What’s Missing From Your Cybersecurity Strategy (Hint: It’s Not Tech)?
When people think about Cybersecurity, they think of firewalls, VPNs, malware software etc. However, the missing piece to most Cybersecurity strategy is not tech, its the non-tech stuff.
Protecting information assets in any organization requires more than just technology—it demands a structured framework of policies, procedures, standards, and governance.
Together, these elements form the backbone of effective information security programs, ensuring that the organization maintains confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) while aligning with regulatory and business objectives.
Security Policies: The Strategic Foundation
Security policies communicate management’s expectations for safeguarding organizational assets.
These are high-level, strategic documents that outline goals and missions but remain technology-agnostic, avoiding rigid prescriptions tied to specific solutions.
Instead, they provide direction, leaving the tactical execution to supporting components.
Once established, policies must be enforced through compliance mechanisms.
They also include processes for handling violations, such as reporting and adjudicating data breaches, enforcing disciplinary action, and addressing regulatory requirements.
Policies generally fall into three categories:
Regulatory Policies – Ensure compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA, GLBA, SOX, PCI DSS, and others. These are highly detailed and industry-specific.
Advisory Policies – Strongly recommend appropriate behaviors and activities while outlining consequences for non-compliance (e.g., handling PII or PHI).
Informative Policies – Designed to educate employees on organizational goals, missions, reporting structures, or general operational guidelines. These are not enforceable but serve as awareness tools.
Supporting Elements: Standards, Procedures, and Documentation
Policies alone are insufficient without tactical guidance. Supporting elements ensure consistency, accountability, and operational clarity:
Standards: Establish measurable criteria that define the organization’s acceptable level of performance. Without standards, there is no quality or consistency.
Procedures: Detail who does what, when, where, and how. They are the actionable steps that bring policies and standards to life.
Processes: Systems of inputs and outputs designed to achieve a desired outcome while supporting standards.
Supporting Documents: Include guides, manuals, handbooks, templates, job aids, and checklists that provide additional detail and support procedural execution.
Together, these tactical elements form the operational backbone of compliance.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)
Governance defines how an organization is managed. It clarifies decision-making authority, accountability, responsibility, and performance evaluation.
Governance aligns internal operations with external expectations such as regulatory compliance and vendor agreements.
Internal Governance: Promotes alignment with organizational vision and mission. It assigns responsibility, defines authority, and ensures accountability.
External Governance: Applies to vendors, contractors, and suppliers through contracts, SLAs, MOUs, and audits. It ensures that third parties meet organizational security expectations.
Risk management and compliance are interwoven into governance, forming the GRC framework. This framework ensures that risks are analyzed, mitigation is aligned with business objectives, and compliance is consistently maintained.
Importantly, in cloud computing, GRC remains the customer’s responsibility—regardless of which service provider is used.
Governance becomes an ongoing process of defining actions, assigning responsibilities, and verifying performance.
Strategic vs. Tactical Documents
It is useful to distinguish between levels of documentation:
Strategic (High-Level) Documents: Organizational policies that set direction and long-term objectives.
Tactical (System-Level) Documents: Standards, procedures, and supporting guides that implement policies on an operational level.
This layered approach ensures alignment between management’s vision and day-to-day execution.
Conclusion
Effective information security depends on
a. policies that set direction
b. standards that establish consistency
c. procedures that operationalize compliance
d. governance that ties it all together.
Organizations that integrate these elements build resilient security programs capable of meeting regulatory obligations, managing risks, and ensuring that employees understand both their responsibilities and the consequences of non-compliance.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) isn’t just a checkbox—it’s the mechanism through which an organization ensures its survival in a regulatory, technological, and threat-laden landscape.