Security Capability and Maturity Assessment

 

Measuring Your Security Processes and Practices to Cultivate Success

What Are Security Capability and Maturity Assessments?

During a Security Capability and Maturity assessment, a cybersecurity service provider like Optiv evaluates your organization’s current security program, processes and technology to provide insight into key risks, threats and opportunities to improve.

Your Organization Is Unique: Your Cybersecurity Capabilities Should Be, Too

 

Cybersecurity assessments have long been seen as the table stakes to prepare against cyberattacks. However, lack of a holistic and integrated approach towards these assessments has led them to become numerous, complex and, at times, tiresome – while not providing insights relevant to management directives.

 

To keep up with the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape, organizations need to shift away from reactive, check-the-box security and move towards a measurable, meaningful and proactive approach.

 

Every organization is different, and a cookie-cutter approach won’t (forgive the pun) cut it anymore. Crafting a holistic cybersecurity program especially for your environment takes effort, but the results are well worth it.

 

 

Why Are Cybersecurity Maturity Models and Assessments Important?

 

Maturity models represent an industry-recognized standard for specified cybersecurity capabilities. They allow organizations to objectively measure their security maturity, regardless of who the assessor may be.

 

Assessments are the other side of the coin. Understanding what a certain level of maturity means isn’t helpful to an organization if they don’t know where they currently stand. As your business matures, it’s vital to check in occasionally to ensure your security is keeping pace.

Measure Your Security Capability Maturity Level

Before you can begin, you need to know your security program’s current maturity level. Not sure where you stand? These questions can help you get a general sense of your current maturity:

  • Are your security initiatives aligned with your business objectives?
  • Are your employees and contractors cyber aware?
  • How do you manage risks and threats?
  • What cybersecurity solutions are in place to protect your perimeter?
  • How do you detect and handle alerts?
  • Do you have repeatable processes or playbooks in place to respond to and recover from incidents?

Find Out Where You Stand With Optiv’s Cybersecurity Capability Assessments

 

Understanding the maturity level of your security program can be tough. Sometimes it’s better to let the experts handle it. From AWS cloud architecture to Zero Trust, Optiv has the knowledge and industry experience to assess your security programs holistically. Our proven models and methodology ensure you understand the big picture no matter where you are or where you want to end up.

 

Optiv’s industry-tested program assessment methodology – with its supporting capability maturity models – enables you to evaluate your current cyber readiness and implement cutting-edge cyber practices across the dimensions of people, process and technology. Our methodology allows us to assess your current- and target-state maturity against your unique regulatory and compliance landscape, as well as peers in your industry, while considering your organization’s risk profile and appetite and current technology stack.

  

Risk and Threat Profile

  • Determine key risks and threats through a business, industry and competitor lens
  • Identify risk appetite levels based on executive stakeholder input
  • Determine current technology environment
  • Understand applicable compliance landscape

Design Evaluation

  • Conduct process documentation reviews and stakeholder workshops to understand current security capabilities
  • Perform qualitative analysis to determine maturity across people, process and technology components

Technical Assessment

  • Conduct quantitative analysis through open-source intelligence (OSINT) and vulnerability scans as well as optional penetration testing and web application scanning
  • Map results from technical review to design review and validate findings

     

Industry Comparison

  • Perform industry comparison against peers to determine current state of security capabilities
  • Determine target-state maturity for security capabilities and document obstacles to achieving target state

     

Roadmap

  • High-level recommendations for improvement
  • High-impact, prioritized roadmap including rough level of effort, cost and execution timelines with phases and responsibilities defined including:
    • Technical improvements (technologies and implementation)
    • Policy and procedure guidance
    • Personnel staffing and training requirements

Optiv’s Maturity Scale Based on Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

 

Our deep experience delivering security capability assessments for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 clients has enabled us to develop standardized accelerators (including maturity models) to hit the ground running on each of our client engagements. Our maturity scale – based on capability maturity model integration (CMMI) – provides a high-level view of your security program maturity, based on gaps noted during our current-state assessment.

Level 1 – Initial
  • Insufficient, unskilled personnel; no set roles and responsibilities
  • Ineffective tools to perform required duties
  • Processes are ad hoc, unpredictable and reactive, increasing risk and inefficiency

Optiv Security Maturity Programs 

 

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Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)

Bidding on contracts for the Federal Government or Department of Defense (DoD)? If you found the levels of maturity or 171 practice requirements in the CMMC a little confusing, don’t worry. Our Federal team has the expertise to guide you through it all. We take a holistic approach, ensuring that you meet compliance requirements, and that your solution is sustainable and scalable.

 

Learn More About Our Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification

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SIEM Maturity Brief

 

SIEM Maturity

Security information and event management (SIEM) and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) solutions make your security easier to manage by streamlining investigations, filtering and prioritizing large amounts of data, and enabling you to detect incidents that might’ve gone unnoticed. Optiv has the expertise to mature your program and improve your security posture, no matter where you are on your SIEM or UEBA journey.

 

Get our SIEM/UEBA Maturity Program Service Brief to learn more

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Cybersecurity Capabilities Assessment

Optiv’s industry-tested security capability assessments help you pursue an actionable path to mature your cyber capabilities, enabling organizational growth and accelerating business outcomes. We consider your organization’s business objectives, determine the crown jewels, identify emerging threats, reduce risks and provide an actionable roadmap based on cost-benefit analysis to maximize your return on investment.

 

Cybersecurity Capability Assessment Brief

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Security Technology Maturity Services

Organizations must continuously mature their security environment if they want to stay ahead of hackers, who are as innovative as they are persistent. Optiv Security Technology Maturity Services drive a strategic shift toward programmatic, iterative improvement.

 

Download Service Brief