The top 5 cyber security challenges for logistics companies - Flipbook - Page 12
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Measuring the effectiveness of cyber security measures
Conclusion
The logistics industry is, quite literally, the backbone of the world economy. Supply chain disruption as a result of a cyber breach
Almost without exception the hardest part of managing an organisations cyber risk is measuring how well the controls you have put in
harms not only the parties directly affected, but has a ripple effect on us all. You only have to consider the role that shipping, air and
place are working to protect your online assets. All too often it’s extremely difficult to know whether you’re getting any value from the
road freight services have played in the worldwide Covid-19 vaccination effort to get a sense of the devastating effect that service
investments you’ve made. There is no real metric by which you can measure whether your level of cyber risk exposure is higher or
interruptions or interference could have.
lower than it was the week before.
Equally it is important to understand that what may seem like an overwhelming – not to mention expensive – undertaking doesn’t
That isn’t to say that cyber security solutions don’t produce data, alerts and reports on what is happening within your technology
have to be complex at all. The scale of the repercussions of a cyber security breach is not proportional to the size of the mountain that
estate. Most do, but data is useless without insight and context. Not only that, but technology is only one piece of the cyber security
has to be climbed to solve it.
puzzle. Process – in the form of recognised information security standards like Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 – and cyber safety
training and awareness are equally important. As it stands today, there are very few solutions capable of measuring those three
Like any sophisticated problem, managing cyber risk needs to be broken down into its component parts with each one addressed in
elements and aggregating the performance of each into a single measure of cyber security effectiveness.
turn. Identifying what you’re trying to protect and what you want to protect it from is one of the first things you need to do. Once you
The reporting from any solution or service should address the
needs of both technical and non-technical executives, with only the
level of detail they require. Ideally it will include a summary of each
pillar of a cyber security defence – process, people and technology
– and give recommended actions for improvement. For example,
subscribers to our managed cyber security service receive a
monthly stress core, which gives a snapshot of their cyber risk
profile on a scale of 0 – 100, alongside an analysis of how that
score was reached and recommendations to improve it.
have done that, you can decide on the best way to approach it.
A growing number of logistics companies are turning to managed cyber security providers to help them combat the growing number
of cyber threats and challenges associated with managing cyber risk. An increasing reliance on technology, the “just in time” nature of
operations and entrance of new, digital-first players into the market has convinced many of them that cyber security is an issue that
must be dealt with appropriately, but that they themselves don’t necessarily have the in-house expertise or deep enough pockets to
do it.