Identifying Control Gaps: Building a More Resilient System

Picture this: You’ve invested in state-of-the-art security systems, implemented policies, and trained your staff to be vigilant. You are confident in your defences. But what if, despite all these measures, your organisation is still vulnerable?

Enter control gaps—the hidden weaknesses in organisations’ security measures that keep cyber security professionals up at night. These elusive vulnerabilities are the soft spots that organisations miss, and attackers seek to exploit them.

In my years of working with businesses across various sectors, I’ve seen first-hand how even the most seemingly secure systems can harbour these gaps. It’s not about fear-mongering; it’s about facing reality and taking proactive steps to build truly resilient systems.

Today, I want to explore what control gaps are, where they hide, and, most importantly, how we can work together to build more resilient systems.

First, let’s define the terms.

A control is a mechanism implemented within a system to reduce risk and protect assets. Its purpose is to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of those assets.

A control gap is a weakness or deficiency in a security mechanism that an attacker can exploit. These gaps can compromise assets and systems.

Control gaps typically fall into three main categories:

• Tool coverage: No security tool can cover everything, despite claims to the contrary. It’s crucial to validate your tools’ actual or lack thereof coverage.
• Processes and policies: Gaps can exist in the procedures and policies themselves, leading to implementation failures.
• Human factors: Even with the right tools and policies in place, human error or lack of knowledge can create vulnerabilities. I recommend Roscoe Platt 's insightful article on the human factor in cyber security effectiveness.

?

Identifying and addressing these gaps is not just about deploying more tools or increasing spending. It requires a smarter, more collaborative approach.?

Resilience through collaboration

Security is a joint effort.

At Chaleit, we recognise the importance of tapping into the knowledge within our clients’ organisations and their industry peers. Security must be a collaborative effort to be truly effective.

This collaboration should extend across all phases of security activities—from building security measures to validating control gaps and incident response.

We’re seeing a shift in how organisations work with us in our partnership model, Cyber Digital Protection. Rather than simply outsourcing responsibility, forward-thinking clients are partnering with us to generate better results.

One key lesson my team and I learned is that resilience comes from collaborative assessments and security engineering. By combining our security expertise with our clients’ deep understanding of their products and infrastructure, we can significantly improve their overall security posture.

Lessons learned and best practices

Contrary to popular belief, building resilience in security systems doesn't necessarily mean increasing costs or adding complexity. Instead, the focus should be on smart investments and simplification.

Here are some key lessons for building resilient systems:

• Control validation is key. Regularly validate your controls to understand their effectiveness and limitations. This helps in identifying gaps that need to be addressed.
• Tailored solutions. One size does not fit all. Controls should be tailored to the specific needs and business environment of each organization.
• Smart investments. Investing in security should be about effectiveness, not just expenditure. Smart investments that are well-suited to the organization’s specific requirements are more beneficial than costly, complex solutions.
• Simplicity and scalability. Keep security measures as simple and straightforward as possible. Complex systems can be harder to manage and more prone to errors, whereas simpler systems are easier to scale and maintain.

?

In conclusion, resilience requires a collaborative approach, thorough validation of controls, and smart, targeted investments.

By focusing on these areas, we help our clients achieve more effective security that scales with their business needs.

I'm curious to hear from you:

-What's your biggest challenge in addressing control gaps in your organisation?

-How do you balance the need for comprehensive security measures with maintaining simplicity and ease of use?

-Share your experiences, and let’s learn from each other.

#CISO #DigitalTransformation #TechTrends #Cybersecurity #CyberResilience #Informationsecurity #Cyber #SOC #CybersecurityThreats #BusinessPreparedness #CyberSecurityDefense