercriminals, a surge in cloud use, and the rise of contactless payments. This spurred the need for an updated set of PCI DSS requirements, which were released in March 2022 and will become mandatory...
Guide

Closing the Integrity Gap with NIST's Cybersecurity Framework

When the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that it had released its new Cybersecurity Framework in 2014, it appeared on the surface to be just one more option for organizations looking to develop a cohesive and effective cyber risk management strategy. Indeed, there are dozens of choices available and organizations have been all over the map when...
Guide

How to Achieve Compliance with the NIS Directive

Network and information systems (NIS) and the essential functions they support play a vital role in society from ensuring the supply of electricity, water, oil and gas to the provisioning of healthcare and the safety of passenger and freight transport. In addition, computerized systems are performing vital safety-related functions designed to protect human lives. For example,...
Guide

9 Steps for Maturing Beyond Checkbox Compliance

A common mistake many organizations make is approaching cybersecurity as a series of actions taken in order to check the right compliance boxes. If this sounds familiar, it’s likely that you’ve witnessed something similar to the cycle of crisis-driven audit preparation, a suspenseful audit, remediating based on those findings, and waiting until the next hurried audit...
Blog

PCI 4.0: The wider meanings of the new Standard

Image The new PCI DSS Standard, version 4.0, contains all the steps, best practices, and explanations required for full compliance.  In fact, even an organization that does not process cardholder data could follow the PCI Standard to implement a robust cybersecurity program for any of its important data. In our series about how the...
Blog

What you need to know about PCI 4.0: Requirements 10, 11 and 12

Image As we continue our review of the 12 Requirements of PCI DSS version 4.0, one has to stop and consider, is it possible to have a favorite section of a standard? After all, most guidance documents, as well as regulations are seen as tedious distractions from the importance of getting the job done. However, depending on a person’s...
Blog

What you need to know about PCI 4.0: Requirements 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

Image In Part 1 of this series, we reviewed the first four sections of the new PCI standards. As we continue our examination of PCI DSS version 4.0, we will consider what organizations will need to do in order to successfully transition and satisfy this update. Requirements 5 through 9 are organized under two categories: Maintain a...
Blog

What you need to know about PCI 4.0: Requirements 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Image The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has released its first update to their Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) since 2018.  The new standard, version 4.0, is set to generally go into effect by 2024, but there are suggested updates that are not going to be required until a year after that.  This, of course, creates...
Blog

CIS Control 18 Penetration Testing

Image Penetration testing is something that more companies and organizations should be considering a necessary expense. I say this because over the years the cost of data breaches and other forms of malicious intrusions and disruptions are getting costlier. Per IBM Security’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021,” the average cost of a...
Blog

PCI DSS 4.0 and ISO 27001 – the dynamic duo

Image It’s not often we can say this, but 2022 is shaping up to be an exciting time in information governance, especially for those interested in compliance and compliance frameworks. We started the year in eager anticipation of the new version of the international standard for information security management systems, ISO 27001:2022,...
Blog

CIS Control 17: Incident Response Management

Image We all know that it is a question of when you will be compromised and not if you will be compromised. It is unavoidable. The goal of CIS Control 17 is to ensure that you are set up for success when that inevitable breach occurs. If an organization is neither equipped nor prepared for that potential data breach, they are not...
Blog

PCI DSS 4.0 is Here: What you Need to Consider

Image The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a benchmark with tenure in the industry, with the first version being introduced in 2004. The PCI DSS was unique when it was introduced because of its prescriptive nature and its focus on protecting cardholder data. Cybersecurity is a changing landscape, and...
Blog

CIS Control 16 Application Software Security

Image The way in which we interact with applications has changed dramatically over years. Enterprises use applications in day-to-day operations to manage their most sensitive data and control access to system resources. Instead of traversing a labyrinth of networks and systems, attackers today see an opening to turn an organizations...
Blog

CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management

  Image Enterprises today rely on partners and vendors to help manage their data. Some companies depend on third-party infrastructure for day-to-day operations, so understanding the regulations and protection standards that a service provider is promising to uphold is very important. Key Takeaways from Control 15 Identify your...
Blog

How to Fulfill Multiple Compliance Objectives Using the CIS Controls

Image Earlier this year, I wrote about what’s new in Version 8 of the Center for Internet Security’s Critical Security Controls (CIS Controls). An international consortium of security professionals first created the CIS Controls back in 2008. Since then, the security community has continued to update the CIS Controls to keep pace with...
Blog

CIS Control 14: Security Awareness and Skill Training

Image Users who do not have the appropriate security awareness training are considered a weak link in the security of an enterprise. These untrained users are easier to exploit than finding a flaw or vulnerability in the equipment that an enterprise uses to secure its network. Attackers could convince unsuspecting users to...