Security-Operations GRC Glossary: Welcome to a comprehensive resource for understanding Integrated Risk Management (IRM) and Governance Risk Compliance. This A-Z glossary provides clear definitions of key terminology and acronyms, offering valuable insights into the intricate world of security operations, compliance, and risk management.

Processes: Security-Operations GRC Glossary

Understanding the language of risk and compliance from Lean Technology Strategy: Moving Fast With Defined Constraints by Joanne Molesky

Acronyms: Security-Operations GRC Glossary

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BIA (Business Impact Analysis): Actively assesses and prioritizes the potential impact of disruptions or disasters on an organization. It helps organizations understand the criticality of their business functions. Application impact analysis: using a risk-based approach

BCP (Business Continuity Plan): Outlines steps an organization must take to continue critical operations during and after disruptions. It ensures resilience and rapid recovery.

DLP (Data Loss Prevention): Actively comprises measures and technologies preventing unauthorized access, sharing, or loss of sensitive data, thereby safeguarding data integrity.

DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan): Outlines precise steps to recover IT systems and data in the event of a disaster, ensuring business continuity.

ERM (Enterprise Risk Management): Identifies, assesses, and mitigates Enterprise risks supporting informed decision-making regarding risk exposure.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): Actively governs data protection and privacy in the European Union, requiring organizations to protect personal data and respect privacy rights.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): Actively regulates the privacy and security of health information, mandating safeguards for healthcare data. HIPAA (GRC) Video Tutorial

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ISO (International Organization for Standardization): Actively develops and publishes international standards covering various aspects of quality, security, and compliance.

ITSM (Information Technology Service Management): Actively focuses on designing, delivering, and managing IT services efficiently and effectively, ensuring alignment with organizational needs. Quick Start: ServiceNow ITSM

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology): Actively develops and promotes cybersecurity standards and best practices, guiding organizations in enhancing their security posture.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): Actively defines requirements for securing payment card data, ensuring the protection of sensitive financial information.

SecOps (Security Operations): Actively manages security threats and incidents through monitoring, detecting, responding to, and mitigating security risks.

Roles: Security-Operations GRC Glossary

GRC and security operations roles play crucial parts in ensuring the resilience of an organization. Training is essential for maintaining a robust security posture with effective risk management. Here are the top 6 Governance, Risk and Compliance certifications and 133 Free Cyber Security Leadership training.

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Business Continuity Manager: Actively oversees and coordinates efforts to ensure that an organization can continue its critical operations during and after disruptions or disasters. Their role is pivotal in maintaining resilience.

CIO (Chief Information Officer): Oversees enterprise IT strategy and operations, playing a crucial role in aligning technology with business goals. GRC Framework -CIO Insight

CISO (Chief Information Security Officer): Leads information security program, establishing security policies, ensuring compliance, and managing enterprise security risks. itSMF Executive Panel on Modern Critical Situation Communications Skills

Compliance Manager: Ensures that an organization adheres to relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, actively monitoring and assessing compliance efforts while addressing potential non-compliance issues.

Cybersecurity Analyst: Safeguard an organization’s digital assets, actively monitoring networks, detecting security incidents, and responding swiftly to mitigate threats.

Data Protection Officer (DPO): Ensures compliance with data protection laws, like GDPR, actively monitoring data processing activities and providing guidance on data privacy.

Governance Manager: Oversees governance frameworks ensuring IT resources align with business objectives and facilitating efficient decision-making processes.

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Incident Responder: Frontline defenders who investigate and respond to security incidents, analyzing breach data, acting swiftly to validate, contain and mitigate threats. Free Incident Response training.

IT Auditor: Assess an organization’s IT systems and practices to ensure compliance, security, and effectiveness, providing valuable insights into improvement opportunity.

Policy Manager: Lead the creation, implementation, and enforcement of organizational policies, ensuring alignment with business goals and regulatory requirements.

Risk Analyst: Evaluate and quantify risks facing an organization, assisting in informed decision-making by providing insights into potential impacts and mitigation strategies.

Security Architect: Design and implement secure IT systems and networks, ensuring security measures are integrated into every aspect of system development. Free Security Architecture training.

Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst: Monitor and respond to security events in real-time, investigating incidents, analyzing threats, and coordinating incident response efforts.

Vendor Risk Manager: Assess and manage risks associated with third-party vendors, ensuring vendor relationships align with security and compliance standards.

Terminology/Process: Security-Operations GRC Glossary

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Attestations in ServiceNow: Control attestations actively involve stakeholders in confirming and validating the effectiveness and compliance of control measures. These attestations serve as pivotal checkpoints, ensuring that controls are operating as intended and in alignment with organizational objectives. By actively engaging stakeholders, Control Attestations foster a culture of accountability and transparency, providing real-time insights into the state of controls. This iterative feedback loop allows for timely adjustments and enhancements to control strategies, ultimately bolstering the organization’s overall governance and risk management framework.

Attest to Compliance: Active process of formally confirming adherence to relevant regulatory requirements or internal policies.

Authority Documents: Official regulations, standards, and internal policies that specify governance, risk management, and compliance expectations.

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Change Management

Change Management: plays a synergistic referential role in the GRC framework, facilitating integration of new processes, policies, and controls while ensuring ongoing compliance and risk mitigation. Change Management delivers enhanced adaptability and agility to the GRC landscape. This in turn, brings clarity and transparency to the evolution of controls and compliance measures. Change Management delivers to GRC a structured framework for assessing the impact of changes on existing controls, allowing for real-time adjustments and updates. This proactive approach safeguards against potential disruptions in compliance and minimizes unforeseen risks.

Compliance Auditing and Continuous Monitoring

Compliance is fundamental to organizational operations, entailing unwavering adherence to relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, safeguarding the organization’s integrity and reputation.

Compliance Auditing: methodical and rigorous process that involves the systematic review and verification of an organization’s adherence to a set of predefined laws, regulations, and internal policies. Its primary purpose is to assess the degree of compliance and identify potential areas for improvement. Employing Compliance Auditing, organizations not only validate their commitment to regulatory standards but also gain valuable insights into their operational efficiency and effectiveness. This process acts as a proactive measure to detect and rectify any non-compliance issues, ultimately enhancing the organization’s overall governance and risk management strategies.

Continuous Monitoring:

active process of regularly assessing security and compliance holds immense relevance to Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) efforts. This dynamic approach plays a pivotal role in maintaining a proactive stance towards emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

By continuously monitoring and evaluating security measures, organizations can swiftly identify and address potential risks. This real-time identification enables GRC teams to respond promptly to evolving security challenges, bolstering the overall resilience of the organization.

Additionally, this proactive stance aligns seamlessly with the core objectives of GRC, ensures that compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and internal policies remains effective and up-to-date. It also demonstrates the organization’s commitment to robust governance and risk management practices, ultimately safeguarding its integrity and reputation.

Controls and Control Objectives

Control Objective:

play a pivotal role in the realm of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) by providing clear and specific goals for controls. These objectives are instrumental in guiding organizations towards effective risk reduction and ensuring steadfast adherence to industry standards and regulations.

By delineating precise targets for controls, Control Objectives empower organizations to implement measures that are directly aligned with their risk management and compliance strategies. This ensures a focused and systematic approach to safeguarding the integrity of operations and data.

Furthermore, the establishment of well-defined Control Objectives exemplifies an organization’s commitment to robust GRC practices. It demonstrates a proactive stance in addressing potential risks, reinforcing not only compliance but also the overall resilience and reputation of the organization within its operational landscape.

Controls: Active measures, safeguards, or policies implemented to mitigate risks. Controls exist to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and organizational standards.

Data Encryption systematically converts data into code, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring data confidentiality.

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Entity Controls: Controls per Entity are specific measures assigned to organizational units based on entity type and risk profile.

Entity Type: Categorizes organizational units (e.g., departments, systems, vendors) based on function, importance, or risk profile. Entity Type Profiles exist for actively tailoring control requirements.

Governance, within the context of GRC and security operations, establishes the framework and processes to efficiently manage IT resources, aligning seamlessly with business objectives.

Incident Response: Structured approach organizations to detect, contain, and mitigate security incidents.

Indicator Templates: Define Compliance KPIs or metrics actively used to monitor and assess control effectiveness.

Patch Management: Active process of identifying, applying, and managing software updates and security patches to keep systems secure and patch levels current.

Policy Framework provides a structured guide to creating, maintaining, and rigorously enforcing policies for operational clarity.

Policy Management: Process of creating, implementing, and enforcing policies governing security, compliance, and risk. The purpose of policy management is to ensure operational consistency and clarity.

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Regulatory Compliance: Ensures organizational adherence to relevant laws and regulations.

Risk Management, a comprehensive approach within GRC, identifies, assesses, prioritizes, and effectively manages risks to minimize their impact on the organization.

Risk Assessment: Identifies, assesses, prioritizes, and manages risks. Process insights for proactive impact identification with appropriate mitigation strategies.

Security Controls are key components of an organization’s defense strategy, serving as indispensable safeguards and countermeasures systematically implemented to protect assets and data.

Security Framework encompasses comprehensive standards, best practices, and guidelines, actively contributing to the effective management and mitigation of security risks.

Security Incident Management: Identifying, responding to, and mitigating security incidents. Process for coordinating response efforts to restore normal operations.

Security Operations form a continuous and dynamic domain, involving a multitude of ongoing activities and processes crucial for maintaining and enhancing an organization’s security posture.

Test Management: Actively plans, designs, executes, and manages tests. The purpose is to evaluate implementations security controls and policy effectiveness.

Templates: Pre-defined documents outlining requirements, processes, and documentation necessary for compliance with specific regulations or standards.

Threat Intelligence, a cornerstone of security, comprises valuable information related to potential threats and vulnerabilities that can significantly impact an organization’s security.

Unified Compliance Framework:

Vendor Risk Management: Actively assesses, monitors, and manages risks related to third-party vendors. Aligns vendor relationships with security and compliance standards.

Web Security Process: Actively assesses, monitors and manages risks related to web application development, change, and web solution security. Web Security Process

Zero Trust Security represents a cutting-edge model that never assumes trust. It actively verifies every entity attempting to access network resources, regardless of origin or internal/external status.

Enterprise Global Cyber Fraud Prevention- Methods: Detection & Mitigation, & IS Best Practices

Resources: Security-Operations GRC Glossary

• 133 Free Cyber Security training| Infosec (infosecinstitute.com)
• Cybersecurity Jobs 7X Growth-Opportunity
• Essentials GRC and cybersecurity — How they empower each other (thehackernews.com)
• Information Systems Security Association (ISSA): https://www.issa.org/
• International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP): https://iapp.org/
• Security and IT Glossary of roles, tools, processes, and best practices
• FAQs: ServiceNow Governance Risk Compliance