The nature of Cyber Resilience
October 9, 2018
October 9, 2018
Nowhere is resilience on better display than in nature. Trees are designed to bend but not break under the weight of snow or high winds. Our bodies automatically clean our blood, renew our cells and formulate a response when unwelcome viruses try to take hold. Nature is inherently designed for resilience. It’s time for Federal agencies to adopt a similar approach and move beyond the goal of achieving cybersecurity to a new goal of attaining cyber resilience.
As in nature, in our cyber domains things can and will go wrong. There is no question that attacks and breaches will occur. Yet we continue to erect virtual walls aimed at thwarting every invasion. What if…we adopted a new approach and architected systems and processes for cyber resilience. In other words design the actual assets to be difficult to attack, to minimize impact and potential loss when an event happens and to continuously deliver the intended capability no matter what.
"We define Cyber Resilience as the ability to continuously deliver the intended outcome despite adverse cyber events."
– GUS HUNT, Managing Director – Cyber Strategy, Accenture Federal Services
How well are federal organizations progressing on their journey to Cyber Resilience? Accenture’s 2018 State of Cyber Resilience study sought to answer that question by evaluating 33 cybersecurity capabilities across seven domains. To find out where federal agencies rank themselves highest (and lowest) in these domains download the Nature of Cyber Resilience paper.
Accenture Cyber Resilience DomainsRELATED: The nature of effective defense—Shifting from cybersecurity to cyber resilience