Building the right cybersecurity team structure is extremely important for the security operations in any company. Our discussion is about developing the best team structure for a smaller service industry company. We assume that this company has almost 1000 employee. We are going to divide the team development into the steps.
First step is defining what roles must exist within your cybersecurity team structure.
A cybersecurity team needs to think like an anti-crime unit. Team members must have a holistic understanding of the latest techniques used by hackers, and the motivations behind them. Cybersecurity team members also require a deep appreciation of business. They need to think critically and possess knowledge of where the flaws might be within a business’s networks, applications, or even people – while continually challenging their understanding.
Operational cybersecurity decisions need to be made swiftly, but still must be based on information and data. Strategic decisions involving cyber security can affect the risk profile of a company for years into the future, requiring a completely different pattern of thinking to operational decisions.
After defining the roles like
CISO
Security Incident Manager
Security Engineering Team
Incident Detection and Response Team/ Cyber security Analyst
Penetration Tester
Vulnerability Management Team
Cyber Risk and Compliance Specialist
Second step is creating the best combination of talent and attitude. A service company with 1000 employee, may not require all the roles defined above as a full-time position. Especially penetration testing position can be filled as a part time position, or it can be outsourced to a third party.
Which cybersecurity roles should you outsource, and which should you keep in-house?
In-house IT professionals spend most of their time managing their network and driving new solutions for the business, leaving very little time for security – which requires its own set of niche skills. In-house cybersecurity teams require skilled people with specialized processes and tools to execute them. Few businesses have the internal staff component necessary to manage such a comprehensive cybersecurity program, nor the capital. Some of the roles listed above – such as Security Incident Managers and Penetration Testers – are highly specialized and command very high salaries, making them challenging to retain once hired.
Cybersecurity team members need to have clear lines of communication to key business executives, with standardized ways of presenting data. They need access to business support applications, analysis tools, data repositories, analysts and more. Moreover, with the continuous disruption of emerging technologies, cyber criminals never rest. Organizations need to ensure that an in-house cybersecurity specialist is provided with on-going training to keep at the forefront of new developments. One must take the cost of training into consideration and budget accordingly for this necessary expense.
Achieving cybersecurity with an internal team while maintaining costs is hard but still possible.
Third Step is maintaining the balance and creating a real team environment. Hiring many talented and skilled professionals does not mean that your organization has a great team because a team building is more than hiring process. These people need to work together and know each other very well. If the team members can cover each other, for 7×24 operations, your team is ready to fight adversaries.
Finding the best talent and attitude and creating a team is hard. In addition to these requirements, gathering your team in a geographical location makes it almost impossible therefore remote teams will become the cybersecurity system of the future.
As a result, remote security team formed by the most talented people with a great attitude is the best solution for our service company with 1000 employee.
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