week 11

K1.11 The impact of measures and procedures that are put in place to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities:

 

Organisations face cybersecurity threats and technical vulnerabilities that can lead to serious problems like downtime, data loss, financial damage, and reputational harm. To reduce these risks, businesses put in place measures (performance targets) and procedures (operational processes) that help manage and recover from incidents.

These tools help ensure the organisation stays secure, responsive, and resilient.

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Measures to Mitigate Threats

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Definition:
The maximum amount of time a system, service, or process can be offline after a failure before serious damage occurs.

Impact:

• Helps set recovery deadlines

• Defines urgency in a disaster recovery plan

• Drives investment in faster recovery tools

🧾 Example: If the RTO for the customer order system is 2 hours, the business must restore that system within 2 hours to avoid disruption.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Definition:
The maximum amount of data loss (in time) that is acceptable during an incident.

Impact:

• Helps define back-up frequency

• Reduces data loss risk

• Influences back-up technology and storage strategy

Example: If the RPO is 15 minutes, data must be backed up at least every 15 minutes to avoid unacceptable loss.

Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)

Definition:
The average time between one failure and the next for a system or piece of equipment.

Impact:

• Used to assess system reliability

• Helps with hardware replacement planning

• Reduces unexpected downtime

Example: If a hard drive has an MTBF of 50,000 hours, it is expected to work reliably for that period before likely failing.

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

Definition:
The average time it takes to fix a failed system or component and restore it to full operation.

Impact:

• Helps assess the speed of response and repair

• Encourages improvement in support and maintenance services

Example: If the MTTR for the web server is 30 minutes, then any failures should typically be resolved within that timeframe.

Procedures to Mitigate Threats

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

Definition:
Step-by-step documented instructions to ensure correct and secure performance of tasks.

SOPs ensure consistency, reliability, and compliance across the organisation.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Definition:
A formal contract between a service provider and a customer (internal or external) that defines performance expectations.

SLAs help ensure that IT services meet business needs and that providers are held to agreed standards.

Security by the Numbers

Scenario:
A business is suffering from frequent system crashes and slow support responses. You've been asked to recommend measures and procedures to help improve security and recovery times.

Task:
- Choose two measures (e.g. RTO, MTTR) and explain how they could improve the organisation’s security response.
- Choose one SOP and one SLA feature and describe how they would help mitigate future incidents.
- Create a table showing the measure/procedure, what it covers, and what problem it solves.

Extension:
Write a short SOP for backing up a company database, including when, where, and how often backups should be done.

Last Updated
2025-07-14 08:43:29