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What is the DORA regulation in a nutshell?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) regulation outlines what financial institutions and their Information and Communicaiton Technology (ICT) vendors must perform to strengthen the financial services and supplier ecosystem to meet the DORA regulations.

The goal? A more secure financial system in Europe.

DORA makes EU finance tougher against cyberattacks. It forces banks, insurers, and similar firms (along with their key tech providers) – those considered to be Information and Communication Technology vendors – to build strong defenses against cyber threats. This means:

  • Identifying and managing IT risks, like hacking vulnerabilities.
  • Having a plan to respond to cyberattacks and get back to business quickly.
  • Regularly testing their defenses to make sure they work.
  • Sharing information about cyber threats with each other.

The 5 Pillars of DORA

That ‘in a nutshell’ explanation translates to the 5 pillars of DORA requirements:

ICT Risk Management and Governance

Implementing a framework to identify, assess, and mitigate ICT risks.

Incident Reporting and Management

Establishing processes for detecting, responding to, and recovering from ICT-related incidents.

Digital Operational Resilience Testing

Conducting regular testing of ICT systems and resilience measures.

Information Sharing

Encouraging collaboration and information sharing on cyber threats among financial institutions.

Oversight of Third Parties

Establish and operationalize the oversight framework for critical ICT providers and monitoring of third-party risk providers and contractual provisions between financial institutions and ICT vendors.

You can see the expanded DORA requirements article to understand what each pillar consists of.

How FortifyData helps ICT and Financial Service entities comply with DORA’s third-party risk regulations

The increased emphasis on third-party cyber risk management under DORA is significant.

Many financial organizations rely heavily on third-party vendors for various aspects of their operations. While these relationships can provide numerous benefits, they also introduce potential cyber risks. If a third-party vendor suffers a security breach, the impact can quickly cascade to the organizations relying on their services.

That’s where a platform like FortifyData comes into play. As a comprehensive cyber risk management platform that addresses both enterprise risk management and third-party risk management, FortifyData can help organizations identify gaps, help with remediation planning, continuously monitor and meet the rigorous standards set by DORA, particularly with respect to third-party cyber risk management.

Aligning Questionnaire Responses with Vulnerability Assessment Findings

FortifyData allows organizations to monitor their third-party vendors continuously, offering real-time visibility into cyber risks. With this platform, organizations can conduct in-depth cyber risk assessments of their vendors, including questionnaire management that correlates the technical findings to applicable technical control questions on the questionnaire. This is known as auto-validation of a questionnaire and can quickly highlight discrepancies between recipient responses and technology findings. This helps ensure third parties (service providers) meet the stringent requirements set by DORA.

FortifyData has an interactive DORA questionnaire embedded within our platform. This enables Financial Institutions and ICTs to perform a gap analysis and meet the requirements of DORA. This can act as a DORA compliance checklist to follow. FortifyData’s platform is designed to identify vulnerabilities, assess potential threats, and provide actionable insights to mitigate risks. Additionally, client organization’s subject to DORA can have a score that is impacted by third-party risk (as part of their overall security rating score) AND client organizations can setup specific security ratings scores for each specific vendor or groups of vendors for continuous monitoring of the third-party risk to the client organization. Clients can then choose to use the report that FortifyData has for the third parties to send to ESA regulators for review.

Moreover, FortifyData aids in ensuring compliance with DORA’s regulations for regular risk assessments and rigorous testing. It offers a risk scoring system that quantifies cyber risk, taking into account various factors such as the likelihood of a cyber-attack and the potential impact. This scoring system allows organizations to prioritize their risk mitigation efforts effectively, aligning with DORA’s requirements for a risk-based approach to cybersecurity.

Reach out to schedule a demo and to perform a DORA gap analysis.

What is the Digital Operational Resilience Act for dummies?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) regulation outlines what financial institutions and their Information and Communicaiton Technology (ICT) vendors must perform to strengthen the financial services and supplier ecosystem to meet the DORA regulations.

  1. Are you in scope for DORA?
  2. Conduct a gap analysis
  3. Develop a remediation plan to address the gaps
  4. Identify ICT vendors and execute a plan for ensuring their DORA compliance
  5. Conduct penetration test – threat led penetration testing (TLPT)
  6. Develop an incident response plan
  7. Implement continuous monitoring of ICT vendors
  8. Define and enact Board responsibilities

 

Explore the expanded details of the DORA compliance checklist below for specific actions and plans for each of the criteria. We have reviewed the Digital Operational Resilience Act pdf and extracted and interpreted the requirements for publishing here as a DORA regulation summary.

Resources

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Webinar: Optimize Your Third Party Risk Management Program

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