Secureworks launches cybersecurity maturity model based on an organization’s inherent risk

Secureworks released the Secureworks Security Maturity Model, a methodology that organizations of all sizes can use to evaluate their level of cybersecurity maturity relative to inherent risk.

Secureworks is releasing the model in response to its research which shows that more than one-third of US organizations (37%) face security risks that exceed their overall security maturity.

Within that group, 10% face a deficiency when it comes to protecting themselves from the threats in their environment.

To increase global awareness of the gaps between cybersecurity maturity and risk, Secureworks is offering an evaluation that organizations can take to benchmark their maturity using the Secureworks methodology.

Cybersecurity leaders who complete an online tool with the support of a Secureworks security expert will receive a report that scores the organization’s capabilities and behaviors across five cybersecurity domains.

The report also assigns a current security maturity tier and compares the organization’s results to peer benchmarks.

Intuitive charts and graphs throughout the report can be used to identify a desired future state of maturity, prioritize next steps in the journey and support discussions about cybersecurity risk management with the board.

“Business executives tell us they’re looking for ways to determine whether their cybersecurity capabilities and investment are in line with their business risk profile,” says Hadi Hosn, Consulting Practice Leader, Secureworks.

“Our recent study suggests that misalignment between security activities and actual risk is common enough to warrant a more pragmatic model that can help organizations both identify those gaps and adjust their security maturity goals accordingly.”

Secureworks’ Security Maturity Model is an approach that incorporates elements of frameworks like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and ISO 27001/02 with insight from Secureworks’ global threat intelligence, analysis of more than 1,000 incident response engagements annually and observed practices across 4,300 clients.

Organizations who evaluate their maturity against this methodology are scored in the cybersecurity domains of: security organization and governance, security operations, cloud security, incident management and threat intelligence.

“Most frameworks come up short in helping you define the right journey to cybersecurity maturity because they don’t account for inherent risk to begin with,” says Hosn.

“Instead of relying on checklists, the Secureworks Security Maturity Model blends the best of industry best practice frameworks with our proprietary knowledge and experience to help organizations invest precious resources more wisely.”

Key findings: Secureworks Security Leadership Study, 2018

Secureworks’ security maturity evaluation methodology considers which security capabilities a company currently has in place as well as organizational behavior.

In Secureworks’ 2018 Security Leadership study, guarded companies, the least mature, were lacking the same processes that are commonly shared by resilient organizations, the most secure 7 percent of the respondents.

The most divergent practices between resilient and guarded organizations include:

• Aligning and prioritizing vulnerability assessments based on business goals (56% for resilient organizations vs. 2% for guarded, the least mature group),
• Conducting real-time automated security analysis of business partners (36% vs. 2%),
• Employing customized endpoint protection based on user profiles (84% vs. 3%),
• Including both technical and business teams in Incidence Response tabletop sessions (92% vs. 45%),
• Working with IR partners under retainer agreements (56% vs. 18%),
• Integrating threat indicators, with enhancements, into security and workflow controls (80% vs. 6%).