No doubt, software security and privacy have surfaced as the most common issues which play a critical role in making or breaking businesses. Over the past few years, a consistent stream of data breaches has turned out to be a serious threat to organizations.

Therefore, you must take a proactive approach while offering a secure environment and workflow automation software for your business to flourish and grow. Through a well-defined security program, you can minimize exposure to security threats.

In addition, you can also use your security measures as a way to stand out among the rest. To achieve this, you need to learn the best ways to secure your business. 

How to create an enterprise security program

Before going any further, make sure to develop a security-first approach. It is possible to ensure web security for your business by developing a security-first mindset.

This means you can keep your system safe by paying attention to almost every aspect that can allow hackers to penetrate the security wall.

Following are the steps to build a security program for your enterprise.

1.    Building Teams for Information Security

Generally, a company must think about creating two types of teams. The first one would be the executive team, while the other one is the cross-functional security team. The responsibilities of the executive team include creating objectives, missions, and goals for the enterprise security program (ESP).

This team is normally comprised of senior-level executives. It creates security policies while analyzing the risk factors. Obtaining funding for the ESP is also the responsibility of the executive team.

The executive team also creates the security team, which is again divided into sub-teams. These teams are responsible for keeping an eye on IT security operations. These include:

• Assessing vulnerabilities and threats
• Managing IT assets 
• Managing risks
• Establishing policies
• Building controls and procedures
• Conducting internal audits
• Training the recruits

2.    Manage Information Assets

The first step in managing information assets is to create an inventory. It must contain all the hardware, databases, applications, and any other information assets.

After completing the documentation process of your recently created inventory, the next step is to assign a custodian or owner to each IT asset. An owner would serve as the point of contact for the assigned asset.

In addition, the owner is responsible for the safety of stored information. Once this is done, the assets are categorized depending on the value of information stored in them.

3.    Regulatory Standards and Their Compliance

Regulations are legal requirements that are mandatory. Most financial companies must implement the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) to regulate the security first enterprise programming.

On the other hand, healthcare providers should implement the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Similarly, standards like  ISO 27001 and Payment Card Industry (PCI) are some of the best options to consider.

4.    Assess Vulnerabilities, Risks, and Threats

Threats prove to be dangerous for the safety of information assets. Therefore, it is essential to create a list of all the potential dangers, risks, and vulnerabilities. After that, you need to categorize all these factors depending on the level of danger they pose.

Vulnerabilities are the flaws or weaknesses in a security system. This may result in a security breach. Therefore, it is also essential to make a list of possible vulnerabilities and try to curtail them.

5.    Managing the Risks

Through risk management, you can avoid any type of transferring or mitigating risks. By creating a list of risks, you can categorize them and analyze the potential threat associated with them.

The likelihood and the impact of a risk can assist an organization in prioritizing risks when managing them. Usually, a high-impact risk that has the maximum chance of happening must be treated as a high-priority risk.

6.    Creating Disaster Recovery and Incident Management Plan

Accidental removal of important data, accidental loss of IT assets, security breaches, or power outages are some of examples of incidents in a data center.

To prevent any serious damage to the IT assets, you need to create an effective and thorough incident response plan. Such a plan should clearly identify what needs to be done.

7.    Managing Third Parties

Due to the complex nature of the IT ecosystem, it requires the use of third party vendors, intermediaries, and suppliers. In this situation, less secure practices or open networks can allow third-party vendors to exploit security loopholes.

The company needs to create and designate the required security measures when dealing with a third party.

8.    Implementation of Necessary Security Controls

Implementation of security controls rules out the chances of damaging the security of IT assets. These are the technical controls, which are usually incorporated into computer software or hardware. These include:

• Intrusion-detection software
• Access control mechanisms
• Encryption methods
• Identification and authentication mechanisms

Some of the non-technical controls are the operational controls, which relates to the development of operational procedures and security policies. These are the types of controls which are preventive in nature.

Normally, preventive controls help to counter any attempt associated with the security breach. On the other hand, the detective controls serve as a warning in case someone tries to breach the security system.

9.    Conduct Regular Audits

By conducting internal audits consistently, an organization can ensure that procedures and policies are implemented in their true spirit. This also helps to analyze whether the requirements of mandatory compliance and legal regulations are being met.

External audits ensure that the mandatory regulations are complied with thoroughly. Moreover, a neutral third party conducts an external audit. As a result, the organization can get an unbiased security assessment.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, information security isn’t just the concern of the IT department. The reason being is the ever-increasing complexity of the ecosystem in which information exists. Hence, the security of information and stored data is critical to the survival of a business.

The exceeding number of security threats demands an effective enterprise security programming (ESP). This is so, as an impressive ESP can ensure the security of an organization at a wider scale.