Collaboration is critical to an organization’s information security because its lack can be exploited by an attacker as a vulnerability. There is also a tendency to use compartmentalized security measures that can be bypassed individually to gain access to an organization’s sensitive data (Secude, 2020). Furthermore, it is possible that failing to establish collaboration can lead to disparate security teams wasting resources where one would be able to ensure information security more efficiently and reliably (Secude, 2020). Therefore, collaboration does not only help improve an organization’s security, but its bottom line, as well.
Penetration testing is also important because it can simulate a variety of threats. While the most obvious approach is external testing, which detects vulnerabilities to an outside threat, other methods exist. Those include double-blind testing, where the organization’s security team has no information of the attack, and targeted testing, which can serve as a training exercise with feedback between the attacker and the defending team (Imperva, n. d.). Ultimately, penetration testing allows an organization to improve its information security policy and measures in a variety of ways.
Collaboration and Penetration Testing
Thank you for bringing up the benefits of collaboration, including the less obvious ones like employee satisfaction! Indeed, it is important to realize how complex a business environment is and how interrelated its components can be. Maintaining collaboration between work units or departments does not only contribute to security awareness and compliance by improving communication and allowing all units to provide input on security policies. It also improves compliance with the organization’s policies by creating a sense of belonging and loyalty among its employees (Pratt, 2019). Therefore, collaboration is a critical element of business processes, and modern publications recommend focusing on it as much as possible.
As for penetration testing, it can indeed be viewed as a significant part of employee training. One should always remember that most information security breaches involve an insider (Flowerday & Tuyikeze, 2016). Therefore, where maintaining collaboration and a positive working environment can help prevent deliberate sabotage, penetration testing as training will be sure to improve employees’ ability to respond to external attacks.
References
Flowerday, S. V., & Tuyikeze, T. (2016). Information security policy development and implementation: The what, how and who. Computers & Security, 61, 169-183. Web.
Imperva (n. d.) Penetration Testing. Web.
Pratt, L. (2019). Collaboration could be the key to employee satisfaction. HRD Connect. Web.
Secude. (2020). Is data collaboration the key to improving cybersecurity? Web.