What Is Gap Analysis in Cyber Security? Process, Best Practices & Pitfalls

Cybersecurity gap analysis is a detailed process that evaluates your organization’s security posture and framework. This helps in identifying areas that need improvement for security and risk management. The essential goal of security assessment is to explore potential threats and vulnerabilities that can cause serious harm in the future. The assessment also measures whether the existing security measures are sufficient to mitigate threats and risks.

As per the Deloitte Center for Controllership Poll, nearly 48.8% of C-Suite and top executives reported that the size and number of cyber events targeting organizations’ financial and accounting data continue to increase. Every organization must create cyber teams to protect the data and information from hackers. The malicious attacks leverage system vulnerabilities to target and extract nearly any obtainable data. 

In this blog post, we will explore the importance of gap analysis, which is integral to ensuring cybersecurity. 

Why Conduct a Cybersecurity Gap Analysis?

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An IBM report showed that the cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million, which is a 15% increase in just 3 years. Investing in cybersecurity is much cheaper than recovering from the damages caused by cyber events.

A gap analysis in cybersecurity will enable organizations to understand organizational risk and their capability to bounce back after a cyber attack. Some of the reasons why gap analysis is important are:

• Understand the security gaps in the security posture
• Identify strategies to fix security gaps
• Strengthen security defenses
• Ensure a robust cyber security posture
• Strengthen security policies and processes
• Upgrade security threat landscape 
• Identify, mitigate, and patch security vulnerabilities and threats
• Ensure compliance with global and local cybersecurity requirements  

Preparation for Gap Analysis

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Conducting the gap analysis correctly is necessary to identify security risks and vulnerabilities in the organization. It will help identify weak credentials, outdated software, insider threats, malware, etc., that can threaten IT security. 

By reducing these gaps, organizations can minimize the chances of a data breach. The crucial steps for conducting gap analysis are:

1. Establish Security Goals 

The first step to gap analysis is identifying the needs of the security framework. The common standard is the ISO/IEC – 27002 framework, which provides best practices on information security management, including access control, assessment, change management, physical security, etc. 

A framework helps in comparing existing security and network policies against the guidelines. Understanding the framework will help in creating security objectives for the assessment. 

2. Assemble a Skilled Team

For gap analysis, you must evaluate staff and processes to stay on track and mitigate evolving security threats. This involves creating a skilled cybersecurity team with certified and experienced professionals. 

A Certified Information Systems Security Officer (CISSO) trained by CCS Learning Academy will have the knowledge to run an INFOSEC team effectively. It is crucial to establish a cybersecurity culture defining best practices. 

3. Gather Necessary Documentation 

Gather data and documentation to evaluate your existing security program. The gap analysis team will ensure the security posture operates with the technical infrastructure. The team will compare existing operations with best practice standards per the framework. 

It will help the team to assess how the security posture matches up with successful and proven strategies. Data and documentation will help create a picture of the technical environment and security measures that are currently in use. 

Cybersecurity Gap Analysis Process

The cybersecurity gap analysis will get your organization’s leaders to think about security policy and culture to protect the IT environment against major and minor cyber threats. 

It will help create a clear road map with action plans to ensure that cybersecurity is central in determining how the IT and infrastructure architecture will be taken forward. 

The exact gap assessment process varies based on the regulatory framework. However, the overall strategy involves the following steps:

Identifying Assets and Data

Reviewing current security posture involves identifying assets and data in the IT architecture and environment. The information assets, key stakeholders, and business owners must review the security posture comprehensively. The data and assets necessary are also defined by the security framework and standard used for gap analysis. Apart from network architecture and configuration documentation, documents related to incident response plans and logs are also gathered. 

Threat Assessment and Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning and threat assessment are crucial in gap analysis to identify weaknesses compared to industry security standards. In this step, security analysts will conduct audits of network infrastructure, centralized device management platforms, hardware, and other cloud services. Different types of threat assessment will be carried out to test the effectiveness of security processes, procedures, and protocols. 

Regulatory and Compliance Analysis

Organizations must also ensure that they are compliant with cybersecurity standards and procedures. The gap analysis will also check for regulatory compliance to protect the infrastructure and IT environment. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of the security posture will directly give a picture of the compliance maturity of the organization. This analysis will help in creating new security strategies that follow compliance requirements. 

Uses of Gap Identification

Gap identification during gap analysis provides a deeper insight into the gap between the current and desired security states. The vulnerability scanning and threat assessment results are analyzed to derive data analytics on the security posture. 

It will help in creating a threat matrix to document the findings. Security analysts often refer to this document and update it regularly when they take risk mitigation actions. 

Apart from identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities, the document will also contain information on the impact of the threat and possible remedial measures that can be taken. 

Certified CompTIA+ cybersecurity analysts will be able to map the results of gap analysis to chosen cybersecurity frameworks. This step is crucial to determine the remediation plan and roadmap enabling organizations to achieve the desired security state. 

Prioritizing and Risk Assessment

The application, IT system, and network environment always have security vulnerabilities and threats that the system administrators are unaware of. The gaps identified in the security posture can be patched only based on the risk involved. After analysis, the security auditors must prioritize gaps based on the impact and likelihood of the threats. 

While steps can be taken to mitigate every risk, the process can be constructed only if the threats are accurately prioritized. After a thorough risk assessment, the cybersecurity team can establish risk mitigation goals to ensure that high-risk threats are remediated first. 

Developing a Remediation Plan

The core purpose of gap analysis is to identify and improve the organization’s security posture. This is possible only when a clear-cut remediation plan is formed based on prioritized risks. A comprehensive action plan is needed to mitigate security risks and threats. 

The security analyst will also assign responsibility and accountability based on the remediation actions. They also set timelines and milestones to ensure appropriate security actions are taken within the timeframe. 

Implementation of Security Measures

Gap analysis is necessary to implement a proactive cybersecurity strategy. Rather than waiting for a threat to happen, the gap analysis will identify vulnerabilities that can result in security threats. Then, proactive security measures are implemented to patch the vulnerabilities.

Essentially, gap analysis in cybersecurity attempts to find security loopholes before any hacker gets access to them. Different types of patch management modules are implemented to plug security vulnerabilities based on their risk profile. 

Once security measures are implemented, the staff must also be trained to improve their individual security processes. This will help businesses to ensure that the number of security weak links in the environment is effectively reduced. 

Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation 

Security gap analysis is not a one-step process. New vulnerabilities will also become available as the IT and infrastructure environment changes. By ensuring an ongoing gap analysis process, organizations can ensure that they can identify and plug new security vulnerabilities and threats. Continuous and periodic security audits are an essential part of monitoring cybersecurity measures. 

The gap analysis process must also be updated and adjusted based on the organization-wide security changes. When the security posture of the enterprise environment changes, it must be updated in the threat matrix. 

Security audits must conduct periodic vulnerability scanning and risk assessment to ensure the cybersecurity strategy is updated to combat new and upcoming threats. 

Reporting and Documentation 

Creating and maintaining detailed gap analysis reports is crucial for any organization that wants to improve its cybersecurity maturity. The core concept of agile security is revamping security measures based on the threat environment. 

The gap analysis reports must be accessible to all stakeholders and clearly explain accountability for everyone on the team. 

The document must also be constantly updated to reflect new changes in the security posture. The report should contain prioritized security gaps and measures to overcome the security threats. 

This report will help adhere to the security framework standards and enable the organization to create a roadmap to achieve organizational security goals. 

Best Practices for Cybersecurity Gap Analysis

The cybersecurity gap analysis varies based on organizational goals, existing security state, and desired cybersecurity maturity. Some of the best practices are:

Follow Established Cybersecurity Frameworks

The security frameworks such as NIST, ISO 27001, and CIS Controls provide a good reference for security analysis. The structured approach of the framework is useful in streamlining security assessment and risk management. 

Involve All Stakeholders

Multiple stakeholders, such as security personnel, security executives, IT teams, finance, legal, and compliance departments, must participate in the gap analysis process. A comprehensive perspective will help the security auditors complete the gap analysis and generate reports accessible to all the members of the organization.

Prioritize Gaps to Optimize Resource Allocation

Not all security gaps are equally important. The security auditor must prioritize security gaps based on their impact level. Rescores must be allocated to resolve high-impact gaps to strengthen security, compliance, and business operations. 

Incorporate Automation 

Depending on the organizational structure, a detailed security gap analysis may take months, especially when the enterprise handles sensitive financial data. Employing automation tools for vulnerability scanning and threat assessment will streamline the auditing operations and enable detailed report generation. 

Update Assessments

As the vulnerabilities and cyber threats evolve, create a schedule for periodic gap assessments and security reviews. This will ensure that the organization’s security posture remains current, reflecting the changes in the threat landscape. 

Hire External Auditors

When external auditors perform a thorough gap assessment, it can provide valuable insights into the existing security structure of the organization. The independent assessment, with the cooperation of your organizational team, will create an unbiased report that will shed light on known and unknown security vulnerabilities. 

Increase Awareness with Employee Training

An organization’s security posture is only as strong as the weakest link. Cybersecurity training will enable organizations to educate and empower employees to implement security practices in their day-to-day business operations. Security threats due to phishing attacks, human error, or improper data handling can be minimized when the staff are educated about cybersecurity.

Common Challenges and Pitfalls

Gap analysis in cybersecurity is an expensive and time-consuming process. Failure to conduct a gap analysis will result in data breaches, direct losses, damages, legal issues, or penalties. It will also affect the availability of systems and data. 

However, some of the common challenges in conducting gap analysis are:

• Limited resources, such as lack of budget, staff, and technology 
• Management and employees may resist making changes for security improvement
• Failure to prioritize gaps accurately
• Misinterpretation of gap analysis reports
• Complex and interconnected IT environments pose challenges in analyzing security gaps
• Confusion caused by industry regulations and data protection laws
• Constantly evolving threat landscape that introduces new security threats daily
• Vendor and third-party risks for software and services

Conclusion 

The evaluation of sophisticated cybercriminals results in cybersecurity measures becoming obsolete. The global annual cost of cybercrimes and damages caused will reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. More and more small businesses are becoming easy targets for cybercriminals. Organizations should adopt a cybersecurity strategy developed using a risk-based approach. 

The cybersecurity gap analysis is the first step to creating a protective defense against modern cyber threats. The security measures must continuously be updated and adapted to cope with the increasing threat landscape. Organizations can bolster their resilience with robust security measures based on the insights gained from gap analysis reports. 

Do you want to pursue a career in the evolving cybersecurity industry? CCS Learning Academy provides courses such as CompTIA+ Cybersecurity Analyst, Certified Information Systems Security Officer (CISSO), and more. You can become a security auditor, enabling organizations to identify gaps and implement proactive security measures. 

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