4 Pillars Security Risk Assessment
Petronella’s 4-pillars security risk Assessments test your people, process and technology
Unique factors of our methodology are we test your company's people, process AND Technology. Most risk assessments only test your company's technology. We have a system called Compliance Armor Vulnerability Assessment or CAVA that we developed to test your people. Our 4 Pillars assessment is the most thorough analysis of a company. Petronella created this process back in 2002. We go through ALL 7 layers of the OSI model with a fine-toothed comb uncovering gaps others miss. Petronella analyzes EVERYTHING from your wires to your applications.
Petronella’s 4-Pillars Security Risk Assessment: Comprehensive Summary
Petronella’s 4-Pillars security risk assessment is a unique and thorough evaluation methodology designed to assess an organization’s **people, process, and technology**—a significant departure from traditional assessments that focus solely on technology. By addressing all components of an IT ecosystem, including the human element, Petronella’s approach ensures a robust defense strategy.
Key Features of the 4-Pillars Assessment
1. Compliance Armor Vulnerability Assessment (CAVA):
Petronella’s proprietary CAVA system focuses on employee security, transforming them from weak links into strong defenders.
- Techniques employed by CAVA:
- Leaderboard-driven competition for employees.
- Continuous education on cybersecurity.
- Phishing simulations and dark web monitoring.
- Quantitative analytics to assess employee security strength.
2. Full-Coverage Testing of People, Process, and Technology:
- The assessment delves deep into all aspects of an organization using the 7 layers of the OSI model:
1. Physical Layer: Hardware, wiring, and power connections.
2. Data Link Layer: Devices like switches and firewalls.
3. Network Layer: Routers, IP addressing, and firewall rules.
4. Transport Layer: Flow control, ports, and encryption methods.
5. Session Layer: Protocols managing network connections.
6. Presentation Layer: Data encryption and compression.
7. Application Layer: Software applications and user interfaces.
Petronella reviews everything from wires to applications, uncovering security gaps that others miss, and provides detailed insights into these layers for a complete understanding of vulnerabilities.
3. Real-World Threat Expertise:
- The assessment emphasizes the importance of addressing human factors, recognizing that most vulnerabilities come from employee actions.
- PTG’s Essential Security Assessment provides an in-depth analysis, allowing businesses to understand their highest-risk vulnerabilities, potential attack points, and the adequacy of their existing defenses.
4. Identification of Critical Business Risks:
- PTG’s assessment addresses four key areas, or “pillars,” that are often overlooked in daily business operations:
- Security: Potential gaps in defense mechanisms.
- Uptime: How system failures could affect business operations.
- Application Issues: Ensuring software and processes run smoothly.
- Collaboration Constraints: Improving internal communications to mitigate risks.
Unique Problems Addressed by the Assessment
1. Lack of Response Preparedness: Businesses often face extended downtimes due to inadequate problem-solving processes. The assessment provides actionable solutions to reduce response times.
2. Poor Communication and Service: Inefficient IT communication can cause further delays and risks. Petronella’s assessment identifies these communication gaps and outlines better protocols.
3. Recurring Problems: Reactive IT strategies result in constant issues. The assessment shifts focus toward a proactive approach, preventing future problems.
Areas of Highest Opportunity (AOHOs):
Petronella identifies five to ten AOHOs, where businesses can save the most time and money by making improvements. Common AOHOs include:
- Neglected firewalls and devices: Failure to update hardware and software leads to reduced system security.
- Inadequate data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategies: Most businesses lack sufficient policies, procedures, security controls and restoration simulations or tabletop exercises.
- Cybersecurity challenges: Outdated antivirus, insufficient network monitoring, and inadequate firewall protection are common issues.
- Wiring and power protection issues: These can lead to crashes and data corruption.
Measurable Results and Benefits:
- Small businesses may expect 25-200% increases in productivity and a 27% reduction in downtime. Larger businesses can see even greater improvements.
What’s Involved in the Assessment:
The assessment covers:
- Cybersecurity strategy, compliance, and regulatory mandates.
- Hardware and software integrity (firewalls, switches, etc.).
- System security planning, disaster recovery, and backup strategies.
- Full review of infrastructure based on the 7 layers of the OSI model.
The result is a complete “battle plan” that addresses immediate vulnerabilities and long-term security needs, including virus scans, security updates, network performance evaluations, and more.
Petronella’s 4-Pillars Security Risk Assessment is a powerful tool that helps organizations strengthen their overall IT security posture by addressing not just technology but also the human element. With a combination of advanced methodologies and practical insights, it enables businesses to identify critical vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and achieve significant cost and time savings.
Compliance Armor™ Vulnerability Assessment (CAVA)
PTG’s CAVA provides unparalleled insight into an organization's first layer of defense, their employees, by utilizing these proven techniques:
- Leader board-led competition
- Continuous education
- Quantitative analytics
- Get insight into the security strength of each employee
PTG’s CAVA Score combines a multitude of metrics to transform end-user education into an analytical engine. CAVA highlights the importance of dark web monitoring, simulated phishing, and vital education, to help your client's security awareness.
The visually engaging portal encourages employees to compete with an interactive leaderboard. Suggested steps to improve their PTG CAVA Scores gives employees tips and reminders on how to keep their score on the rise.
Management can watch as you transform their weakest links into their strongest defenses by educating, testing, and phishing their employees.
Understanding real world threats is our expertise. Most vulnerability assessments focus on your web application and your network, but these are not always the biggest threats to your security.
The benefit of PTG’s Essential Security Assessment is increased security awareness for your organization. It provides you with in-depth, actionable reporting and analysis to facilitate your planning and strategies, and provides practical solutions to your security deficiencies:
- You will have a clear understanding of the vulnerabilities of your systems and where you are most likely to experience attacks.
- You will see with little doubt whether your existing defenses are adequate for protecting your organization against viable attacks.
- Your high-risk vulnerabilities will be exposed.
- The knowledge gained will help both management and staff to see the “Security Reality.” It will dispel myths commonly held by organizations with internally mentioned comments like:
- "It couldn't happen to us."
- "We don't have anything worth taking anyway."
- "Our systems are adequately protected by our firewalls."
A risk assessment takes the gaps uncovered and explains what could happen if your weaknesses are exploited by cybercriminals, as opposed to the good guys.
Why Should You Conduct a PTG 4 Pillars Risk Assessment?
Most businesses we work with tell us they don't have time to really assess the risks present in their IT systems and personnel. They don’t have time to assess:
- Security
- Uptime
- Applications Issues
- Collaboration Constraints
However, an in-depth analysis of these “Four Pillars” can often uncover factors that will save you thousands of dollars. What we find can help you avoid penalties, increase efficiency, minimize risk of system failure, and avoid costly downtime.
Problem #1: Lack of Response.
When your network goes down or is experiencing a problem, it brings your entire firm to a screeching halt. With the fast pace of business today, you can't afford to wait. Our assessment will identify potential ‘response issues’ and outline a plan for solving them.
Problem #2: Poor Communication and Service.
Significant risks and losses can be mitigated with proper communication procedures. Many business owners are unsatisfied with the ad hoc and unprofessional communication procedures as they relate to their IT systems. Our assessment will uncover communication challenges and map a process for streamlining communication.
Problem #3: Recurrence of Common Problems.
Many business owners tell us that there is always something that needs to be fixed. Once one problem is solved, two more arise. This happens when your IT strategy is reactive rather than proactive. Our assessment will identify reactive issues that are costing you money and outline a proactive plan for identifying and preventing potential problems BEFORE they arise.
What Improvements Can You Expect?
Our metrics show, small businesses can expect…
- 25-200% increase in productivity
- 27% reduction in downtime and lost hours
…while larger businesses can often double these results.
What’s Involved?
First, we review your company’s strategy, security, computers, and servers.
We analyze your:
- Cybersecurity
- System Security Plan (SSP)
- Compliance / Regulatory Mandates
- Policies and Procedures
- Security Controls
- MTBF (or mean time between failure).
- Backup Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
- Data backup strategy
- Disaster recovery strategy
- Business Continuity Plan
- Wiring and power connections
- Hardware (Firewalls, Switches, firmware, etc.), software, apps, and cabling
- We leverage the 7 layers of the OSI Model
Then we use this data to determine your five to ten AOHOs – Areas of Highest Opportunity.
These are your areas of “lowest hanging fruit.” Areas that, if they are addressed promptly, can return the largest savings in time and money.
These are your areas of “lowest hanging fruit.” Areas that, if they are addressed promptly, can return the largest savings in time and money.
Here are some of the most common AOHOs we uncover with our assessment…
- Neglected firewalls, printers, computers, neglected servers – software updates come out every week and many small businesses fail to install them on all devices. This can significantly shorten your MTBF and reduce your system security. Systems that are not maintained regularly overheat and crash. If you’re not on top of the hard drive storage, it WILL fill up and run out of space. Same thing with a server.
- Data backup & disaster recovery issues – most companies do not have an adequate backup and recovery strategy. Our assessment will show how to update your procedures to avoid massive data loss.
- Cybersecurity challenges – The most common issues we uncover are inadequate firewall protection, Lack of visibility at the network layer with new technology such as XDR, Insufficient antivirus. Not leveraging EDR technology powered by AI, Risk of ransomware, Exfiltration, Poor (or no) security update strategy, Little-to-no network monitoring. We’ll outline a full security strategy to lock down your systems and data.
- Wiring problems – Incorrect wiring can crash a network. We find the issues and show you how to fix them quickly.
- Improper power protection. Improper power protection can lead to data loss and corruption. We look at 9 different possible power protection problems that can drive your system to failure.
- Potential cost saving opportunities – PTG is partnered with leading “master service agents” that can unlock the best possible pricing on Cybersecurity solutions, VOIP Phone Solutions, Internet services, hardware and software saving our clients thousands.
Plus, we will…
- identify any Cyber or Infosec warning signs that currently exist in your IT environment
- map out a solution to address those warning signs
- provide you with a “battle plan” for a solution that will assist in your company's business goals and catch any problems before they become disasters
- Diagnose any ongoing problems or concerns you have with the cybersecurity of your network.
- Scan for hidden viruses, spyware and loopholes in your network security that could allow hackers and other cybercriminals to access your confidential information.
- Check your company’s system backups to make sure they are not corrupted and can be recovered in case of an emergency.
- Review your network configuration and peripheral devices to ensure that you are getting the maximum performance and speed from your machines.
- Review your server logs to look for looming problems or conflicts that can cause unexpected downtime.
- Check that all security updates and patches are in place.
Our Goal: Simplify Your IT Strategy
We determine where you should focus your resources FIRST that has the most impact to your bottom line.
We compare your Four Pillars to industry benchmarks so you can see how your company ranks against competitors in your industry.
Call 919-601-1601 To Schedule Your 4 Pillars Security Risk Assessment Today!
