How can you use security frameworks to improve information governance?

1 What are security frameworks?

Security frameworks are sets of standards, guidelines, and best practices for designing, implementing, and maintaining information security in an organization. They provide a common language, structure, and methodology to help align security strategy with business goals and objectives, establish a baseline for measuring and improving security performance, demonstrate compliance with external regulations and internal policies, enhance reputation and trust with stakeholders and customers, as well as reduce costs and complexity by adopting proven and consistent security practices.

2 Examples of security frameworks

There are many security frameworks available for different purposes, industries, and regions. ISO/IEC 27000 series is a family of international standards for information security management systems (ISMS), NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a voluntary framework developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to improve resilience against cyberattacks, COBIT is a framework for governance and management of enterprise IT that integrates security principles and practices into business processes, and CIS Controls is a set of 20 prioritized and actionable security controls based on the most common and effective security practices. ISO/IEC 27000 series covers various aspects of security, such as risk assessment, controls, audit, and certification; NIST Cybersecurity Framework consists of five core functions: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover; COBIT defines four domains: plan and organize, acquire and implement, deliver and support, and monitor and evaluate; CIS Controls covers basic, foundational, and organizational security areas like inventory, configuration, access, data protection, incident response, and awareness.

3 How to choose a security framework

When selecting a security framework, there are several factors to consider, such as industry, size, scope, risk profile, and compliance obligations. You should ask yourself what your security goals and objectives are, as well as what legal and regulatory requirements apply to your information systems. Additionally, you need to be aware of the threats and vulnerabilities that affect your information assets and the resources and capabilities you have to implement and maintain security controls. Furthermore, it's important to consider the benefits and costs of adopting a security framework. You can also compare different frameworks based on their scope, maturity, flexibility, and compatibility. To evaluate how well a security framework meets your needs and expectations, you can use tools such as mapping tables, gap analysis, and benchmarking.