Cybersecurity Policies: Types & Best Practices

Protecting critical systems and sensitive information is a top priority for all organizations who rely on digital systems to deliver services and meet the needs of its stakeholders.

Enhancing one's cybersecurity posture is becoming more and more of a challenge given the pace of technology evolution, the increase in threat actor capabilities such as use of Generative AI. Additionally, meeting regulatory obligations and managing government oversight add extra challenges to keeping a strong cybersecurity posture.

In this article, we will look at the contents of cybersecurity policies and how to structure them effectively to enhance the organizational security posture.

What are cybersecurity policies

Cybersecurity policies are structured frameworks designed to protect an organization's information and systems from evolving cyber threats. They include documented steps and guidelines aligned with security goals, covering corporate assets, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) protocols, and broader enterprise risk management.

Depending on the organization's approach, these policies may be either detailed or high-level, accompanied by more specific procedures. Key details in any cyber policy will:

• Outline roles, methods, processes, and technical controls that protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of digital assets.
• Addresses attributes like authenticity, accountability, non-repudiation, and reliability.

Why cybersecurity policies are important

The cost of cybercrime is estimated to be worth $9.22 trillion in 2024, with further increases anticipated next year. To counter these risks and meet cybersecurity obligations, organizations must choose, implement and maintain strong safeguards. These measures should protect the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of their digital data.

Governance in cybersecurity

Of the many components of cybersecurity, governance is key because it provides direction for the organization in line with strategic and compliance requirements from the board. Governance establishes the organizational attitude to cybersecurity, communicates high-level requirements to management, then monitors the implementation.

Cybersecurity policies are one type of governance controls that direct the enterprise's management, employees, vendors, partners and other interested parties to understand the board's requirements for cybersecurity.

How to write a cybersecurity policy

Cybersecurity policies strengthen security assurance, either as part of a single, comprehensive organizational policy or as separate policies that address specific groups of requirements.

Let's look at how one can write a policy for internet security:

According to ISO/IEC 27032:2023 Cybersecurity Guidelines for Internet Security, organizations should prepare and publish a policy concerning internet security which should address the following areas:

• Rules for acceptable use of the internet by personnel
• Services that may be exposed over the internet
• Identification of threats, vulnerabilities, attack vectors, and associated risks
• Roles and responsibilities of various users of the internet
• User awareness on safe practices for internet usage
• Responsible departments for handling internet security issues
• Response mechanism for cybersecurity incidents
• Security drills to test the response mechanism towards attacks originating from the internet

This cybersecurity policy should be based on the organization's risk assessment and be tailored to its specific needs.

Addressing exposure risk

Organizations with higher exposure due to their economic valuation, amount of PII held, or strategic positioning need policies that cover specific attack vector scenarios in greater depth. These scenarios include social engineering attacks, zero-day attacks, privacy attacks, hacking, and malware.

Detailed vs high-level

Your organization can choose to write these policies as either detailed or high-level documents, paired with more specific procedures. These details define the roles, methods, processes, and technical controls that protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of digital assets, while also covering key attributes like authenticity, accountability, non-repudiation, and reliability. Industry frameworks such as CMMC, NIST, and COBIT can help guide the appropriate level of detail.

What to include in a policy

The ISO/IEC 27002:2022 guidelines for information security controls specify the kind of statements that should be included in an information security policy:

• Definition of information security
• Information security objectives or the framework for setting information security objectives
• Principles to guide all activities relating to information security
• Commitment to satisfy applicable requirements related to information security
• Commitment to continual improvement of the information security management system
• Assignment of responsibilities for information security management to defined roles
• Procedures for handling exemptions and exceptions

Cybersecurity policy types

Some of the popular cybersecurity topic-specific policies that cover different focus areas include:

Access control

To ensure that only authorized users access information and associated digital assets and to prevent unauthorized access. Topics include need-to-know/need-to-use principles, segregation of duties, rights management for joiner, movers, and leavers, and privilege management.

Information transfer

To maintain the security of information transferred within an organization and with any external interested party. Topics include information transfer agreements, encryption requirements during transfer, labelling of information, and controls to ensure traceability and non-repudiation.

Secure configuration and handling of user endpoint devices

To protect information against the risks introduced by using user endpoint devices. Topics include device registration, restrictions on software installation, updating, protection, storage encryption, and network connections.

Networking security

To protect information in networks and its supporting information processing facilities from compromise via the network. Topics include network management, traffic segregation, filtering, logging, and restrictions.

Information security incident management

To ensure quick, effective, consistent and orderly response to information security incidents, including communication on information security events. Topics include classification, prioritization, escalation, evidence handling, and reporting.

Backup

To enable recovery from loss of data or systems by addressing the organization's data retention and information security requirements. Topics include business requirements e.g. RTO, backup methods, testing approach, and encryption requirements.

Cryptography and key management

To ensure proper and effective use of cryptography to protect the confidentiality, authenticity or integrity of information according to business and information security requirements. Topics include key management, encryption approach, and contractual requirements for encryption providers.

Information classification and handling

To ensure identification and understanding of protection needs of information in accordance with its importance to the organization. Topics include conventions for classification, and approaches for handling different information types.

Each policy should answer three questions

As cybersecurity policies should be designed with the audience's context in mind, making them accessible for stakeholders to ensure compliance. Most people struggle to read lengthy internet terms and conditions, and extensive policies can be even more challenging.

The VeriSM service management guidance specifies that apart from document control elements (title, applicability, approval), effective policies should be brief and answer three questions:

1. Why is this necessary? It should be very clear (within one sentence) as to what the cybersecurity policy objective is. For example, an access control policy ensures authorized user access and prevents unauthorized access.
2. What needs to be achieved? It states what are the conditions of the policy rather than the how which is covered by the related processes and/or procedures. For example, links to user registration/modification/deregistration procedures.
3. How will I know if this is done, and it works? It defines appropriate measurements to demonstrate compliance. For example, appropriate and consistent segregation of duties.

Making cybersecurity policies more effective

According to the ITIL 4 Direct, Plan and Improve publication, a policy that is defined but not followed is useless. Some recommendations that can help make cybersecurity policies more effective include:

• Be clear and concise: The cybersecurity policy must be understandable, with the terminology applied appropriate to the audience.
• Keep it simple and practical: The policy should make it easy for people to understand what they need to do (or not do), and what cybersecurity tools/systems to use.
• Anticipate questions: Longer policies can include an FAQ which pre-empts questions that the policy audience would ask for clarification.
• Educate and communicate: Whether training or awareness of the policy statements is required should be understood in advance and implemented effectively to win acceptance and ease compliance among affected stakeholders.
• Build in flexibility: The policy exceptions should be clearly stated including avenue for consideration, requesting and resolving such in a manner that does not compromise the cybersecurity stance.
• Define the consequences of non-compliance: Consequences such as disciplinary measures, contract termination or legal action should be clearly outlined and administered consistency to prevent stakeholders from ignoring the policy statements.
• Build in measurement and compliance validation: The means of measuring compliance should be defined and implemented including through tests of whether the cybersecurity controls are working effectively.
• Promote transparency: Policy documentation should be readily accessible and easily referenced where required. For example, by linking them to the actual control e.g. link available during system login.
• Enable feedback: Cybersecurity policies should be developed and reviewed collaboratively to help stakeholders better understand the directives and be more likely to support them.

To sum up

In today's evolving digital world, strong cybersecurity policies are essential to protecting sensitive information and maintaining organizational resilience. By creating clear, practical, and adaptable policies, organizations can better safeguard their assets while ensuring compliance with regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

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