Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity Solutions and how an Organisation should Prioritise these Solutions

Kelly, Nathan (2022) Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity Solutions and how an Organisation should Prioritise these Solutions. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Money is everything in modern day business. Organisations want to increase their profits, but they also want to limit their spending at the same time. How can this be achieved? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Covid-19 meant that many organisations had to adapt fast to stay afloat, as employees working from home suddenly became the norm. In order to accommodate this, money needed to be spent to improve the security status of their employees’ corporate laptops and mobile devices. But this was not all, suddenly solutions that were not at the latest version needed to be upgraded or reviewed- and fast. Multi-Factor authentication had to be enabled, Anti-Virus or EDR software had to be upgraded, Encryption had to be rolled out to all devices. This was just the start! Other organisations went further again, spending substantially to implement new cybersecurity solutions which could help secure their network. Controls like SIEM solutions, Vulnerability Management scanners, and Open-Source Intelligence tools became big business. But where should an organisation draw the line with these security controls? The attack on the HSE showed what a massive problem it is trying to get the right levels of security in place. Cybersecurity budgets are limited, so can businesses get away with implementing just one or two of these solutions? If so, which tools or solutions are the most effective in protecting an organisation from the threat of cyber-crime? These are not easy questions to answer, even cyber-security experts will argue for one control over another. So, what hope does a CEO or board of directors have of making an informed decision on this? Is there some way that they could effectively employ an evaluation table or matrix to analyse and compare different cybersecurity solutions, and at the same time be given an idea of which of these should be prioritised? If so, this could save their organisation millions. In this research paper I investigate and demonstrate how to assist an organisation in evaluating what cybersecurity controls are “must-haves,” what are “nice-to-haves,” and what are not worth the effort of implementing- as well as categorising these into different levels of prioritisation.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software > Computer Security T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software > Computer Security
Divisions:	School of Computing > Master of Science in Cyber Security
Depositing User:	Tamara Malone
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2022 17:24
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2022 17:24
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/6013

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