The Holistic Cybersecurity Assessment: A CDG Differentiator

What is a security assessment?

A security assessment is the cornerstone of any cybersecurity program.

A cybersecurity assessment is a comprehensive, panoramic review of an organization’s entire landscape that might be vulnerable to breach. Think of it as an MRI for your organization, a flashlight, looking into the dark crannies and crevices. A full forensic review of an organization’s cloud network and/or current security controls to shine a light on any gaps or vulnerabilities that bad actors can use to infiltrate a system, or already have.

Depending on the type of assessment, this landscape can include:

• Cloud and on-prem endpoints
• IT and data assets 
• Existing security policies, procedures, and controls 
• Customer and third-party vendor information
• Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
• Compliance obligations and risk management

In short, a cybersecurity assessment briefs an organization on possible entries for attack, anything already lurking in the system, the efficacy of existing security tools and procedures, and evaluates compliance with current and upcoming security regulations.

Ok. So, you might be wondering ― what does that entail exactly?

The holistic approach to security assessments

Security Assessment, Risk Assessment, Threat Assessment, Vulnerability Assessment, Compliance Assessment, Ransomware Readiness Assessment ― what is the difference? Which one do I need? Do I need more than one?

Don’t worry about that. Let our team of cybersecurity experts help. It’s part of the process.
By getting first-hand information and buy-in from all parts of your organization, we can custom-tailor the assessment to address your specific risk areas and needs.

Our team of cybersecurity experts uses a variety of strategies, including evaluating overall security hygiene, reducing attack surface area, and aligning your security with business objectives.

Across departments and level by level, CDG produces a comprehensive security assessment designed to give your company a clear roadmap to create a security program for your organization to increase its maturity and value.

Our assessment’s review of your environment for security vulnerabilities enables your team to understand where to focus your security efforts. These recommendations are more than just “here is a problem to fix,” they include priority levels, time estimations, tool options, and recommendations for team augmentation, if needed.

A good cybersecurity risk assessment should be whole and comprehensive. It should do more than just alert you to current problems with network security. It should also help predict possible outcomes if issues are not addressed as well as provide solutions to take action on.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” — by shining a light in the dark corners of your environment we find gaps and vulnerabilities before the bad guys do.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to get the ball rolling with a cybersecurity assessment for your organization, our team of humans can help!

Founded in 2016 by CEO Lou Rabon, CDG was designed to address the growing demand for experienced cybersecurity consulting for innovative cloud-native and cloud-reliant organizations. Get in touch, and see what results are possible for your organization.

The personal approach to security assessments

CDG’s methods for reviewing these controls include interviews, vulnerability scans, OSINT gathering, and cloud infrastructure assessments, ensuring your organization aligns with industry-recognized cybersecurity frameworks.

There are many methods for a cybersecurity assessment, depending on budget, the type and purpose of the assessment, and how in-depth.

Often, organizations might be given a blanket online questionnaire, be placed into a software program, run through an algorithm, and pigeonholed into generalized next-step solutions based on a template.

Not to bad mouth security questionnaires, tools, templates, algorithms, and software. We certainly use them for our security assessments, but they are not the be-all and end-all of our evaluations.

Instead of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated cookie-cutter solutions, CDG promotes a holistic and personal approach to cybersecurity, using the innovation of technology with a team of cybersecurity expert humans at the helm, getting our hands dirty.

Our process goes beyond questionnaires and includes personal interviews and not just of your IT team. We talk to human resources (HR), legal, operations, sales, and executives to get an aggregate bird’s-eye view of your organization. In this way, we get the main concerns from all major stakeholders.