week 17

Individual Report Task: Evaluate and Recommend Policies and Procedures for Efficient and Effective Cyber Security

Task Overview

In this task, you will evaluate and recommend policies and procedures to ensure efficient and effective cyber security within an organisation. Your report should examine existing best practices, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and provide clear recommendations for improving security measures in terms of protecting data, networks, and devices.

Your report should be 200–300 words and provide practical recommendations to enhance the security framework within an organisation.

Title Page

Include your name, date, and a title (e.g., Evaluation and Recommendation of Cyber Security Policies and Procedures).

1. Overview of Policies and Procedures to Evaluate

Choose at least three key cyber security policies or procedures to evaluate.

Suggested policies and procedures include:

• Password Management Policies
• Data Protection and Encryption Policies
• Incident Response Plans
• Access Control and Authentication Policies
• Security Awareness Training
• Regular Security Audits and Penetration Testing
• Backup and Disaster Recovery Procedures
• Remote Work Security Protocols

2. Evaluation of Each Policy/Procedure

For each policy or procedure, evaluate its effectiveness by considering:

• Strengths – What does the policy or procedure do well?
• Weaknesses – Where does it fall short or need improvement?
• Suitability – How well does it apply to protecting an organisation’s assets and data?

Example:

• Password Management Policies
  • Strengths: Enforces strong password creation and regular changes, ensuring minimal risk of password-based attacks.
  • Weaknesses: If not accompanied by multi-factor authentication (MFA), it may still be vulnerable to attacks like phishing or credential stuffing.
  • Suitability: Essential for all organisations to enforce, but should be enhanced with additional layers like MFA.
• Incident Response Plan
  • Strengths: Ensures that the organisation can react quickly to a cyber attack, mitigating potential damage.
  • Weaknesses: Often only effective if regularly tested and updated, otherwise it can be too slow or inefficient when a real attack occurs.
  • Suitability: Critical for organisations, especially those with sensitive data or those subject to regulatory requirements.
• Security Awareness Training
  • Strengths: Helps employees recognise phishing attempts, social engineering attacks, and other security threats.
  • Weaknesses: Can be ineffective if not done regularly or if employees do not take the training seriously.
  • Suitability: A key element for all organisations, particularly those with a large number of employees or that deal with sensitive information.

3. Overall Conclusion and Recommendations

Write a short paragraph summarising your overall assessment of the policies and procedures, and provide recommendations for improvement.

Example:

“While policies like password management and incident response plans are essential, organisations must adopt a multi-layered security approach. Enhancing password management with multi-factor authentication, ensuring regular incident response drills, and providing ongoing security awareness training will further strengthen the organisation’s security posture.”

4. Additional Resources and Further Reading

Include useful links for further research.

Example:

• NCSC – Cyber Security Policies
• SANS – Incident Response Plan Template
• ISO/IEC 27001 – Information Security Management Systems

Submission and Marking Criteria

Your report should be 200–300 words and should show clear evaluation and practical recommendations for improving cyber security policies and procedures.

✔️ Coverage of Policies/Procedures – Are a range of key policies discussed with a good understanding of their role in enhancing cyber security?

✔️ Evaluation and Judgement – Is there a fair analysis of each policy’s strengths, weaknesses, and suitability for different organisations?

✔️ Presentation and Clarity – Is the report clear, well-structured, and in good English?

Final Note

This task will help you understand the importance of policies and procedures in maintaining effective cyber security. Your recommendations should reflect current best practices and provide clear, actionable steps for improving organisational security.

Last Updated
2025-05-12 10:43:57