How can you prioritize urgent cybersecurity problems?

1 Assess the impact

To prioritize urgent cybersecurity problems, the first step is to assess the impact of each problem on your organization's objectives, resources, and stakeholders. A simple matrix can be used to rank the problems based on their severity and urgency, or a more sophisticated framework like the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) may be employed to measure the technical and environmental aspects. When assessing the impact, factors like potential damage to data, systems, and networks, likelihood and frequency of exploitation, legal and contractual obligations, reputational and financial risks, availability and cost of mitigation options, and effect on customers, partners, and employees should all be taken into consideration.

2 Align with your strategy

The second step to prioritize urgent cybersecurity problems is to align them with your organization's cybersecurity strategy and goals. It's essential to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, how you will measure progress, and the resources available. Additionally, you should take into account external and internal factors that affect your cybersecurity posture, such as current and emerging threats and trends, best practices and standards of your industry and domain, expectations from stakeholders, capabilities and gaps of your cybersecurity team and tools, and opportunities for improvement.

3 Communicate and collaborate

The third step to prioritize urgent cybersecurity problems is to communicate and collaborate with the relevant stakeholders and experts. It's important not to make decisions in isolation, but rather consult with those affected by or involved in solving the problems. Leverage the expertise of your cybersecurity team and external partners, such as cybersecurity analysts and engineers, managers and leaders, consultants and vendors, researchers and innovators, as well as cybersecurity communities and networks. These parties can provide valuable input, feedback, specialized services, solutions, insights, ideas, best practices, and lessons learned.

4 Implement and evaluate

When prioritizing urgent cybersecurity problems, the fourth step is to implement and evaluate the solutions you selected. This should be done in a structured and systematic way, with plans to execute and monitor the actions taken. You should also measure and report the results and outcomes of your solutions, such as the reduction or elimination of the problems, the improvement of your cybersecurity performance, the satisfaction of your stakeholders, the return on your investment, and any learning or feedback for future improvement.

5 Adapt and improve

Adapting and improving your cybersecurity practices and processes is the fifth step to prioritize urgent cybersecurity problems. You should not be content with the status quo, but instead strive to continually enhance your cybersecurity maturity and resilience. Proactivity and anticipation, rather than reactivity and complacency, should be your focus. This includes reviewing and updating your cybersecurity strategy and goals, scanning and analyzing your cybersecurity environment, identifying and addressing your weaknesses and opportunities, testing and validating assumptions and hypotheses, as well as innovating and experimenting with new solutions and approaches.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?