Security Audits & Security Reviews

The difference between Security Audits and a Security Surveys

A Security Audit: and a Security Survey: are both methods of evaluating an organisation’s security posture, but they differ in scope, focus, and depth.

Security Audit:
A Security Audit is a detailed, systematic evaluation of an organisation’s security policies, controls, and infrastructure. Its primary focus is to assess whether these systems comply with established security standards and regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001). Audits are often formal and conducted periodically by internal teams or external experts, and they include reviewing documentation, testing systems, and identifying gaps in compliance. The outcome of a security audit is a comprehensive report detailing vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and recommendations for remediation.

Security Survey:
A Security Survey, on the other hand, is typically a broader, high-level assessment of the physical and procedural security measures in place at a location. It involves evaluating the overall security environment, including access control, perimeter security, surveillance, and personnel practices. Security surveys are often conducted to identify general security risks and to determine whether the existing measures are sufficient for protecting assets. They may also be used as a preliminary step before a more detailed audit.

Key Differences:

Scope: Audits are more detailed and regulatory-focused, while surveys are broader and often centered on physical security.

Purpose: Audits aim for compliance and in-depth analysis, whereas surveys are used to identify potential risks and security gaps at a surface level.

Formality: Audits are formal, often mandatory processes, while surveys are typically less formal and more exploratory.

Both Security Audits and a Security Surveys are essential for a comprehensive security strategy, but they serve different purposes in identifying and addressing security weaknesses.

Identify Exploitable Weaknesses

The threats to your organization are highly variable and depend on a range of factors, including your location (or co-location with other businesses), the sector in which you operate, and the nature of your assets. For instance, companies in urban or high-traffic areas may face elevated risks from physical security threats like theft or vandalism, while those in rural or remote areas might contend more with logistical or environmental hazards.

Insider threat, staff pilfering are not Industry-specific risks, and, organisations in the financial, healthcare, or technology sectors may be prime targets for cyberattacks or data breaches, whereas those in manufacturing or energy may face risks related to industrial espionage or sabotage. Additionally, the regulatory environment and geopolitical factors, such as political instability or crime rates, in a given location can significantly influence the threat landscape.

To effectively manage these risks, it's essential to conduct tailored security assessments that consider both physical and digital threats. By understanding the specific challenges posed by your operational environment and industry, you can implement targeted security measures to protect your organization's assets and ensure continuity of operations.

Exploitable weaknesses come in different guises. They are points of failure that on their own or together leave businesses and organisations exposed. These exploitable weaknesses maybe technical such as your IT systems, access control or alarms, physical such as your policies and procedures, on-site security guards, window locks etc. or they may be information that is posted online that can be used against you.

Intelligent Protection will look at how ALL of your security work together. We provide a full and cost-effective security audit to enable the best possible security to be provided, based on sound practice and the experience of members of our team. Our security audit service is designed to mitigate risk and to identify areas of weakness that could be exploited by the likes of hackers of organised criminals. The audit reports we produce will enable clients to make investment in the right areas.

These days, many company executives often work from home or other remote locations that are often not a secure environment to conduct company business or to discuss important business transactions. This dynamic needs a different approach, and this is where policy and good practice needs to be implemented through training.

If you cannot get your people to 'buy-in' to your security policies because they are too complex, then you are on a non-starter.

“Every great security policy will start with a difficult conversation” - Alex Bomberg

Adapting Security for Growing Businesses

Reviewing your security and modelling the threats, including internal policies should be part of your ongoing business development, changing as your business grows. We work with clients, many of whom are starting from afresh with either little or no security policies adopted. This is common place and a review of your business and its procedures will identify what you need and what you do not.

As part of any review, we will work with your management to review your internal policies to ensure that they are within current legal guideline, understood by the workforce and that they are workable. Our security review covers both Insider Threat and External Threats, from risk of petty theft through to how an act of terrorism or espionage might affect your business.

Reviewing your security

Our vast experience over different security disciplines enables us to look at where you might be exposed. Every client is different and have specific threats. Our 'root and branches' approach enables us to look at almost every eventuality, mitigating the threats, from soft easy options to more complicated IP theft, or acts of terrorims or espionage.

If you're interested in engaging our services, please reach out to us through our main our London office at Tel: +44 207 4566740, or via email [email protected].