The primary objective for the incident preparation function is to build process maturity and muscle memory for responding to major incidents throughout the organization, including security teams, executive leadership, and many others outside of security. It helps to start with a small group first and then expand out using the results of the first exercise to refine your efforts. Thus, the information security roles are defined by the security they provide to the organizations and must be able to understand the value proposition of security initiatives, which leads to better operational responses regarding security threats.3, Organizations and their information storage infrastructures are vulnerable to cyberattacks and other threats.4 Many of these attacks are highly sophisticated and designed to steal confidential information. Comply with external regulatory requirements. It is a key component of governance: the part management plays in ensuring information assets are properly protected. This means that you will need to interview employees and find out what systems they use and how they use them. They include 6 goals: Identify security problems, gaps and system weaknesses. In general, management uses audits to ensure security outcomes defined in policies are achieved. Category: Other Subject Discuss the roles of stakeholders in the organisation to implement security audit recommendations. Their thought is: been there; done that. Based on the feedback loopholes in the s . Some auditors perform the same procedures year after year. Key and certification management provides secure distribution and access to key material for cryptographic operations (which often support similar outcomes as identity management). Participate in ISACA chapter and online groups to gain new insight and expand your professional influence. Cybersecurity is the underpinning of helping protect these opportunities. Take advantage of our CSX cybersecurity certificates to prove your cybersecurity know-how and the specific skills you need for many technical roles. Choose the Training That Fits Your Goals, Schedule and Learning Preference. Many organizations recognize the value of these architectural models in understanding the dependencies between their people, processes, applications, data and hardware. By knowing the needs of the audit stakeholders, you can do just that. As you walk the path, healthy doses of empathy and continuous learning are key to maintaining forward momentum. The output is the information types gap analysis. Invest a little time early and identify your audit stakeholders. Infosec, part of Cengage Group 2023 Infosec Institute, Inc. The leading framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT. What did we miss? Gain a competitive edge as an active informed professional in information systems, cybersecurity and business. Build on your expertise the way you like with expert interaction on-site or virtually, online through FREE webinars and virtual summits, or on demand at your own pace. The problems always seem to float to the surface in the last week of the auditand worse yet, they sometimes surface months after the release of the report. They must be competent with regards to standards, practices and organizational processes so that they are able to understand the business requirements of the organization. By Harry Hall This helps them to rationalize why certain procedures and processes are structured the way that they are and leads to greater understanding of the businesss operational requirements. While each organization and each person will have a unique journey, we have seen common patterns for successfully transforming roles and responsibilities. Members can also earn up to 72 or more FREE CPE credit hours each year toward advancing your expertise and maintaining your certifications. This team must take into account cloud platforms, DevOps processes and tools, and relevant regulations, among other factors. Deploy a strategy for internal audit business knowledge acquisition. Microsoft is a leader in cybersecurity, and we embrace our responsibility to make the world a safer place. 8 Olijnyk, N.; A Quantitive Examination of the Intellectual Profile and Evolution of Information Security From 1965 to 2015, Scientometrics, vol. These changes create audit risksboth the risk that the team will issue an unmodified opinion when its not merited and the risk that engagement profit will diminish. 3, March 2008, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08874417.2008.11646017 Synonym Stakeholder . In this step, inputting COBIT 5 for Information Security results in the outputs of CISO to-be business functions, process outputs, key practices and information types. Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Brian Tracy. Integrity , confidentiality , and availability of infrastructures and processes in information technology are all issues that are often included in an IT audit . 4 How do you influence their performance? Read more about the identity and keys function, Read more about the threat intelligence function, Read more about the posture management function, Read more about the incident preparation function, recommendations for defining a security strategy. Remember, there is adifference between absolute assurance and reasonable assurance. Determine if security training is adequate. Stakeholders have the power to make the company follow human rights and environmental laws. SOCs are currently undergoing significant change, including an elevation of the function to business risk management, changes in the types of metrics tracked, new technologies, and a greater emphasis on threat hunting. If this is needed, you can create an agreed upon procedures engagement letter (separate from the standard audit engagement letter) to address that service. Charles Hall. Security Stakeholders Exercise Stakeholders must reflect on whether their internal audit departments are having the kinds of impact and influence they'd like to see, and whether some of the challenges identified in the research exists within their organizations. These system checks help identify security gaps and assure business stakeholders that your company is doing everything in its power to protect its data. Internal audit staff is the employees of the company and take salaries, but they are not part of the management of the . Tale, I do think the stakeholders should be considered before creating your engagement letter. View the full answer. 1 Vicente, M.; Enterprise Architecture and ITIL, Instituto Superior Tcnico, Portugal, 2013 All of these findings need to be documented and added to the final audit report. The objective of cloud security compliance management is to ensure that the organization is compliant with regulatory requirements and internal policies. ArchiMate is the standard notation for the graphical modeling of enterprise architecture (EA). Such modeling is based on the Principles, Policies and Frameworks and the Information and Organizational Structures enablers of COBIT 5 for Information Security. Such modeling aims to identify the organizations as-is status and is based on the preceded figures of step 1, i.e., all viewpoints represented will have the same structure. Today, we also help build the skills of cybersecurity professionals; promote effective governance of information and technology through our enterprise governance framework, COBIT and help organizations evaluate and improve performance through ISACAs CMMI. 20 Op cit Lankhorst EA, by supporting a holistic organization view, helps in designing the business, information and technology architecture, and designing the IT solutions.24, 25 COBIT is a framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT, and EA is defined as a framework to use in architecting the operating or business model and systems to meet vision, mission and business goals and to deliver the enterprise strategy.26, Although EA and COBIT5 describe areas of common interest, they do it from different perspectives. This step aims to analyze the as-is state of the organizations EA and design the desired to-be state of the CISOs role. How might the stakeholders change for next year? Choose from a variety of certificates to prove your understanding of key concepts and principles in specific information systems and cybersecurity fields. If you would like to contribute your insights or suggestions, please email them to me at Derrick_Wright@baxter.com. We can view Securitys customers from two perspectives: the roles and responsibilities that they have, and the security benefits they receive. Business functions and information types? In the context of government-recognized ID systems, important stakeholders include: Individuals. 2, p. 883-904 Issues such as security policies may also be scrutinized by an information security auditor so that risk is properly determined and mitigated. This difficulty occurs because it is complicated to align organizations processes, structures, goals or drivers to good practices of the framework that are based on processes, organizational structures or goals. A helpful approach is to have an initial briefing in a small group (6 to 10 people) and begin considering and answering these questions. 12 Op cit Olavsrud COBIT 5 for Information Securitys processes and related practices for which the CISO is responsible will then be modeled. Our certifications and certificates affirm enterprise team members expertise and build stakeholder confidence in your organization. Get in the know about all things information systems and cybersecurity. To help security leaders and practitioners plan for this transformation, Microsoft has defined common security functions, how they are evolving, and key relationships. In the Closing Process, review the Stakeholder Analysis. By getting early buy-in from stakeholders, excitement can build about. However, well lay out all of the essential job functions that are required in an average information security audit. This step maps the organizations roles to the CISOs role defined in COBIT 5 for Information Security to identify who is performing the CISOs job. However, COBIT 5 for Information Security does not provide a specific approach to define the CISOs role. Report the results. 4 How do they rate Securitys performance (in general terms)? Types of Internal Stakeholders and Their Roles. Graeme is an IT professional with a special interest in computer forensics and computer security. Tale, I do think its wise (though seldom done) to consider all stakeholders. 6 Cadete, G.; Using Enterprise Architecture for Implementing Governance With COBIT 5, Instituto Superior Tcnico, Portugal, 2015 As you conduct your preliminary interviews and surveys, ask each person to help you identify individuals, groups, and organizations that may be impacted by the audit. This chapter describes the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders involved in the sharing of clinical trial data: (1) participants in clinical trials, (2) funders and sponsors of trials, (3) regulatory agencies, (4) investigators, (5) research institutions and universities, (6) journals, and (7) professional societies (see Box 3-1 ). While some individuals in our organization pay for security by allocating or approving security project funding, the majority of individuals pay for security by fulfilling their roles and responsibilities, and that is critical to establishing sound security throughout the organization. Next months column will provide some example feedback from the stakeholders exercise. The roles and responsibilities aspect is important because it determines how we should communicate to our various security customers, based on enabling and influencing them to perform their roles in security, even if that role is a simple one, such as using an access card to gain entry to the facility. 17 Lankhorst, M.; Enterprise Architecture at Work, Springer, The Netherlands, 2005 Here are some of the benefits of this exercise: They are able to give companies credibility to their compliance audits by following best practice recommendations and by holding the relevant qualifications in information security, such as a Certified Information Security Auditor certification (CISA). Security functions represent the human portion of a cybersecurity system. ISACA offers training solutions customizable for every area of information systems and cybersecurity, every experience level and every style of learning. We bel Step 1 and step 2 provide information about the organizations as-is state and the desired to-be state regarding the CISOs role. If there is not a connection between the organizations information types and the information types that the CISO is responsible for originating, this serves as a detection of an information types gap. COBIT 5 for Information Security can be modeled with regard to the scope of the CISOs role, using ArchiMate as the modeling language. This requires security professionals to better understand the business context and to collaborate more closely with stakeholders outside of security. For this step, the inputs are information types, business functions and roles involvedas-is (step 2) and to-be (step1). 1. Furthermore, ArchiMates motivation and implementation and migration extensions are also key inputs for the solution proposal that helps with the COBIT 5 for Information Security modeling. You'll be expected to inspect and investigate the financial systems of the organization, as well as the networks and internal procedures of the company. In fact, they may be called on to audit the security employees as well. Read my full bio. In order to discover these potential security flaws, an information security auditor must be able to work as part of a team and conduct solo operations where needed. He does little analysis and makes some costly stakeholder mistakes. Start your career among a talented community of professionals. We will go through the key roles and responsibilities that an information security auditor will need to do the important work of conducting a system and security audit at an organization. Tiago Catarino ISACA resources are curated, written and reviewed by expertsmost often, our members and ISACA certification holders. He has 12 years of SAP Security Consultant experience, committed to helping clients develop and improve their technology environment through evaluation and concepts transformations of technology and process, managing projects based on RBAC, including dynamic access control, entitlements to roles and rules, segregation of duties, Identity lifecycle . Delivering an unbiased and transparent opinion on their work gives reasonable assurance to the companys stakeholders. Information security auditors are usually highly qualified individuals that are professional and efficient at their jobs. Step 7Analysis and To-Be Design 1. Who depends on security performing its functions? Security architecture translates the organizations business and assurance goals into a security vision, providing documentation and diagrams to guide technical security decisions. The outputs are organization as-is business functions, processes outputs, key practices and information types. COBIT 5 has all the roles well defined and responsible, accountable, consulted and informed (RACI) charts can be created for each process, but different organizations have different roles and levels of involvement in information security responsibility. Something else to consider is the fact that being an information security auditor in demand will require extensive travel, as you will be required to conduct audits across multiple sites in different regions. They also check a company for long-term damage. Get Your Copy of Preparation of Financial Statements and Compilation Engagements Click the Book, Get Your Copy of Audit Risk Assessment Made Easy Click the Book, Get Your Copy of The Why and How of Auditing Click the Book. These practice exercises have become powerful tools to ensure stakeholders are informed and familiar with their role in a major security incident. There is no real conflict between shareholders and stakeholders when it comes to principles of responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency Employees can play an active role in strengthening corporate governance systems 7 ISACA, COBIT 5 for Information Security, USA, 2012, www.isaca.org/COBIT/Pages/Information-Security-Product-Page.aspx Those processes and practices are: The modeling of the processes practices for which the CISO is responsible is based on the Processes enabler. 18 Niemann, K. D.; From Enterprise Architecture to IT Governance, Springer Vieweg Verlag, Germany, 2006 Or another example might be a lender wants supplementary schedule (to be audited) that provides a detail of miscellaneous income. Information security auditors are not limited to hardware and software in their auditing scope. Figure1 shows the management areas relevant to EA and the relation between EA and some well-known management practices of each area. A variety of actors are typically involved in establishing, maintaining, and using an ID system throughout the identity lifecycle. Becoming an information security auditor is normally the culmination of years of experience in IT administration and certification. Helps to reinforce the common purpose and build camaraderie. With this guidance, security and IT professionals can make more informed decisions, which can lead to more value creation for enterprises.15. One of the big changes is that identity and key/certification management disciplines are coming closer together as they both provide assurances on the identity of entities and enable secure communications. The audit plan should . Andr Vasconcelos, Ph.D. 105, iss. Thanks for joining me here at CPA Scribo. Read more about the posture management function. Provides a check on the effectiveness. Knowing who we are going to interact with and why is critical. 10 Ibid. The biggest change we see is the integration of security into the development process, which requires culture and process adjustments as each specialty adopt the best of each others culture. Audit Programs, Publications and Whitepapers. Moreover, an organizations risk is not proportional to its size, so small enterprises may not have the same global footprint as large organizations; however, small and mid-sized organizations face nearly the same risk.12, COBIT 5 for Information Security is a professional guide that helps enterprises implement information security functions. Read more about the infrastructure and endpoint security function. This function must also adopt an agile mindset and stay up to date on new tools and technologies. Members of the IT department, managers, executives and even company owners are also important people to speak to during the course of an audit, depending on what the security risks are that are facing the organization. It also proposes a method using ArchiMate to integrate COBIT 5 for Information Security with EA principles, methods and models in order to properly implement the CISOs role. 16 Op cit Cadete He is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP). Why? Derrick Wright, CPP, is the security manager for Baxter Healthcare, Cherry Hill, N.J. With more than 19 years of progressively higher management experience in a highly regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, he has built a converged security program that focuses on top-of-mind business issues as well as technology interoperability to support improved business processes. By that, I mean that it has the effect of expanding the awareness of the participants and in many cases changing their thinking in ways that will positively affect their job performance and their interactions with security stakeholders. Back 0 0 Discuss the roles of stakeholders in the organisation to implement security audit recommendations. Provides a check on the effectiveness and scope of security personnel training. For that, it is necessary to make a strategic decision that may be different for every organization to fix the identified information security gaps. 19 Grembergen, W. V.; S. De Haes; Implementing Information Technology Governance: Models, Practices and Cases, IGI Publishing, USA, 2007 If there is not a connection between the organizations practices and the key practices for which the CISO is responsible, it indicates a key practices gap. The key actors and stakeholders in internal audit process-including executive and board managers, audit committee members and chief audit executives-play important roles in shaping the current status of internal audit via their perceptions and actions. 13 Op cit ISACA He has developed strategic advice in the area of information systems and business in several organizations. You will need to execute the plan in all areas of the business where it is needed and take the lead when required. The fourth steps goal is to map the processes outputs of the organization to the COBIT 5 for Information Security processes for which the CISO is responsible. Identify unnecessary resources. User. The challenge to address is how an organization can implement the CISOs role using COBIT 5 for Information Security in ArchiMate, a challenge that, by itself, raises other relevant questions regarding its implementations, such as: Therefore, it is important to make it clear to organizations that the role and associated processes (and activities), information security functions, key practices, and information outputs where the CISO is included have the right person with the right skills to govern the enterprises information security. The main objective of a security team working on identity management, is to provide authentication and authorization of humans, services, devices, and applications. The role of audit plays is to increase the dependence to the information and check whether the whole business activities are in accordance with the regulation. Generally, the audit of the financial statements should satisfy most stakeholders, but its possible a particular stakeholder has a unique need that the auditor can meet while performing the audit. Add to the know-how and skills base of your team, the confidence of stakeholders and performance of your organization and its products with ISACA Enterprise Solutions. The audit plan can either be created from scratch or adapted from another organization's existing strategy. COBIT 5 for Information Security effectively details the roles and responsibilities of the CISO and the CISOs team, but knowing what these roles and responsibilities are is only half the battle. There are system checks, log audits, security procedure checks and much more that needs to be checked, verified and reported on, creating a lot of work for the system auditor. Information security auditors are usually highly qualified individuals that are professional and efficient at their jobs. Every entity in each level is categorized according to three aspects: information, structure and behavior.22, ArchiMate is a good alternative compared to other modeling languages (e.g., Unified Modeling Language [UML]) because it is more understandable, less complex and supports the integration across the business, application and technology layers through various viewpoints.23. Posture management builds on existing functions like vulnerability management and focuses on continuously monitoring and improving the security posture of the organization. Assess internal auditing's contribution to risk management and "step up to the plate" as needed. Who are the stakeholders to be considered when writing an audit proposal. Please log in again. Would you like to help us achieve our purpose of connecting more people, improve their lives and develop our communities? EA assures or creates the necessary tools to promote alignment between the organizational structures involved in the as-is process and the to-be desired state. All of these systems need to be audited and evaluated for security, efficiency and compliance in terms of best practice. PMP specializing in strategic implementation of Information Technology, IT Audit, IT Compliance, Project Management (Agile/Waterfall), Risk/Vulnerability Management, Cloud Technologies, and IT . An audit is usually made up of three phases: assess, assign, and audit. People security protects the organization from inadvertent human mistakes and malicious insider actions. Contribute to advancing the IS/IT profession as an ISACA member. Define the Objectives Lay out the goals that the auditing team aims to achieve by conducting the IT security audit. Read more about the application security and DevSecOps function. But, before we start the engagement, we need to identify the audit stakeholders. Roles Of Internal Audit. 5 Ibid. Imagine a partner or an in-charge (i.e., project manager) with this attitude. There are many benefits for security staff and officers as well as for security managers and directors who perform it. Affirm your employees expertise, elevate stakeholder confidence. Cloud services and APIs have enabled a faster delivery cadence and influenced the creation of the DevOps team model, driving a number of changes. The inputs for this step are the CISO to-be business functions, processes outputs, key practices and information types, documentation, and informal meetings. This means that any deviations from standards and practices need to be noted and explained. Additionally, I frequently speak at continuing education events. Streamline internal audit processes and operations to enhance value. Internal audit is an independent function within the organization or the company, which comprises a team of professionals who perform the audit of the internal controls and processes of the company or the organization.. Internal Audit Essentials. In the scope of his professional activity, he develops specialized advisory activities in the field of enterprise architecture for several digital transformation projects. If there are significant changes, the analysis will provide information for better estimating the effort, duration, and budget for the audit. High performing security teams understand their individual roles, but also see themselves as a larger team working together to defend against adversaries (see Figure 1). Clearer signaling of risk in the annual report and, in turn, in the audit report.. A stronger going concern assessment, which goes further and is . To some degree, it serves to obtain . It also orients the thinking of security personnel. Auditing a business means that most aspects of the corporate network need to be looked at in a methodical and systematic manner so that the audit and reports are coherent and logical. At the same time, continuous delivery models are requiring security teams to engage more closely during business planning and application development to effectively manage cyber risks (vs. the traditional arms-length security approaches). 21 Ibid. Using a tool such as ArchiMate to map roles and responsibilities to the organizations structure can help ensure that someone is responsible for the tasks laid out in COBIT 5 for Information Security. Why perform this exercise? 2 Silva, N.; Modeling a Process Assessment Framework in ArchiMate, Instituto Superior Tcnico, Portugal, 2014 I am the quality control partner for our CPA firm where I provide daily audit and accounting assistance to over 65 CPAs. The Project Management Body of Knowledge defines a stakeholder as, individuals, groups, or organizations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Anyone impacted in a positive or negative way is a stakeholder. Unilever Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Bobby Ford embraces the. With this, it will be possible to identify which information types are missing and who is responsible for them. Project Management in Audits: Key to Profit, Complete Process of Auditing of Financial Statements: A Primer, Auditing as a Career: The Goods and the Bads. 25 Op cit Grembergen and De Haes With the growing emphasis on information security and the reputationaland sometimes monetarypenalties that breaches cause, information security teams are in the spotlight, and they have many responsibilities when it comes to keeping the organization safe. Project managers should perform the initial stakeholder analysis early in the project. The organizations processes and practices, which are related to the processes of COBIT 5 for Information Security for which the CISO is responsible, will then be modeled. To maximize the effectiveness of the solution, it is recommended to embed the COBIT 5 for Information Security processes, information and organization structures enablers rationale directly in the models of EA. He has written more than 80 publications, and he has been involved in several international and national research projects related to enterprise architecture, information systems evaluation and e-government, including several European projects. A security operations center (SOC) detects, responds to, and remediates active attacks on enterprise assets. Looking at systems is only part of the equation as the main component and often the weakest link in the security chain is the people that use them. Whilst this may be uncomfortable reading, the ability to pre-empt and respond quickly to these attacks is now an organizational imperative that requires a level of close collaboration and integration throughout your organization (which may not have happened to date). 26 Op cit Lankhorst Not all audits are the same, as companies differ from industry to industry and in terms of their auditing requirements, depending on the state and legislations that they must abide by and conform to.