How much risk does your organisation face from cyberattacks? To what extent are your systems, applications, and devices protected? How prepared are you for potential incidents? The NCSC’s 5 basic principles of digital resilience offer organisations guidance on developing a robust cybersecurity strategy, regardless of where you currently stand in this area.
Digital threats are a common challenge for everyone. To enhance your organisation’s digital resilience against cyber risks, it’s crucial to establish a strong foundation. But where should you begin?
The 5 basic principles in focus
To assist organisations with this, the NCSC has created five fundamental principles of digital resilience. This is not a one-size-fits-all set, but designed to be manageable for every organisation.
- Basic Principle 1: Identify and Map Your Risks: Understand what assets you need to protect. And determine appropriate measures to safeguard them.
- Basic Principle 2: Foster a Culture of Security: Educate employees about potential risks. And provide a secure environment for reporting any incidents.
- Basic Principle 3: Secure Systems, Applications, and Devices: Choose strong security settings. Also, continuously monitor your environment to promptly identify any issues.
- Basic Principle 4: Manage Access to Data and Services: Grant employees only the necessary access to data and services required to perform their jobs.
- Basic Principle 5: Prepare for Incidents: Practice various response scenarios, conduct regular backups, and test them to ensure swift recovery when incidents occur.
More Information
For larger enterprises and organisations covered by NIS2, the NCSC provides a detailed explanation of the basic principles (in Dutch). Self-employed individuals and SMEs can find additional information on the Digital Trust Centre page (in Dutch, with links to useful English-language pages).
You can download the information sheet on the 5 basic principles (link to other website).
Related Links
– Explore a new serious game about ransomware
– Access tools for discussing information security
– Practice responding to cyber crises by playing the new RNSM game
