CAF Maturity Assessment
Trusted Cyber Security Experts
25+ Years Industry Experience
Ethical, Professional & Pragmatic
Performing a maturity assessment against the latest NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) allows you to benchmark your organisation’s resilience to cyber threats.
The Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) is a set of guidelines created by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help organisations of all sizes assess and improve their cyber security posture. It is particularly aimed at organisations responsible for essential services, such as those in critical sectors like energy, healthcare, and transport. The framework offers a structured approach to evaluating cyber risks and the measures that should be in place to protect against potential threats.
The CAF is built around the following four objectives that address key areas of cyber security:
- Managing security risk
- Protecting against cyber attacks
- Detecting cyber incidents
- Minimising the impact of incidents
These objectives guide organisations in setting up effective governance and risk management processes, implementing protective measures, monitoring systems for cyber threats, and ensuring they can recover swiftly from any cyber incidents. The framework is outcome-focused, giving organisations the flexibility to decide how best to meet the objectives based on their unique operational needs and risk profiles.
Through a total of 14 cybersecurity and resilience principles, the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) provides a benchmark for organisation’s to gauge their ability to manage cybersecurity risk, defend systems against cyber-attack, detect cyber security events and to minimise the impact of cyber security incidents.
The NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) applies to all organisations that are responsible for securing the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and other systems which are designed to keep public services, UK citizens and businesses in the UK secure from cyber attack. Some examples of these organisations include:
- Organisations subject to the Network and Information (NIS) Regulations
- Organisations within the UK Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
- Organisations managing cyber-related risks to public safety
- Public sector organisations that support core government functions
- Other organisations / sectors that may find the CAF a useful tool
Based on the latest version of the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), our CAF Maturity Assessment allows organisations to assess the maturity of their cyber security policies and processes by reviewing how they are positioned against the desired outcomes of the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF). The degree to which your organisation meets these desired outcomes provides a good indication of the level of cyber maturity within the organisation and also highlights areas requiring additional focus to improve the organisation’s overall cyber security posture and resilience to attack.
Policy & Documentation Review
Policies and documentation play an important role in the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF). A robust documentation framework provides the structure on which an organisation can apply appropriate technical controls – in addition to processes that ensure the CAF principles are closely followed by your organisation’s staff, 3rd parties and stakeholders.
At the start of your CAF Maturity Assessment, our consultancy team will perform a detailed documentation review on your policies and documentation to ensure they satisfy the requirements of CAF and to help provide context for the consultancy workshops. Where appropriate, we will provide guidance and recommendation’s on your documentation to help you further align with the applicable requirements of the latest CAF framework.
Governance & Risk Management Workshop
A remote Governance & Risk Management Workshop will be conducted by our consultancy team and key individuals and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) within your organisation. The purpose of this initial workshop is to explore the principles of the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) which relate to cyber risks and information governance and should be attended by individuals in your organisation who are responsible for information governance and data protection.
During the Governance & Risk Management Workshop, the following topics will be covered:
Identification of board-level individual(s) who have overall accountability for the security of network and information systems
Identification of key roles and responsibilities for the security of network and information systems
Internal & external security audits
Maintaining an information risk committee
Asset management
Supply chain risk
Security policies
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for information security
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
Security awareness & training for staff
Technical & Infrastructure Workshop
A remote Technical & Infrastructure Workshop will be conducted with your organisation’s technical team and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), so that specific technical systems and controls can be identified and discussed. This workshop should be attended by your IT team and individuals who are responsible implementing and maintaining IT systems, such as, End User Devices (EUDs), servers, cloud infrastructure, network components and Identity & Access Management.
During the Technical & Infrastructure Workshop, the following topics will be covered:
Identity & access control
Device management
Privileged user management
Identity and access management
Data management, backup & transfer
System & network security
Secure configuration & management
Vulnerability management
Cyber security training
Security monitoring & alerting
Incident response plan
Security logs
Proactive attack discovery
Where appropriate, an evidence-based approach will be taken throughout the workshop(s) to gather technical assurance that the key principles are being applied. This approach may include the capturing of screenshots from web management consoles or reviewing settings on workstations or servers that are in use within the organisation.
Preparing for your CAF Maturity Assessment
- Existing company documentation (in Microsoft Word format) that you feel is relevent to cyber security. For example, Acceptable Use Policy, Password Policy, Joiners, Movers & Leavers Process & Disaster Recovery Plan
- Availability of key individuals who are responsible for information governance, data protection, supply chain and business continuity to attend the Governance & Risk Management Workshop.
- Availability of key individuals and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who are responsible for network infrastructure, End User Devices (EUDs), cloud services, server management and logging & monitoring to attend the Technical & Infrastructure Workshop.
Debrief Call
Once you have received our final report, you have the option of attending a conference call between the consultant(s) involved in delivering your project and individuals within your organisation who you feel would benefit from a more in-depth discussion of the report’s findings.
Reporting
At the end of the CAF Maturity Assessment, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive report which identifies your organisation’s level of maturity with detailed findings in each of the 14 Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) principles.
An executive summary will be included so that the organisation’s level of cyber maturity can be clearly and concisely communicated to the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and other stakeholders and interested parties.
Where the organisation has failed to meet the required outcome principles, or only partially meets them, specific areas of improvement and additional remediation work to address the shortfall will be documented.
An overall maturity rating will be produced for the organisation, in addition to charts and heatmaps which will visually show where specific areas of remediation should be applied.
After Care
Once our consultancy engagement is complete and our final report has been delivered to you, our consultancy team remain available to you indefinitely for any questions you may have surrounding the report’s findings or our consultancy engagement with you.
Why Choose SecureTeam?
- UK-based Consultancy Team
- Customer Focused
- Security Vetted Consultants
- Ethical Scoping & Pricing
- 25+ Years Industry Experience
- ISO 9001 & 27001 Certified
- CREST Accredited
- Comprehensive Reporting
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Trusted Cyber Security Experts
As an organisation, SecureTeam has provided penetration testing and cyber security consultancy to public & private sector organisations both in the United Kingdom and worldwide. We pride ourselves in taking a professional, pragmatic and customer-centric approach, delivering expert cyber security consultancy – on time and within budget – regardless of the size of your organisation.
Our customer base ranges from small tech start-ups through to large multi-national organisations across nearly every sector – in nearly every continent. Some of the organisation’s who have trusted SecureTeam as their cyber security partner include:
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Royal Haskoning DHV
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AMX Solutions
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