Will you soon be affected by the new cybersecurity directive NIS2? Good, because this is a unique business opportunity. If you take your cybersecurity and digital resilience to the next level, this will result in other less obvious benefits. Just think of higher customer satisfaction, new automation and innovation opportunities and a higher level of trust in the organisation.
The many benefits of NIS2 compliance
As if cybersecurity is not challenging enough due to increasing threats and complexity, NIS2 compliance will soon come on top of that. Sure, the risk of millions in fines is not a pleasant prospect. But good to realise: achieving compliance is not only something you do for the regulator, but also and especially for your own organisation. After all, it brings numerous benefits.
#1 Digital security and resilience
Depending on your maturity level, you need to establish a framework and policies, implement several technical and organisational issues and train your employees.
Higher cybersecurity levels within various domains also make your organisation more resilient. That means you will be able to better minimise or prevent the harmful effects caused by cyber incidents. If you take proactive measures to prevent data breaches or other security incidents, you can avoid significant costs associated with cyber incidents.
#2 Business continuity
With security and resilience, you significantly reduce the likelihood of your operations being interrupted. By improving operational stability and reducing downtime, you benefit from greater productivity and customer satisfaction, among other things. Do you perform proactive and periodic risk analyses and implement appropriate additional security measures based on the results? Then you will also boost your risk management.
#3 Trust and reputation
Hacks, data breaches, downtime: all of these are extremely bad for the reputation of - and trust in - your organisation. When you have your cybersecurity issues in order, you can more easily achieve the ISO27001 information security standard. The CCB has confirmed that organisations that are ISO-certified enjoy a presumption of conformity. What does this mean for our customers? They are doing business with a company that has had its services certified. As a result, they can also enjoy this "presumption". In other words, we can bring substantiated evidence that our approach significantly reduces the risks of a cyber-attack, that high fines can thus be avoided, and that this is supported by the CCB.
# 4 Innovation opportunities
If you are NIS2-compliant, you already have a stable and secure digital base. This makes it easier for you to implement or develop new technologies. This allows you to shorten the time-to-market of new digital solutions, make business processes more efficient and increase customer satisfaction.
#5 Digital employee experience
A stable and secure base is also a great starting point for improving the digital employee experience (DEX). This is all about your employees' experiences with all the technologies they need for their work. Think, for example, about allowing your own devices (bring your own device), adding IoT devices to increase comfort in the company building or optimising the modern workplace by enabling single sign-on, for example.
#6 Automate
The secure and stable foundation also makes it easier and faster to automate processes, especially in cybersecurity. Examples include:
- incident detection and response;
- patch management;
- generating compliance reports.
But we also see automation opportunities outside the security domain using AI, such as automating repetitive tasks like onboarding, invoice processing and inventory management.
#7 Competitive advantage in the supply chain
Do you provide - or plan to provide - many services to companies that have to comply with NIS2 regulations? Then putting NIS2 compliance on your agenda is an absolute must. After all, organisations in the critical sectors will want to make sure their partners within the chain are compliant. By taking the first compliance steps now, you will soon gain a competitive advantage in the sectors to which NIS2 applies.
Wide range of measures required
In a previous article on NIS2, we outlined the various focus areas mentioned in the guideline. That list may seem manageable, but in practice it quickly yields dozens of technical and organisational measures that your organisation needs to implement or improve. (Almost) every organisation covered by NIS2 must implement the following measures:
- Risk analysis: Map your IT environment and keep this overview up-to-date. Then identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and propose a plan of action with priorities to address them.
- Basic security: Take basic measures for good security. Consider patch management, Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), multi-factor authentication (MFA) and a backup strategy. Do not limit yourself to IT only; also look at security procedures from the business side.
- Monitoring and auditing: Monitor your IT environment continuously to notice irregularities as soon as possible. Record incidents and the actions taken in logs.
- Cyber incident response plan: Draw up an action plan defining the actions to be taken when threats occur in your IT environment. Also test this plan to ensure it is effective when you need it.
- Training and awareness: Not only executives and management, but all employees should be trained to properly assess security risks. That way, you reduce the risk of human error.
- Periodic improvements: Continuously monitor all aspects of your IT security, regularly discuss the approach at board level and improve where possible.
Responsibility doesn't solely lie with IT
What we often see in practice is that NIS2 is mainly seen as a task for the IT department. At Cheops, we realise that achieving and maintaining NIS2 compliance is a responsibility for the whole organisation. Management must be actively involved in security, ensure that the cybersecurity strategy is in line with business goals and that sufficient resources are available.
Awareness and knowledge are needed throughout the whole company. To guarantee sufficient knowledge levels, employees should periodically receive (preferably tailor-made) security awareness training. Everyone should be aware of the specific risks and responsibilities within his or her position. For instance, HR should arrange awareness training, it is up to the communications department to have a cyber incident response plan ready and Legal is responsible for updating contracts with customers and suppliers on information security.
NIS2 is not an end point, but a starting point
In reality, we sometimes stumble over the notion that NIS2 compliance is a one-off tick to be achieved. On the contrary, compliance means that you must be able to demonstrate that you meet all requirements at all times. So it makes more sense to see NIS2 as a starting point. It outlines a framework for the minimum of cybersecurity measures, on top of which you can take additional measures tailored to your situation. After all, security is a mindset.
Proactive approach for competitive advantage
The wide range of technically complex measures, the lightning-fast developments within cybersecurity, the need to continuously improve security techniques and processes: for most organisations for whom IT is not their core business, it is all a bridge too far. Outsourcing to an IT partner who takes a proactive approach is then a logical solution.
Cheops has the expertise and offers all the services to guide your organisation through the complexity of NIS2 - and digital security and resilience in general. We can provide this support in various ways. We offer services and solutions with the necessary expertise and IT experts. From placing IT experts and assembling IT teams to even outsourcing all IT.
Thanks to far-reaching automation, Cheops' security approach is primarily proactive. Within our Security Operations Centre (SOC), for example, we monitor all your networks, systems and data 24x7. Not only does this protect your business against known threats and vulnerabilities; technologies such as EDR also ensure protection against zero day vulnerabilities.
Whatever formula you choose: with Cheops' Managed Security Services, your cybersecurity is in good hands - leaving you both free for your core business.
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