On July 26, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its final rule on Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure.
Having considered more than 150 comment letters from issuers, investors, and other parties, the revisions put forward in this rule have simplified disclosure requirements in many ways. The revisions also make organizations directly accountable for providing information critical about how they manage cyber risks. With new disclosure requirements scheduled to take effect in mid-December, organizations don’t have much time to confirm compliance plans.
One of the more notable aspects of the new SEC rule is a change that requires companies to disclose material breaches within four business days of determining a breach has occurred. To meet this requirement, an organization must have the appropriate systems in place to do so. Today, many organizations are not ready to disclose cybersecurity information to the extent that the new rule requires. If you are part of one of these organizations, now is the time to figure out what you need to do to ensure your IGA solution supports a cybersecurity program that both satisfies new disclosure requirements and withstands stakeholder scrutiny without taking on additional risk.
The US SEC is but one agency that has built and continues to optimize cybersecurity, risk management, governance, and incident disclosure rules. Regardless of what industry you are in or in which countries or regions you do business, you will most likely be subjected to rules endemic to your specific industries or geographic locations. In this post, we’ll explain how to use a modern identity management and governance (IGA) solution to create a foundation that stops security threats upfront and dramatically reduces the number and severity of incidents that you must disclose to be compliant with any governing body, anywhere in the world.
The hallmark of a mature security model is a close alignment with the directives of the governing bodies that regulate them. They drive accountability for cybersecurity into their businesses, embed risks and controls in processes and technology, and provide extensive leadership reporting on the effectiveness of their efforts. With these pillars in place, responding to new disclosure requirements from their governing entities is a straightforward and minimally disruptive effort. For less mature organizations that are not synched as well, responding to changes is more time-consuming and costly.
The role of a modern identify management and governance (IGA) solution
As the number, severity, and cost of security breach incidents continue to rise, stakeholders are demanding transparency from the organizations in which they have placed their resources and trust. Industry- and geography-specific regulatory frameworks are most frequently tasked with ensuring organizations meet these demands. Responding to these changes requires coordination among an organization’s security, finance, risk, and legal teams, and key executives. Creating and maintaining an effective and dynamic modern identity management and governance (IGA) solution is an essential first step toward making it simpler and less costly for your cybersecurity strategy to satisfy regulatory compliance requirements because it gets your organization in front of the most common attack vectors.
Insider threats present significant compliance challenges
Egress’ Insider Data Breach Survey in 2021 revealed that 94% of organizations experienced a data breach caused by an insider in the prior 12 months. The survey findings also show that almost three-quarters (74 percent) of organizations were breached because of employees breaking security rules, and 73 percent were the victim of phishing attacks. In years of working with customers to optimize their IGA solutions we have learned that more frequently than not, attackers do not break into IT infrastructures, they log in. Once inside, hackers can either immediately or over an extended period take the data they want. This can wreak havoc with your organization’s compliance reporting responsibilities.
Identity security breach management drives organizational maturity
One of the most important things a modern IGA solution can help with is enabling emergency lockout on identities to ensure there is no activity on the accounts that this identity has access to. When there is suspicion that a user’s identity has been compromised, the IGA solution can automatically lock out a potential attacker from doing any more network reconnaissance, stealing or corrupting data, or making systems unusable. This is the most straightforward benefit of identity security breach management. Modern IGA automates this process and frees up more time for employees, managers, and business system owners to deal with more value-adding work.
Onboard a modern IGA solution in your organization in as little as 12 weeks
Omada Identity Cloud delivers the highest governance and audit capabilities in the industry with comprehensive audit and risk management features. Get granular, automated, and intelligent controls for the enforcement of rules and policies. You also get modern access automation, reconciliation, and reporting capabilities, ensuring you have full oversight of access rights. This is a completely configurable solution that requires no coding. Omada’s standardized implementation approach and knowledge transfer enables deployment in as little as 12 weeks, ensuring the shortest time to value. See for yourself
