Preparing for a cybersecurity audit is a multistep process. However, those with technical expertise who understand their obligations will streamline preparation by taking these four steps.
1. Understand the Audit’s Scope
A comprehensive cybersecurity audit typically assesses risks in physical, network, information and system security.
- Physical security. Since physical security is an aspect of cybersecurity, it will likely be part of the audit. Depending on the organization’s hardware and layout, it may cover perimeter defenses, building access controls, surveillance systems, alarms or server cabinet locking mechanisms.
- Network security. Network security involves access points, segmentation, traffic monitoring and antivirus configuration. Auditors will want to see logs.
- Information security. Auditors will focus on information security if the business handles sensitive consumer data or controlled unclassified information. They typically review access controls, cryptography schemes and storage system protections.
Third-party vendors handling, storing or analyzing data may be subject to review, too. Proactive coordination is vital because nine in 10 companies have expressed concerns about poor collaboration undermining audit readiness.
Auditing professionals will scrutinize system patching, information technology infrastructure maintenance and privileged account management procedures. Their goal is to identify vulnerabilities and determine the organization’s security posture.
2. Ensure Regulatory Compliance
Everything from industry to information impacts regulatory requirements. Businesses that handle financial, personally identifiable, medical or government data must uphold a higher standard. Some regulations are more rigorous than others.
For instance, the United States Department of Defense has the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, which sets the standard for DoD partners storing and accessing CUI. They can only keep this data on their IT systems if they follow strict cybersecurity practices.
Decision-makers should ensure they comply with all relevant laws and rules. If they have enough time before the cybersecurity audit, they should consider getting additional certifications to improve preparedness.
3. Inventory Information Assets
A comprehensive inventory of software, applications and files ensures preparedness. Aside from on-premise data, IT leaders should also catalog servers, third-party software-as-a-service solutions and licenses.
- Identify information assets. The volume of unstructured data has increased in recent years. Experts estimate it will account for 80 to 90 percent of the world’s data by the end of 2025. Companies generally structure sensitive datasets, but often have many unindexed files. They must account for sensitive information outside predefined schemas like databases or tables, including images, text documents, audio files and emails.
- Evaluate shadow IT. Though shadow IT can pose a substantial cybersecurity risk, teams tend to overlook it when identifying information assets. They should catalog approved applications and who has licenses. Timestamped install and update logs are helpful for documentation.
- Classify data by criticality. Cybersecurity teams should classify information assets based on criticality, considering a breach’s likelihood and potential impact. While compromised emails generally pose little to no threat, leaked intellectual property could result in legal action or reputation damage.
- Develop an update mechanism. As the threat landscape evolves, so does dataset value. Criticality classifications should be flexible to compensate for these changes. Professionals should develop a mechanism or use third-party software to automatically update scores as needed.
4. Evaluate Incident Response
Even if your business has a robust incident response plan, you may lack the resources, knowledge and staff to execute it. A lack of preparedness reflects poorly on organizations in a cybersecurity audit. In addition to being actionable, strategies must be feasible.
- Establish a baseline. IT teams should leverage metrics like mean time to detect, mean time between failures and mean time to contain. This baseline will help them identify potential improvement areas before the audit.
- Measure employee readiness. Measuring employee readiness may involve conducting penetration testing or implementing training programs. The approach should be industry-specific, focusing on the scope and impact of recent cybersecurity incidents to maximize impact.
- Assess detection and containment. Many organizations lack adequate detection measures. As of 2024, 26 percent said they believe they have experienced data loss but do not have the resources or knowledge to verify it. Automated monitoring and logging systems can solve this problem. Containment and eradication are equally crucial. Leaders should develop contingency and recovery plans to ensure successful system restoration.
- Review post-incident activity. IT teams should review post-incident activity to understand strengths and opportunities for improvement. This knowledge can help them prepare for a cybersecurity audit that involves testing.
The specifics will vary depending on the type of cybersecurity audit. However, understanding the scope, ensuring regulatory compliance, inventorying information assets and evaluating incident response are generally enough for your organization to be prepared.
Lou is the Senior Editor at Revolutionized, specializing in writing about Technology, Computing, and Robotics. Writing is his top passion in life, and he strives to share his knowledge however he can.