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Why Security Maturity is Necessary for Your Business

A security maturity model is a set of characteristics that represent an organization’s security progression and capabilities. According to CISOSHARE, Key Processing Areas (KPAs) in a security maturity model are practices that help improve a security infrastructure 

These KPAs include:  

  • Commitment to perform  
  • Ability to perform  
  • Activities performed  
  • Measurement and analysis of the results
  • Verifying the implementation of processes  

Levels of security maturity range from 1 to 5, with the lowest level of security maturity being one and the highest level of security maturity being five. Various industries lie within these levels, depending on their security needs. The retail industry typically falls under Levels 2 or 3, manufacturing falls between 3 to 5, while Fintech and Healthcare are between levels 4 and 5 due to the high levels of compliance needed in these industries.  

Ntirety details these levels of security maturity by detection, response, and recovery times:  

  • Level 1 (Vulnerable)  
  • Time to Detect: Weeks/months  
  • Time to Respond: Weeks  
  • Time to Recovery: unknowable
  • Recovery Point: unknowable
  • Compliance: None  
  • Level 2 (Aware & Reactive)  
  • Time to Detect: Days
  • Time to Respond: Hours
  • Time to Recovery: 1-2 Days
  • Recovery Point: <2 days data loss
  • Compliance: Internal Objectives

  

  • Level 3 (Effective)  
  • Time to Detect: Hours  
  • Time to Respond: Minutes  
  • Time to Recovery: Hours  
  • Recovery Point: <24 hours data loss
  • Compliance: Internal & 3rd party  

 

  • Level 4 (Compliant)  
  • Time to Detect: Minutes  
  • Time to Respond: Minutes
  • Time to Recovery: Hours
  • Recovery Point: <6 hours data loss
  • Compliance: Internal & 3rd party  

 

  • Level 5 (Optimizing)
  • Time to Detect: Immediate
  • Time to Respond: Immediate
  • Time to Recovery: Immediate
  • Recovery Point: <15 min data loss
  • Compliance: Internal & 3rd party  

How Ntirety Helps With Security Maturity: 

With over 20 years of industry experience, Ntirety understands how to support a business’s cybersecurity maturity needs and follow the necessary processes to ensure a smooth transition into IT transformation.  

For a company to appraise their security maturation with Ntirety, the first step is to have a conversational assessment with our team to determine the security gaps in your business’s cyber infrastructure. Our team can see where your business lies in the security maturity framework and compare it to your goals by answering some questions. Whether it is a particular industry vertical that your company falls under, you are adopting best practices within your IT infrastructure operations, or it is a board mandate, we can help formulate a plan based on your business’s needs.  

Following an assessment, the Ntirety team can detail how to improve Protection, Recovery, and Assurance. Ntirety’s Guidance Level Agreements (GLAs) can help improve these areas by optimizing availability, security, performance, and costs. Ntirety is committed to securing the “entirety” of your environment through solutions that identify, inventory, and protect the entire target environment. Ntirety’s Compliant Security Framework covers the security process from establishing your security design & objectives through protection, recovery, and assurance of compliance to your security requirements.  

One mistake we often see with companies is the idea of doing it themselves being a safer option. While resourcing a cybersecurity solution internally may seem more manageable, it can be far more costly and take away from other essential business functions. Here are the top 7 reasons to outsource security:  

  1. Finding and maintaining a talented SIEM/SOC team is expensive
  2. The benefit of trends and detection of other customers
  3. Accessing more threat intelligence and state of the art technology
  4. Long-term Return on Investment
  5. Outsourcing lowers the Risk of conflict of interest between departments
  6. Enhancing efficiency to concentrate on your primary business
  7. Scalability and flexibility 

For more details on securing your cyber infrastructure, watch our most recent webinar and schedule an assessment with us today.