CISO as a Service
Introduktion
External Security Consultant in Information Security (CISO) for Your Organization
CISO as a Service is a consulting service where we place an external Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in your organization. The primary task of the CISO is to enhance security in a cost-effective manner. Enhancing security involves ensuring the secure handling of information and information assets within the organization to minimize risks..
About the Service
An Essential IT Service for Organizations
Security has never been more important than it is now. The digital transformation and the shift towards a more modern and open way of working have led to new innovative opportunities, solutions, and services. Along with this transformation, the need for digital security has also increased. Business leaders and decision-makers are demanding higher security and a greater understanding of the threats and risks that can impact the organization.
CISO stands for “Chief Information Security Officer”, and the role can encompass many different aspects of security work with a broad underlying range of tasks. Examples of tasks may include:
- Providing support in planning processes
- Implementing information security programs
- Working with incident management
- Developing frameworks, policies, and procedures for organizations
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Secify as CISO
External CISO – great opportunities
Our CISOaaS is fully customized based on the organization’s size, conditions, maturity level, risk profile, and resources. Typically, the CISO consultant leads their own security enhancement projects and works closely with the IT manager. One of the advantages of hiring an external security officer (CISO) from us is that the individual always collaborates with and receives support from other specialists at Secify. This means that we always have an answer, regardless of whether the question falls within the security officer’s primary area. We have specialists working in IT law, information security, and IT security.
CISO as a Service-model
CISO as a Service model is an outsourcing model for information security services. It means that a company hires an external firm to provide all or part of the company’s security needs.
The CISOaaS team typically consists of a CISO, one or more CISO assistants, and a group of specialists who are experts in various areas of information security, such as risk management, incident management, and compliance.
Advantages of an External Security Advisor (CISOaaS)
FAQ
Here are the answers to the most common questions about external CISO. Do you have a question that is not listed? Use the contact form further down the page.
If the incident could result in data subjects being exposed to serious risks, your organization must notify the regulatory authority if possible within 72 hours of discovery. In some cases, the registered must also be informed of the risks. This is regulated in Articles 33 and 34 of the Data Protection Regulation.
In connection with a personal data incident occurring in your organization, the supervisory authority can carry out an inspection of your business. In that situation, your documentation is an important insurance to reduce the risk of heavy legal sanctions.
The personal data controller is the natural or legal person, public authority, institution or other body that alone or together with others determines the purposes and means for the processing of personal data.
It is the person in charge of personal data who must ensure that the GDPR is followed within the organization.
When personal data is to be processed, the rules for personal data processing in the GDPR must be followed. The starting point is that all personal data processing is prohibited if it does not have a legal basis. When the legal basis for personal data processing is determined and documented, other requirements of the GDPR must be met, for example the basic principles of data protection and informing the persons who will have their personal data processed (about the processing).
Yes, handling children’s personal data requires special treatment. According to the Data Protection Regulation, children cannot themselves consent to the storage and use of their personal data, instead the guardians’ consent is required. When you inform children about things related to the Data Protection Regulation, you must do it in such a simple way that the children understand.
All information that can be directly or indirectly linked to a living natural person is considered personal data. Even images (photos) and audio recordings of individuals can be personal data, even if no names are mentioned. Encrypted data and various types of electronic identities, such as IP numbers and user accounts, count as personal data if they can be linked to natural persons.
Both yes and no: the data protection regulation does not always apply to private individuals.
The Data Protection Regulation does not apply to private individuals when it comes to things that are of a purely private nature (or that are related to the person’s household).
But if the person, for example, has a blog that contains personal data, then (of course) GDPR applies!
The most senior decision makers within your organization should be familiar with the Data Protection Regulation.
Above all, they should inform themselves about the requirements that the Data Protection Regulation places on the organization, and what consequences there may be from not complying with the law.
Before starting a new treatment that involves major integrity risks, you must do a consequence assessment. Impact assessments are described in Article 35 of the Data Protection Regulation.
The most important rights of registered persons:
- right to information about the treatment
- right to access their personal data
- right to have incorrect information corrected
- right to have their personal data deleted
- right to object to the use of the personal data
- right to restriction of treatment
- rights linked to automated decision-making and profiling
- right to obtain personal data in machine-readable format (data portability)
Together, your organization and your systems must be able to meet the requirements above.
Anyone who stores or processes information about identifiable natural persons within the EU must comply with the Data Protection Regulation.
There are some exceptions, including:
- certain authorities
- private individuals who process personal data for private use
The Data Protection Regulation is mainly about:
- How and when personal data may be handled
- What requirements are placed on the person responsible for personal data (“Personal data controller”)
- What requirements are placed on the person who handles personal data on behalf of another (“Personal data processor”)
GDPR is an abbreviation of “General Data Protection Regulation”, in Swedish also called the data protection regulation.
After a completed penetration test, you will receive a report that we will review together with you. You also receive proof in the form of a certificate after a completed test.
In 2021, 55 new vulnerabilities were identified every day. This means that a system can never be completely free of vulnerabilities. Having said that, you will be more protected if you implement the measures after a penetration test. If you have good basic protection and perform regular penetration tests and actions, attackers will usually not try to get in when there are simpler targets that do not perform penetration tests or actions.
The most common is to penetration test a system that is critical to the business, but a penetration test can be done on basically everything from new products to connections between companies. The purpose of the pen test is to find and test security holes in order to increase security, and security can be increased on many different types of targets.
It of course depends on the conditions of the penetration test and the type of penetration test to be done, but for a standard black box test you can count on it taking about a month from the time the project is started until you have a report in your hand.
A red team and blue team exercise is conducted to simulate a cyber attack. The blue team works on defense and protection measures while the red team is the team that carries out the attack. Read team and blue team exercises are conducted to test the ability to defend and prepare against external attacks.
In a Blackbox test, you don’t know anything about the system or the environment to be attacked and have no authority at all. In a Greybox test, you have access to a user account and certain information about how the system works.
The black box test is the most common form of penetration test. The starting point for the penetration tester is the same as for the attacker. There is a complete lack of information about the underlying network structure and system.
Before buying a pen test, it is good to map your systems. This is done to identify which critical information assets and systems you have and where in the network they are located. When you have that overview in front of you, you know what is worth protecting and which system or part of the network that should be tested. When choosing a supplier, you must always ensure that the penetration testers are certified testers who follow the methods and frameworks that apply to the market, such as OWASP and OSSTMM. The result of the penetration test will never be better than the penetration tester himself.
How often you penetration test depends entirely on what you are testing and how often systems and environments are updated. A rule of thumb is to test at least once a year in cases where you do not make major releases or changes to what is to be tested.
Yes, there are more information security management systems, including NIST CSF and ISF.
After you have been certified, you undergo annual audits to ensure that the organization continues to meet the requirements of ISO 27001. Every three years, recertification is done, which is a slightly larger audit.
The purpose of ISO 27001 is to increase safety in the organization through the work of the management system.
No, not everyone currently needs to have an ISO 27001 certification. But there is a strong indication that some organizations covered by NIS2 will have management systems work as a requirement.
In order to be certified, it is required that you work with information security in a systematic way and meet the requirements set by ISO 27001. The word certification itself means approved audit. In order to be certified, it is then required that you first undergo a certification audit.
The need for a management system for information security (LIS) often comes in the form of a requirement from a supplier, subcontractor, partner, authority or regulation.
ISO 27001 gives the organization a standardized way of working with safety. In other words, the organization begins to work from a best-practice way that is developed by IT and information security experts on how best to work with security in their organization.
It is absolutely possible to work towards a certification without necessarily being certified. What you gain from such work is increased security that permeates all layers of the organization.
It is possible to carry out an ISO work without external help. Unfortunately, that route often takes much longer than hiring a consultant. A good idea is to buy the standard and then read through and build your own framework that you implement in your organization through various efforts such as processes and routines, training and security-enhancing measures.
After the management system has been introduced and the organization has passed an internal audit, an independent certification body must review and assess the organization / management system to ensure that the requirements are met. If the audit is approved by the independent body, the certification is granted.
How long it takes to be certified depends above all on how security mature you are as an organization, i.e. if you have worked with information security before and have certain processes already completed. Other parts that affect are how big you are as a company, what priority the certification has and which scoop we choose to be certified. As a rule, it takes an estimated 6-12 months, but we have had projects that have taken longer.
After the pentest, you get a report that shows what the vulnerabilities are and how best to fix them. After the security engineer or system engineer has analyzed the report, they then prioritize and fix those that are relevant to plug the security holes
A penetration tester is a person who, with their own knowledge and experience, tests systems with the aim of revealing security flaws. The penetration tester is usually called a white hat hacker or an ethical hacker who, unlike the black hat hacker, hacks systems for a good purpose.
It is absolutely possible to perform a penetration test yourself, on your own environment. But for the pentest to be relevant, it should be performed by a person who has extensive experience and/or extensive knowledge of methodology, vulnerabilities and data breaches. Otherwise, there is a big risk that the actions after the penetration test are done on the wrong things. If you want to penetration test your systems yourself, we recommend that you buy a vulnerability scan instead.
Yes, there are risks. Older systems that lack updates or that frequently crash under load are often more likely to also crash during a penetration test. What should be remembered is that that crash is always a sign of a vulnerability in the system, which the penetration test can find and which you can fix afterwards.
The entire organization becomes more resilient to cyber attacks. Awareness, technical and organizational measures to increase security are put in focus and permeate the entire organization. In addition to that, a certified organization fulfills many of the requirements that partners can set for a collaboration.
ISO 27001 is a management system for information security. By using it in your organization, you get a standardized way of working based on all aspects of security.
If you have never scanned the system before, it is a good idea to do the scan after regular working hours. If you have a critical system that you update frequently, you should also ensure that the vulnerability scans take place continuously at regular intervals.
The vulnerability scan tests whether the vulnerability exists in the system. If you compare it to a pen test, the penetration test goes deeper and tests whether the vulnerability can be used to penetrate the system.
The vulnerability scan is an effective and fast way to identify which vulnerabilities exist in systems. It also tests the organization’s ability and level of maturity to handle the actions that come after a vulnerability scan.
After a vulnerability scan, you get a report in your hand. That report needs to be worked on. Start by reviewing the critical vulnerabilities first and then prioritize the order in which they should be addressed. After that, it is good if you leave the work to a technician to complete.
You should actually vulnerability scan all systems that have an external IP address, even the company’s website. It is also good to scan the server that holds the information assets. In other words, the server that is most critical to the business.
If you have a very old system that is unstable, the vulnerability scan can absolutely cause the system to crash. But under controlled conditions and with good planning in advance, the risks are minimized
A vulnerability scan is carried out using a software according to a pre-configured schedule and scope.
A vulnerability scan is carried out with software that scans the environments and generates a report of identified vulnerabilities. During a pentest, it is taken one step further and evaluates whether the vulnerabilities can be exploited further and gives recommendations on measures
We recommend that the vulnerability scan takes place continuously. How often depends on which systems you have, but a rule of thumb is that this is carried out at least once a month. It is also important that the remedial work itself also takes place continuously.
In addition to the fact that all systems have vulnerabilities that you want to identify and remove, the background to the need for a penetration test can come from external requirements from investors, customers, suppliers or as a requirement for, for example, certifications.
It is a security test that can be done, among other things, on a firewall, a system, server or web page to find and visualize current vulnerabilities
55 new vulnerabilities are discovered every day. This means that no system is safe. Attackers attack vulnerabilities in systems on a daily basis to try to gain access to the organization’s information assets or to perform additional attacks on the system.
No, not necessarily. A data protection officer can be an employee, but the function can also be filled by an external party, such as a consultant.
No, there are no explicit requirements that the data protection officer must have a law degree. However, the data protection officer must have; good knowledge of data protection, good expertise and the business and sufficient resources for their mission.
Yes in theory, but the Data Protection Officer must be able to work independently and independently, without being influenced by others within the organization. It is therefore important that the data protection officer does not have other tasks that may conflict with the role of data protection officer.
It is possible within groups and also for independent companies. What is required is that the data protection officer must be able to put in the resources required to reach what is prescribed in the GDPR’s articles. this also applies to public organisations
The data protection officer must:
- Advise on impact assessments
- Be the contact person for the countrys authority for Privacy Protection
- Be the contact person for the registered and the staff within the organization
- Cooperate with the authority for Privacy Protection, for example during inspections.
The data protection officer has no personal responsibility for the organization’s compliance with the data protection regulation. That responsibility always rests with the person in charge of personal data or with the personal data assistant. The data controller may also not punish the data protection officer for having performed his duties.
Unlike a DPO, the DOM has a more operational role.
The external representative’s advantages are that the person usually brings skills from several organizations and knowledge of current practices. An external representative is also not bound by any place in the organizational hierarchy and does not risk being limited in practice because of this.
No, it is important that the data protection officer is objective in his task. For example, it is not appropriate for the data protection officer to sit in the organization’s management or to be involved in making strategic decisions about the core business that includes personal data processing.
Yes, a group can act as a data protection officer, but an appointed contact person is always required.
The data protection officer needs register to the authority that handles privacy and GDPR questions in their country.
Yes, the fact is that the supervisory authority encourages all organizations to appoint a data protection officer. This is to be able to communicate more easily when necessary with the supervisory authority, as well as to organize the work with data protection.
The short answer is yes. Organizations that are obliged by law to have a data protection officer (for example government agencies, or socially important actors), may receive sanctions if they have not employed or alternatively implemented a data protection officer function.
A CISO (our service) is a security advisor who can help fill functions within the organization where it is needed at the moment. It can be about short-term support to the CTO/CIO for smaller projects, but also as a long-term skills solution that aims to reduce the burden on other staff.
An organization can benefit from a CISO in many different situations, for example during temporary work, special projects or to alleviate the workload.
We work based on ISO 27001 but can also support organizations that are certified within NIST CSF.
All information security-related work is included in the service. You get a security-savvy advisor who can go into various IT projects in your organization and assist with knowledge.
The largest part of the investment takes place in the introduction, after which the CISO advisor must be able to manage the projects to a large extent by themselves, or together with his contact person depending on the arrangement.
It largely depends on the role our CISO will have in your organization. If there is no IT manager or security manager, the CISO advisor produces a current situation analysis.
We always have alternative back-up resources available in the event that the CISO advisor becomes ill or absent from work.
Yes, our CISO advisors can make contact with customers and suppliers.
It largely depends on the place our CISO will have in your organization. If your organization lacks an IT or security manager, the CISO advisor will primarily fill that role, e.t.c.
Yes, our CISOs can be hired as a substitute in your projects.
Our CISO advisors can in essence fulfill all areas of responsibility within IT security and information security.
There are many advantages to hiring an external CISO. Among other things, you avoid investing resources and energy on a recruitment process. Our colleagues who work externally also have the right knowledge and prerequisites to support your organization. If there are questions that our external CISO does not have the answer to, the probability is high that other staff here will. We also have many IT lawyers working with data protection who can answer complex legal questions.
A disadvantage could be that an external CISO can sometimes become a temporary solution to a permanent problem.
No, not all organizations are required by law to have a data protection officer, but almost all must comply with the GDPR. It can therefore be of great value to a business to have someone who ensures that the ordinance is followed.
