Key Points

• Six Sigma is a natural fit for any cybersecurity endeavor.
• Six Sigma’s QC tools are great for incident response and analysis.
• You can use Six Sigma alongside the NIST framework for better results in your cybersecurity remediation efforts.

How does Six Sigma for cybersecurity work? Cybersecurity is paramount for the day-to-day operations of any organization, regardless of the industry. When you consider the interconnectivity of all elements for even mom-and-pop businesses, practicing good digital hygiene is paramount for the continued success of your business.

While we typically don’t think of Six Sigma as being geared toward the tech industry, it does have its merits when used in the context of digital security. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at how cybersecurity functions alongside Six Sigma for maintaining uptime and continual success for any business.

Why Cybersecurity Matters

How much does an hour of downtime amount to? Think about it for a moment, and consider the numerous operations at risk when your systems go down for any period. A decade ago, when I was still fresh to the world of cybersecurity, an hour of downtime amounted to tens of thousands of dollars lost per hour. We’re talking millions of dollars after 24 hours of downtime. Cybersecurity is an issue that has received quite a bit of focus in recent years, as we’ve seen the rise of Advanced Persistent Threats, continual data breaches, and so much more.

Cybersecurity remains a preventative means of guaranteeing business continuity. When properly implemented, cybersecurity is one of your most powerful tools and approaches for maintaining the operational integrity of your business in day-to-day proceedings. You can go hunting readily for horror stories from massive firms like Equifax, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. In many cases, some of the largest cyber attacks waged on businesses operating out of the United States have occurred in the last decade.

Further, these attacks are only going to grow in intensity and severity as time goes on. The world has changed, and the means of protecting your data and infrastructure has changed alongside it. Every business on the planet could benefit from the use of good cybersecurity practices. Ideally, any enterprise-level business should have dedicated security staff and an external security firm for conducting audits. After all, time is money, and downtime could mean utter catastrophe in the event of a system breach or compromised network infrastructure.

The Cybersecurity CIA Triad

Cybersecurity operates on the CIA triad, which is something professionals use to gauge the efficacy of security measures. The CIA triad is as follows:

• Confidentiality: Data is secured, ideally through encryption. Access is limited to users who need to use it, rather than being open access for everyone involved. One good practice to exercise in this instance is the Principle of Least Privilege, meaning workers only have access to the bare essentials for the completion of their tasks.
• Integrity: What good is data if it isn’t left in its intended state? Cybersecurity professionals and IT technicians alike have the means of checking whether or not files have been tampered with. However, as with any element of the CIA triad, when one of these elements is compromised, all of them are compromised. Integrity is vital for understanding that the data you access is functioning as intended. It isn’t being used as a means of delivering a malicious payload or worse.
• Availability: Having access to your data should be a given. At any point in time, the intended user for a file or piece of data can access it. Availability is part and parcel with the likes of confidentiality and integrity. If the data isn’t available, then confidentiality and integrity are likely compromised as well. Availability simply corresponds to the ability to access data at any time it is requested.

In an ideal world, any piece of data should adhere to the CIA triad. However, that isn’t always the case, which further highlights the need for cybersecurity for any business.

Six Sigma for Cybersecurity

Now that we’ve dived a little further into things, let’s explore Six Sigma for cybersecurity. Typically, most professionals will adhere to the NIST framework for incident response. This works in conjunction with whatever GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) measures are needed for a given industry. Cybersecurity has an increased focus, thanks to the numerous regulations imposed over the last 50 years on various industries. The likes of PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and even the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are measures intended to keep industries in step with solid practices.

That said, there is plenty of room for Six Sigma in cybersecurity. Six Sigma is a methodology focused primarily on the continued improvement of processes, the reduction of waste, and the elimination of variation. As such, it makes for a perfect bedfellows as far as cybersecurity is concerned.

Integrating Six Sigma with your cybersecurity efforts is a natural fit. Tools like the Ishikawa diagram, Pareto charts, and even the DMAIC framework work right alongside the normal practices exercised by any security professional worth their pay. With any luck, you’ll have a tighter ship with less inherent risk posed by the surface area of your digital infrastructure.

Continual Improvement Efforts

The very foundation of Six Sigma for cybersecurity is going to center around continued improvement efforts. This is where you can apply the DMAIC framework to your current security operations, analyzing areas that need stark improvement. With any luck, you can begin further refining these efforts to make sure you’ve got a lean and effective security operation.

Numerous areas need to be considered when conducting a DMAIC initiative for your security needs. I would focus on areas like the hardware in use, continued employee training, and general maintenance and upkeep. I certainly get the problems this poses, as employees are generally resistant to the notion of change and continued education.

However, I will note that most incidents happen because of poor employee training. Your DMAIC efforts should hone in on areas of concern, especially if you have historical incidents that have occurred. Pinpointing these areas of concern and implementing lasting solutions is going to be your key to maintaining business continuity.

DMAIC for Incident Response

This might come as a surprise, but there isn’t necessarily a framework in place for incident response. I’ve worked at numerous shops, and each one has a different means of handling incident response. This is where DMAIC makes a ton of sense. If you’ve got a compromised server, once it is taken out of the network, DMAIC is a great way of looking for issues.

Being able to pinpoint methods of entry, analyze the extent of the damage or breach, and finally implement a remediation are all things readily handled by DMAIC when looking at Six Sigma for cybersecurity. If you’ve got champions on staff, they are more than equipped to handle the workload needed to draw up DMAIC plans for any aspect of cybersecurity.

Integrating the NIST Framework with Six Sigma

One of the best practices at any cybersecurity professional’s disposal is the NIST framework. This consists of five core elements: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. As previously mentioned, you can easily see parallels to the five central components of DMAIC concerning the NIST framework. You can and should still use NIST when remediating any issues, but you can use it alongside DMAIC and other Six Sigma tools.

Further, the NIST framework allows ample room for root cause analysis techniques like the Ishikawa diagram or the 5 Whys to get to the more pressing concerns with a security issue. Six Sigma has provided all the tools necessary for identifying and remediating issues, and working alongside NIST is a natural fit.

In the past, we’ve covered hybridized approaches to Six Sigma, like Lean Six Sigma or Agile Six Sigma. It wouldn’t come as a shock in the coming decade if there wasn’t a GRC-oriented hybrid intended for cybersecurity.

Utilization of Six Sigma Tools for the Identification of Potential Issues

I touched previously on the use of the QC tools to remediate cybersecurity issues. However, I’d like to highlight them a bit more. Analyzing problems and breaches is essentially like finding the root cause of a defect in a manufacturing line. Something with an intended function is producing bad outputs, and the issue needs to be fixed.

Now, the major defect at play with a cybersecurity incident is rarely a defect in the operation of a machine. Sure, computers will have security flaws and zero-day exploits. That’s been the price of doing business in a digital environment for the last forty years.

However, I’d strongly suggest taking a closer look at the root cause analysis tools, QC tools, and other elements that are common sights within the Six Sigma methodology. With minor adaptations, these are are worthwhile tools for ultimately providing a secure means of hardening your computer systems to minimize potential incidents.

Integrating Six Sigma In Digital Toolchains

Above all else, what is Six Sigma centered around? If you answered data, give yourself a pat on the back. The truth of the matter is that cybersecurity is heavily motivated and driven by data as well. Network technicians and IT professionals make consistent use of logs, incident reports, and other data points to construct their view of incidents.

You can leverage that same data with Six Sigma in mind when constructing new cybersecurity initiatives. If you’re noticing points of entry on your public-facing website with alarming regularity through certain pages, that is certainly an area to concentrate on for an improvement effort.

Integrating Six Sigma into digital toolchains for the sake of security isn’t a difficult notion to understand. Data runs both approaches, and understanding, collating, and ultimately acting upon that data is going to be instrumental for continued success in the workplace.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Still hungry for more? Of course you are, and worry not, my dear reader, because you’re in the right place. You might want to take a closer look at how to transition from Waterfall to Scrum. More and more businesses are pivoting toward the Agile methodology and Scrum. Knowing how to pivot is going to be a pain in the neck without the right sort of gameplan.

Additionally, you might do well to understand how to build a culture of continuous improvement in a remote environment. Remote work is the way of the future. Understanding how to get on top of the need for continuous improvement is going to guarantee your business’s cultural identity isn’t slipping.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity and Six Sigma make sense together. Hopefully, we’ve provided at least some guidance on how to integrate Six Sigma’s toolchain into your cybersecurity efforts. Making sure your business can weather attacks and breaches is paramount for any modern organization. Get started today.