Cyber Resilience Audit

 

 

A Cyber Resilience Audit assesses an organization’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks while maintaining critical business operations. It goes beyond traditional cybersecurity audits by focusing on continuity, detection, response, and recovery capabilities across people, processes, and technology.

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📋 Cyber Resilience Audit – Checklist Table

#	Audit Domain	Key Control Check	Evidence Required
1	Governance & Strategy	Cyber resilience strategy approved by top management	Policy documents, board minutes
2		CISO appointed with defined responsibilities	Org chart, job description
3		Cyber risk appetite and tolerance levels defined	Risk register, board-approved thresholds
4	Risk Management	Periodic cyber risk assessments performed	Risk assessment reports, risk treatment plan
5		Business Impact Analysis (BIA) conducted	BIA report, critical asset list
6	Threat Intelligence	Subscribed to real-time threat feeds or CERT alerts	Threat feed subscription records, sample alerts
7		Intelligence used to proactively update controls	Patch logs, firewall rule changes post-alert
8	Incident Detection	SIEM/SOC in place to monitor and detect anomalies	SIEM reports, alert samples
9		Real-time alerts correlated with threat feeds	SOC playbooks, alert correlation logs
10	Incident Response (IR)	Incident Response Plan (IRP) documented and tested	IRP document, drill reports
11		Roles and escalation matrix defined	Incident matrix, IR team list
12		Incidents logged and reviewed periodically	Incident tickets, root cause analyses
13	Business Continuity (BCP)	BCP framework includes cyber event scenarios	BCP policy, scenario-based test results
14		Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and RPO validated	DR drill results, dashboards
15		DR drills performed at least annually	DR test reports, sign-offs
16	Backup & Restore	Regular, automated backups tested for integrity	Backup logs, test restore records
17		Offsite/cloud backups with encryption	Backup configuration, encryption settings
18	User Awareness	Cyber resilience and phishing simulation training	Attendance logs, simulation reports
19		Critical staff trained on IR and BCP roles	Training records, certifications
20	Supply Chain Resilience	Vendors assessed for cyber risks	Vendor risk assessments, third-party SLA clauses
21		Key vendors included in BCP and IR drills	Drill reports with vendor participation logs
22	Metrics & Reporting	KPIs defined for resilience (MTTD, MTTR, drill frequency, coverage)	Cyber resilience dashboard
23		Reports shared with senior management or board	Reporting schedule, samples

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🔐 Key Standards Referenced

• NIST CSF (Cybersecurity Framework)
• ISO 22301 (Business Continuity)
• ISO 27031 (ICT Continuity)
• NIST SP 800-34 (Contingency Planning)
• CERT-IN Guidelines (for Indian organizations)

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📎 Deliverables of Cyber Resilience Audit

• Executive Summary
• Gap Analysis Matrix
• Risk Classification (High/Medium/Low)
• Remediation & Recommendations Table
• Compliance Mapping (to NIST/ISO)
• Evidence Annexure

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Would you like a Cyber Resilience Audit Template (Excel or Word), or a mapping guide to NIST CSF/ISO 22301 for implementation?