Organizations spend considerable money on cyber security tools, but technology alone cannot give any organization all the protection it needs from cybercrimes. Cybersecurity requires people, process and technology to be effective. A Written Information Security Program (WISP) along with a set of policies and procedures designed to align people, process and technology to enhance an organization’s cybersecurity posture.
Benefits of a Written Information Security Program (WISP)
- Provides an action plan in the event of a security incident, enabling protection for organizations and clients
- Allows organizations to quickly resume normal business operations should a cyber event occur
- Enables cyber ready and cyber resilient organizations
- Develops a culture of cyber awareness in an organization
- Identifies vulnerabilities in an organization's data protection processes throughout its lifetime
- Mitigates, monitors, and responds to controls placed to address vulnerabilities
- Sets easily implementable policies and procedures that support cybersecurity
- Identifies responsibilities for streamlined cyber management
- Identifies information that needs to be protected
- Identifies third party and partner risks
- Assures customers that their data is managed securely, and assures business partners their suppliers are taking cybersecurity seriously
Why should you invest in an information security program
- Federal and State laws require that an organization has an information security program
- Massachusetts (MA) requires WISP if your organization uses MA residents; personally identifiable information (PII), regardless of where the organization is located
- Federal law, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, requires professional tax preparers to create and maintain a WISP
- Cyber insurance carriers require policy holder to have a current WISP
- Customers and business partners may require their service providers to have a WISP