The Role of Maturity Assessments in Tracking Compliance
Maturity assessments can show an agency where it is on the path from its current cybersecurity status to full compliance — and after that, let an agency know that it remains compliant in a changing regulatory and cybersecurity environment.
They can also help an agency sort priorities. If the agency is short of what it must do to comply with a pending mandate or deadline, that can move to the top of the work list, for example. Or, if an agency has missed or unwittingly skipped steps along the way, that can be remediated.
These assessments are especially valuable when creating a zero-trust environment. Zero trust, as most agencies know by now, does not come fully formed in a commercial, off-the-shelf box. It’s not one tool or product — it’s a way of doing things.
EXPLORE: How agencies have been implementing zero-trust measures.
That means a security assessment looks not only at the technology involved in creating the environment, but also at the processes and procedures that keep it running.
It looks at the people working on cybersecurity. Are they following all procedures correctly? Are they up to date on changes to the guiding framework? Do they have enough training in how this new environment works?
Once the assessment is complete, an agency will have the information it needs to steer back onto the correct path or to keep moving along to its final goal. It’s the essential roadmap for the long journey to a secure cyber environment.