Are You Ready for DORA? How IT Risk Scenario Testing Prepares Financial Firms for Compliance.

With the introduction of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), financial institutions and critical service providers across Europe are now required to ensure their digital operations are resilient enough to withstand severe disruptions. Whether it’s a cyber attack, a system failure, or a third-party outage, DORA aims to prevent these events from endangering the stability of the financial system.

However, achieving compliance is no easy task. Financial firms must go beyond simple risk assessments and establish a framework that can demonstrate resilience through rigorous testing and impact tolerance evaluation. This is where IT Risk Scenario Testing plays a crucial role. And to make this journey smoother, Arischio Consulting and GIEOM’s DORA 360 solution have teamed up to offer a comprehensive approach to meet DORA requirements.

What is IT Risk Scenario Testing and How Does it Relate to DORA?

IT Risk Scenario Testing is a proactive method of simulating disruptions and testing your organization’s ability to withstand and recover from them. It’s like running a “fire drill” for your technology infrastructure and business operations, so you can see how prepared you really are.

DORA explicitly mandates that financial firms conduct scenario-based testing of their ICT risk management frameworks to ensure resilience. This involves regularly testing for a wide range of ICT risks, including cyber attacks, system failures, and disruptions caused by third-party dependencies.

Key DORA Compliance Areas Addressed by IT Risk Scenario Testing:

1. Impact Tolerance Testing: DORA requires financial firms to define and test impact tolerance levels for critical business services. These levels include maximum acceptable downtime, data loss, and customer impact.
2. Regular Scenario-Based Testing: Firms must test their resilience strategies regularly and demonstrate their ability to operate within predefined tolerance limits.
3. Third-Party Risk Management: DORA emphasizes the importance of managing dependencies on third-party service providers. Scenario testing should include disruptions to these providers to evaluate how they affect your operational resilience.
4. Documenting and Reporting: Organizations need to document their scenario test results and report them to senior management and regulators.

How Arischio Consulting and GIEOM’s DORA 360 Support DORA Compliance

Navigating DORA’s complex requirements can be challenging, but Arischio Consulting and GIEOM have partnered to provide a robust solution through GIEOM’s DORA 360. DORA 360 is an integrated platform specifically designed to help financial firms meet every aspect of DORA compliance, from impact tolerance testing to regulatory reporting.

What is GIEOM’s DORA 360? DORA 360 is an end-to-end compliance solution that provides financial institutions with the tools and capabilities needed to implement DORA’s requirements. It includes modules for scenario testing, risk assessments, compliance monitoring, third-party management, and automated reporting. DORA 360 makes it easy to manage the entire compliance process within a single, cohesive platform.

How to Conduct DORA-Compliant IT Risk Scenario Testing with DORA 360 and Arischio Consulting

Ready to take your DORA compliance to the next level? Here’s how Arischio Consulting and GIEOM’s DORA 360 can help you conduct effective IT Risk Scenario Testing:

1. Identify Critical Business Services and Set Impact Tolerance Levels

The first step in any IT risk scenario test is to identify your critical business services—those that are essential to your operations and customer protection. Engage with key stakeholders to map out these services and establish impact tolerance thresholds for each one.

Example Impact Tolerance Levels:

• Maximum Downtime for Trading Systems: 1 hour.
• Maximum Data Loss for Customer Data Systems: Zero tolerance for data loss.
• Customer Impact Tolerance: Less than 5% of customers affected.

Using DORA 360, you can define these impact tolerance levels within the platform, ensuring they are visible and trackable throughout the testing process.

2. Create and Manage DORA-Compliant Testing Scenarios

With GIEOM’s DORA 360, you can easily create, customize, and manage a library of DORA-compliant testing scenarios. The platform allows you to simulate a variety of disruptive events, such as:

• Cyber Attacks: Ransomware or data breaches targeting critical systems.
• System Failures: Outages in core applications or infrastructure components.
• Third-Party Service Disruptions: Cloud service provider failures that impact your operations.

Arischio Consulting’s team of experts can help tailor these scenarios to reflect your organization’s unique risk profile, ensuring you cover all aspects of DORA’s ICT risk management requirements.

3. Execute Scenarios and Measure Results in Real-Time

GIEOM’s DORA 360 provides a structured environment to execute these scenarios, track response times, and measure performance against predefined impact tolerance thresholds. During the test, you can:

• Monitor key metrics like time to detect, respond, and recover.
• Assess customer impact, financial loss, and operational disruption.
• Evaluate third-party performance if they are part of the scenario.

DORA 360’s real-time dashboards give you immediate insights, allowing for quick identification of gaps and areas for improvement.

4. Document, Report, and Analyze Compliance Findings

One of the critical aspects of DORA compliance is documenting your scenario testing results and communicating them to senior management and regulatory authorities. DORA 360 automates this process by generating compliance-ready reports that include:

• Scenario details and testing outcomes.
• Impact tolerance breaches and areas of non-compliance.
• Recommendations for corrective actions and continuous improvement.

These reports can be shared directly with the compliance team, risk committees, and external auditors to demonstrate adherence to DORA’s standards.

5. Implement Corrective Actions and Continuous Monitoring

Based on the findings from your scenario tests, Arischio Consulting will work with you to implement corrective actions, update your ICT risk management framework, and enhance your business continuity and disaster recovery plans. With GIEOM’s DORA 360, you can track these actions and ensure continuous monitoring, making sure your organization stays compliant even as the regulatory landscape evolves.

Why Choose Arischio Consulting and GIEOM’s DORA 360?

DORA is not just a one-time compliance exercise—it’s an ongoing commitment to operational resilience and digital stability. By partnering with Arischio Consulting and leveraging the power of GIEOM’s DORA 360, your organization can confidently navigate DORA’s complexities and build a solid foundation for long-term resilience.

Benefits of Using GIEOM’s DORA 360 with Arischio Consulting:

• End-to-End Compliance Management: From risk assessments to scenario testing and reporting, manage all aspects of DORA compliance within a single platform.
• Expert Guidance and Support: Leverage Arischio Consulting’s expertise to design effective scenarios, interpret testing results, and implement best practices.
• Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting: Track compliance status, test results, and corrective actions with ease using DORA 360’s intuitive dashboards and reporting tools.

Final Thoughts: Achieving DORA Compliance with Confidence

DORA is reshaping how financial institutions approach operational resilience and ICT risk management. With the right tools and expertise, achieving compliance doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By incorporating IT Risk Scenario Testing into your risk management strategy and leveraging GIEOM’s DORA 360 in partnership with Arischio Consulting, you can ensure your organization is well-prepared for any disruption.

Ready to take your DORA compliance to the next level? Contact Arischio Consulting at [email protected] and explore how GIEOM’s DORA 360 can provide you with the end-to-end support needed to navigate this regulatory challenge.

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With GIEOM’s advanced technology and Arischio Consulting’s industry expertise, compliance becomes a streamlined and efficient process—empowering your organization to focus on what matters most: maintaining stability and protecting your customers.