Defensible Cybersecurity Strategies

Information Technology (“IT”) systems are the lifeblood of today’s business.  Helping organizations maximize the utility of their IT investments and defending the IT systems from the constant onslaught of attacks keep the technology teams, including IT Directors, CIOs, and CISOs, fully engaged.  Many senior executives see and appreciate the hard work these teams perform but, given the non-stop news reports of data breaches and cyber incidents, sophisticated executives wonder whether the organization’s efforts are properly focused.  It is not that the executives don’t trust their technology team, but the executives’ lack of IT and security knowledge makes it difficult for them to be confident that the technology team’s efforts are aligned with the organization’s business priorities and risks. They envision themselves suddenly thrust in front of television cameras or in a witness box and wonder whether they are prepared to answer difficult questions about their organizations’ cybersecurity and data privacy programs.  Unfortunately, the vocabulary and cultural disconnect that often exists between the technology teams and the senior executives makes broaching these subjects difficult for even the largest of companies.

Fathom Cyber’s Defensible Cybersecurity^TM Strategies bridge the gap between the boardroom and the server room, giving senior executives the information they need to be confident and conversant in the organization’s strategies.  Our unique approach to building cybersecurity and data privacy programs is based around frameworks, best practices, and standards created by leading independent organizations such as the United States’ National Institute for Standards and Technology (“NIST”) and the Center for Internet Security.  This gives our clients’ executives, and their customers, investors, and regulators, confidence that their programs are meeting or exceeding current guidance even in rapidly changing business and technology environments.  Our clients gain a trusted agent who can guide their executives through the complex and otherwise confusing process of creating IT, cybersecurity, and data privacy programs that will demonstrate to others that these concerns are a priority for the organization.

Protecting Executives and the Entire Organization

A defensible cybersecurity program helps the entire organization, including the officers, directors, and other executives, to demonstrate the steps it has been taking to protect itself.  Shareholders, proxy services, regulators, and legislators hold organizations’ Boards of Directors and executives personally responsible for securing the organization’s digital assets and for ensuring consumer and customer data are kept private.  But most C-level executives and Directors do not have the technical background needed to understand today’s cutting-edge cybersecurity tools or the complex web of data privacy laws. How do these senior executives meet their oversight obligations if they can’t understand the information they receive? By changing the way the organization’s staff, including the IT and legal staff, reports on its efforts. Instead of focusing on ports, TCP/IP headers, encryption types, or a sea of acronym-filled regulations, cybersecurity and data privacy information must be reported in business terms.  Fathom Cyber empowers your organization with the business-based information needed to effectively govern the organization’s cybersecurity and data privacy efforts.

Fathom Cyber’s Defensible Cybersecurity Strategies go beyond merely adding layers of often conflicting and expensive technology and provide executives with a more comprehensive, structured approach to addressing IT, cybersecurity, and data privacy issues that includes:

• Board, executive, and employee training
• Business, operational, and technical plan review
• Maturity assessments
• Threat and risk definition
• Insurance policy review
• Policy and procedure creation and review
• Incident response planning
• Technology selection
• Incident simulation
• Enterprise risk management

Help When You Need It

We know that cybersecurity and data privacy are intimidating for many organizations. We also know that the best-laid plans are of no value if the organization cannot execute those plans. That is why, in addition to our advisory services, Fathom Cyber provides a range of hands-on technical services. These services include security operations, IT service management, and desktop support. Contact Fathom Cyber for more information.