How do businesses improve cyber resilience over time?
Cyber resilience represents an organisation’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber threats while maintaining business operations. Strengthening this capability involves implementing a methodical approach that combines:
- Technological solutions
- Employee training
- Strategic planning
Organisations typically progress through maturity stages, gradually enhancing their security controls, response protocols, and recovery mechanisms. This evolutionary process requires consistent investment, leadership commitment, and alignment with business objectives.
Organisations facing rising cyber threats and regulatory pressures like NIS2 and DORA need structured frameworks to guide their resilience journey. Automated security validation tools play a critical role in identifying vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, helping businesses protect their data assets and maintain operational continuity.
What are the 5 pillars of cyber resilience?
Cyber resilience frameworks typically encompass five fundamental components that collectively create a comprehensive security posture. These pillars form the foundation for systematic improvement and provide a structured approach to enhancing security capabilities.
| Pillar | Description |
|---|---|
| Identify | Comprehensive asset inventory, risk assessment, and threat modelling. Organisations must understand what they’re protecting, including both tangible assets and data repositories. This includes maintaining updated asset registers and determining critical systems that require enhanced protection measures. |
| Protect | Implementing security controls to safeguard systems and data forms the protective layer. This includes access management, network segmentation, endpoint protection, and employee training. Protection strategies should be proportional to identified risks and provide appropriate security without impeding business operations. |
| Detect | Monitoring systems and networks to identify potential security incidents is essential for timely response. Detection capabilities include intrusion detection systems, security monitoring, and continuous security validation mechanisms that alert security teams to suspicious activities. |
| Respond | Establishing incident response protocols enables swift action when threats are detected. This includes communication plans, containment strategies, and remediation procedures that minimise impact. Regular testing of these procedures through simulations ensures teams are prepared for actual incidents. |
| Recover | Developing backup systems and restoration procedures helps organisations return to normal operations after incidents. Recovery capabilities include disaster recovery planning, data backup mechanisms, and business continuity preparations that maintain essential functions. |
Organisations at different maturity levels implement these pillars with varying degrees of sophistication. Beginners might focus on basic protections and rudimentary detection, while advanced organisations integrate threat intelligence into automated defensive measures and implement security controls validation to verify effectiveness.
How do you measure cyber resilience maturity?
Assessing cyber resilience requires structured evaluation frameworks that provide objective measurements of security capabilities. These assessments help organisations understand their current position and identify improvement opportunities.
Standardised frameworks for measurement:
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides maturity indicators across the five functions (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover), allowing organisations to assess their implementation level from Partial to Adaptive.
- MITRE ATT&CK Framework enables evaluation against known adversary techniques, helping security teams understand their defensive coverage against specific threat scenarios.
- ISO 27001 offers a comprehensive assessment methodology for information security management systems, with clear controls that can be measured for implementation quality.
Automated security validation platforms provide quantifiable measurements of defence effectiveness by simulating realistic attack techniques. These tools can identify common vulnerabilities in endpoint devices and validate security controls against the MITRE ATT&CK framework, providing objective evidence of resilience improvements over time.
What technologies best support cyber resilience improvement?
Technology plays a fundamental role in strengthening cyber resilience capabilities. Several categories of security tools provide essential protective, detective, and responsive capabilities:
| Technology | Function |
|---|---|
| Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) | Centralise log collection and analysis, providing visibility across the organisation’s technology landscape. These platforms correlate security events to identify potential incidents and support both detection and response activities. |
| Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) | Monitor endpoint devices for suspicious activities, blocking malicious actions and providing detailed forensic information about potential compromises. |
| Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) | Enhance incident response through workflow automation, helping security teams manage alerts more efficiently and respond to threats faster. |
| Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) | Validate security controls by simulating realistic attack techniques without disrupting business operations. These platforms identify security gaps and provide remediation guidance based on test results. |
| Backup and Recovery Solutions | Provide the foundation for resilience by ensuring data can be restored after incidents, supporting business continuity during and after security events. |
Organisations should select technologies that address their specific risk profile and integrate with existing systems. Solutions that provide actionable insights rather than simply generating alerts help security teams prioritise improvements effectively. Automated security validation platforms are particularly valuable as they provide objective evidence of defensive capabilities against real-world attack techniques.
Essential cyber resilience insights for business leaders
Building cyber resilience requires strategic commitment and continuous improvement. Business leaders should consider several key principles when guiding their organisations’ security development:
Organisations should consider their industry context when developing resilience strategies. Regulated sectors like financial services and critical infrastructure face specific compliance requirements, while all businesses benefit from adopting threat-informed defence approaches based on frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK.
By focusing on continuous improvement rather than perfect security, organisations can build meaningful resilience capabilities that evolve with changing threats and business requirements. Regular testing, measurement, and adaptation ensure security controls remain effective against emerging risks while supporting business operations.
If you’re interested in learning more, contact our expert team today.
