Making Security Non-Negotiable
In today’s world of increased digitalisation and interconnectivity the financial sector is at greater risk of information and communication technology (ICT) disruptions, including potentially catastrophic cyber threats. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a legislative framework aimed at enhancing the security of network and ICT systems of organisations operating in the financial sector. It creates a regulatory structure on digital operational resilience, whereby all entities can withstand, respond to and recover from all types of ICT related disruptions. These requirements are homogenous across the EU, with the core aim to prevent and mitigate cyber threats.
DORA seeks to bring uniform requirements for ICT risk management, incident reporting, digital operational resilience testing, ICT third-party risk management, and information-sharing arrangements. The regulation consolidates and upgrades ICT risk requirements to ensure a high level of digital operational resilience, enhancing the financial sector’s stability and consumer trust.
DORA also aims to reduce regulatory complexity, foster supervisory convergence, and increase legal certainty, especially for financial entities operating across borders. By harmonising ICT risk management practices, DORA helps financial entities minimise the impact and costs of ICT disruptions, ultimately preserving the integrity and efficiency of the financial market.
The 5 Key Areas of DORA
- Establish and maintain a robust ICT governance framework.
- Regularly assess and mitigate ICT risks.
- Develop comprehensive ICT security policies.
- Provide regular ICT security training for employees.
- Implement ICT response and recovery plans.
- Develop and document backup policies and procedures.
- Detect anomalous activities promptly.
- Continuously improve based on post-incident reviews and technological developments.
- Develop an effective incident response plan.
- Classify and log all ICT-related incidents.
- Implement clear communication protocols for incident management.
- Perform post-incident analysis to determine root causes.
- Report major incidents to relevant authorities.
- Consider voluntary notification of significant cyber threats.
- Harmonise reporting content and templates with regulatory standards.
- Establish a comprehensive digital resilience testing program.
- Conduct regular risk assessments and modify testing frequency accordingly.
- Keep detailed records of resilience tests.
- Implement continuous improvement based on testing outcomes.
- Conduct advanced testing of critical ICT tools and systems.
- Ensure testers meet high suitability and reputability standards.
- DORA also aims to reduce regulatory complexity, foster supervisory convergence, and increase legal certainty, especially for financial entities operating across borders. By harmonising ICT risk management practices, DORA helps financial entities minimise the impact and costs of ICT disruptions, ultimately preserving the integrity and efficiency of the financial market.
- Thoroughly assess and manage the security measures of third-party vendors.
- Ensure vendors comply with DORA requirements.
- Include specific security and compliance requirements in contracts.
- Regularly review and update contracts to reflect changing risks.
- Implement continuous monitoring and auditing of third-party vendros.
- Align processes with evolving regulatory requirements.
- Partner with other financial insitutions to share information.
- Create protocols for sharing cyber threat intelligence.
- Consistently share threat intelligence focused on the financial sector.
- Coordinate efforts to identify and mitigate emerging threats.
Organisations that need to comply with DORA
How can QuadPrime help you?
QuadPrime, a member of the MAP S.Platis Group, specialises in security and resilience advisory services. We offer customised solutions to help financial firms comply with DORA’s requirements.
QuadPrime champions a resilience-centric approach, partnering with clients to continuously build their capacity to withstand and recover from increasingly disruptive events.
• Seasoned Team: Our team consists of cybersecurity professionals with extensive experience in compliance frameworks like DORA and ISO standards.
• Proven Track Record: We have a successful history of helping organisations achieve and maintain compliance with various regulations.
• Understanding of the Specific Regulatory Environment: We provide the seamless integration of DORA within existing Frameworks leading to significant cost savings throughout the compliance process.
DORA Services
- We assess your current security posture against DORA requirements, identifying any gaps or areas needing improvement and prepare a roadmap for closing the gaps.
- We evaluate your ICT risk management practices, incident response protocols, business continuity plans, and third-party risk management processes.
- We collaborate with you to develop a bespoke DORA compliance framework which outlines the policies, procedures, and technical controls needed to achieve and maintain compliance.
- We can build on any existing framework you have in place such as EBA Guidelines on ICT and security risk management (EBA/GL/2019/04), ISO 27001, etc.
We can assist with implementing these technical controls and ensuring they meet DORA’s specifications.
- ICT risk management and governance
- Incident reporting and response
- Digital operational resilience testing
- Penetration testing
- Establish threat intelligence mechanisms
- DORA emphasizes managing risks associated with third-party service providers. We can help you assess the security posture of your vendors and ensure they adhere to DORA requirements.
- Review your contractual arrangements on the use of ICT services provided by ICT Third-Party Service Providers.
- Maintaining DORA compliance is an ongoing process. We can provide ongoing support to help you stay up to date with regulatory changes and ensure your compliance framework remains effective.
QuadPrime DORA RoadMap
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The main objective of DORA is to ensure that financial entities are capable of withstanding, responding to and recovering from ICT-related disruptions and threats. It aims to harmonise and strengthen digital operational resilience across the financial sector, protecting the integrity and stability of the financial system.
DORA applies to a wide range of financial entities, including banks, investment firms, insurance companies, payment service providers and critical ICT third-party service providers. It covers all entities that provide financial services within the EU to ensure consistent standards for digital operational resilience.
Non-compliance with DORA can result in administrative and criminal penalties, remedial measures and public disclosure of the non-compliance. Competent authorities can impose fines, require corrective actions and restrict or prohibit certain operations of non-compliant entities to enforce adherence to the regulation.
The ICT risk management framework should be reviewed at least once a year. Additionally, reviews should occur more frequently if major ICT-related incidents occur or significant changes in the ICT environment arise, ensuring the framework remains effective and up to date.
The Lead Overseer oversees critical ICT third-party service providers, ensuring they manage ICT risks effectively. This role includes conducting assessments, providing risk mitigation guidance and coordinating oversight activities across jurisdictions to maintain consistent and effective supervision, preventing systemic risks in the financial sector.
By emphasising testing, DORA aims to shift the focus from reacting to security incidents to proactively identifying and mitigating risks. This approach helps build more resilient digital infrastructure that can withstand cyber threats and disruptions. DORA requires ICT risk-based testing for microenterprises (Article 25) and Advanced testing of ICT tools, systems and processes based on TLPT Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT) (Article 26).
DORA tasks the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) to develop Regulatory technical standards (RTS) aiming at further harmonisation in addition to providing specific details on how to implement DORA high level requirements. All RTS can be found here: https://www.eba.europa.eu/regulation-and-policy/operational-resilience