Overview#
Routine practices that keep systems and users resilient against common threats. Includes patching, backups, password hygiene, and regular security training.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Cyber Hygiene for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Cyber Hygiene activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Cyber Hygiene works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Cyber Hygiene, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Cyber Hygiene healthy.
- Map Cyber Hygiene practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Cyber Hygiene might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Cyber Hygiene failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Cyber Hygiene continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Cyber Hygiene with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Cyber Hygiene improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.