The Quest for Excellence in Cybersecurity Management

Baldrige's new framework raises the bar for information security leaders by tying cybersecurity program management to performance excellence.

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the venerable organization behind the national award for Performance Excellence? and quality for U.S. firms, released the final version of the Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder v1.0 (BCEB) self-assessment tool following their annual summit last week in Baltimore. Initiated in response to Executive Order 13636, the BCEB blends two NIST products (the Cybersecurity Framework and the Baldrige Excellence Framework) into a single assessment methodology. The goal of the BCEB is to help security leaders assess the effectiveness of their approach to cybersecurity, as determined by the unique needs, goals, and capabilities of their firm. Organized by seven categories (leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, operations, customers, and results), the BCEB uses process maturity as the key metric for communicating the strengths and weaknesses of an organization's cybersecurity program.

Process Maturity: The New Standard for Cybersecurity Performance Excellence

The maturity-focused cybersecurity management approach is a paradigm shift that threatens the deeply-entrenched risk- and compliance-focused assessments familiar to most in the industry. We have observed disagreement among security professionals about the what the word maturity actually represents. Some use this word to describe the effectiveness of security controls, while others use maturity to understand their firms' ability to minimize cyber risk. Authoritative bodies, such as the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), appear to be adding to the confusion by blending the notion of process maturity with risk preparedness in the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool. In the end however, the FFIEC approach, along with similar assessment tools, still focus on more traditional controls-based risk management instead of performance excellence and quality.

What is often missed in traditional risk and compliance assessments is a clear understanding of the value that cybersecurity provides to the business. When security leaders communicate in the language of compliance or risk (two inherently negative topics), they miss the opportunity to demonstrate to executives the ways in which mature cybersecurity processes can help enable business growth and sustainability. An emphasis on business enablement – expressed as a function of performance excellence and quality – is what sets the BCEB apart from the traditional cybersecurity assessment tools.

Cybersecurity risk traditionalists will be pleased to know that we do not suggest that process maturity metrics replace established risk formulations. Quite the opposite! We need to understand risk in order to set clear goals and effectively respond to the ever-changing threat landscape for their firms. When communicating the value of cybersecurity to executives however, security leaders will likely find that the BCEB tool kit provides a better picture of the organization's capacity to identify opportunities and leverage the benefits of effective cybersecurity management.

For Secure Digital Solutions (SDS), the emergence of the Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder validates the power of the cybersecurity assessment methodology embedded in our TrustMAPP? platform. Both the BCEB and TrustMAPP use process maturity to express the degree to which an organization achieves consistent quality and performance excellence. With clear alignment to the firm's mission, values and objectives, TrustMAPP helps security leaders bridge the gap between security operations (risk focused) and process maturity (business focused).

To learn more on how cloud-based TrustMAPP? can help you maximize the benefits of the Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder, ask for your free trial today.

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BALDRIGE EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK? is a trademark, and BALDRIGE PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE PROGRAM and Design?, MALCOLM BALDRIGE NATIONAL QUALITY AWARD?, QUEST FOR EXCELLENCE?, and PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE? are federally registered trademarks, of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.