One of the services that can be expertly performed by a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer, or VCISO, is the development of a corrective action plan for your security program.
Corrective action plans are based on security gaps, shortfalls, and vulnerabilities that have been identified in your organization. These may have been enumerated in a recent security risk assessment. Or, they may have been compiled less formally as IT team members have discovered and noted them over time.
Either way, identified weaknesses must be addressed in as timely a manner as possible, especially those posing the greatest risk to your information security. Not only is this attention consistent with security best practices, but it is also a requirement of many industry regulations.
Corrective Action Plan Elements
Assemble All Findings. The VCISO will assemble the key findings and prioritized risks from your most recent baseline security review, annual security risk assessment, vulnerability and penetration test reports, physical security review, and other available security audits. This type of reported information may be augmented by interviews with key stakeholders and the VCISO’s own observations and analysis.
(Note: If no recent report is available, the VCISO will direct a security risk assessment to be conducted preparatory to developing the corrective action plan.)
Develop Corrective Action Plan. All assembled findings related to security gaps, oversights, vulnerabilities, and risks will be incorporated into a comprehensive remediation plan, or corrective action plan, tailored to the unique needs of your organization and the abilities of your security team.
The plan will be actionable, immediately and clearly, with assigned responsibilities and estimated completion dates for each of the risks identified as Critical or High. Lower priority risks are also included, but with less urgent timelines required in addressing them.
Recommend Resources. Our VCISO will provide recommendations for any resources that may be required to support the corrective action plan, with special attention to high priority gaps. These recommendations may include but are not limited to staffing, software, technology, and budgetary resources.
Reasons to Engage
Having a corrective action plan, and working actively to implement it, is good business for your organization and for your clients, customers, patients, or other stakeholders. It is a security best practice as well as a regulatory mandate in many industries.
Engaging a VCISO to develop your corrective action plan means that it can be conducted as a project at a pre-agreed cost. As an option, our VCISOs can be contracted to provide multiple information security services based on your needs.
