Cybersecurity Policy and Intelligence
Cybersecurity policy and intelligence is one of Crest Security Assurance’s fortes. We understand the importance of not only technically searching for threats and vulnerabilities in your systems, but also creating a set of rules to govern the processes and procedures of how the organization understands and carries out their cybersecurity practices. Russell Osterfeld, our Director of Intelligence and Cybersecurity, is an essential piece of bridging and relaying cybersecurity needs to the administrative leadership of various government agencies. He spoke with us about how intelligence and cybersecurity are linked, the most pressing threats requiring cyber policy, and how his 22 years in the military have greatly prepared him for the fast-paced and constantly changing world of intelligence and cybersecurity.
One of Russell's main functions at Crest is working with agencies that have contracted our business to establish a comprehensive and robust cybersecurity policy.
What is a cybersecurity policy you ask?
Well reader, a cybersecurity policy is a governance on how the agency/business handles everyday cybersecurity processes such as: monitoring IT Systems, keeping up to date with adversary TTP (Tactics-Techniques-Procedures), identifying resources to combat vulnerabilities in their IT systems, and ensuring personnel are especially vigilant in the online space.
It is essentially a layout of everything the company/agency must do to uphold meritable cybersecurity standards.
Why do we need a cybersecurity policy?
If your business has cybersecurity professionals constantly rooting through and managing vulnerabilities in your business’s systems, you might be wondering why a cybersecurity policy is also necessary…
Cybersecurity policies are made FOR the administration to understand in plain words what, why, and how they need to protect their systems from potential adversaries. As the amount of cyberattacks are increasing, and the means of those attacks becoming variously complex, having a set standard for how to respond to these attacks is extremely helpful to solidify the understanding and collaboration between leadership and cybersecurity personnel in the business. Cybersecurity professionals know terminology, how to accomplish the goals that are set and identify/mitigate those threats when there are any, but every company is different and requires different standards based on the size, specialty, and marketability of their business. That is why a cybersecurity policy is crucial, alone the cybersecurity personnel cannot dictate how precisely to respond to a businesses vulnerabilities and threats if there is no procedure and rules in place to guide that response.
How does intelligence fit into cybersecurity policy?
Intelligence, in the way Crest markets it, is the art of quickly deciphering the information relevant to the pressing issue, and relaying it to decision makers as effectively as possible. The intelligence behind cybersecurity policy is what gives decision makers the whole picture, it is the “why” in “why do we need to respond this way.”
This is why Russell is an amazing source for comprehensive cybersecurity policy. His background in the military has aided him in keeping up to date and collected in high stress and fast-paced environment; in turn this allows him to sift through large amounts of intelligence, view which key pieces of information are relevant to creating the perfect cybersecurity policy for the company he is with, and relay that information to the leadership within the company so they have every course of action available to them. Intelligence is the foundation of any cybersecurity policy. You must be informed about the pressing issues in the cyber world in order to make an informed decision on how to respond to those issues.
A great example would be ransomware attacks. Russell has done comprehensive research on how those attacks happen, what kind of companies are repeatedly targeted, what faults were in their IT systems allowing for those attacks to take place, and key adversary practices that need to be understood and combated by the cybersecurity department. He then reports these findings to the decision makers of the cybersecurity policy along with his informed consultation on how to protect their systems, and they can decide how they deal with these lethal, and frequent cyber attacks. Since often data is used for ransom in these attacks, it may be in the company’s best interest to form their policy around vigilantly protecting and encrypting said data. Without the intelligence on ransomware attacks, they would not even know why to start to create a policy around data security.
How do we find this relevant intelligence?
There is only one way to find information that is relevant to the security of your business, research. Constant research: reading articles, speaking with experts, watching videos, staying up to date with current political and global occurrences, and all the while deciding which pieces of this vast and never ending sea of information is important to your business. This is why it's helpful to have an expert like Russell Osterfeld to guide you to relevant intelligence, allowing you to make informed decisions. One of Russell's favorite tools for accomplishing this task is CrestVision, an intelligence platform created by Crest Security Assurance to stay up to date on current events happening around the globe.
Cybersecurity policy and intelligence are instrumental in keeping your business safe, Crest hopes this article was eye opening to the necessities of both and will help you consider how you will protect your business’s IT systems from potential adversaries.
