Cherry Bekaert: Combining Domain Knowledge with Cybersecurity Prowess

Government agencies are collaborating with third-party solution vendors to accelerate the digitalization of their deep-rooted processes and facilitate remote working for their personnel. This is a direct result of ongoing increasing budgetary and resource changes and uncertainty constraints in their day-to-day and long-term operations, caused by the combined impact of global geopolitical turmoil and the resulting changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these emerging hindrances and the steps taken to resolve them expand the attack surface on the ever-growing datasets within government organizations, making them more susceptible to ransomware attacks and data breaches. With its end-to-end and expert-backed cybersecurity, digital advisory, risk assessment, and incident response management services, Cherry Bekaert holds the key to securing the ever-evolving data infrastructure in the government sector.

Cherry Bekaert has a multidisciplinary team of veterans from various domains, and seasoned cybersecurity and risk assessment advisors. The firm combines this collective expertise to approach client challenges from multiple angles, solving a wide range of cybersecurity and data risk-related challenges in the most impactful and cost-effective manner. Cherry Bekaert begins every client engagement by evaluating their current data security requirements, contractual specifications with third-party vendors, compliance status, and regulatory expectations. Once done, the enterprise supports its clients in accurately classifying and prioritizing their information and assets. Similarly, the firm approaches a client’s data security elements and holistically augments the program design, its technical execution, and the process of accurately identifying top cyber threats. By accomplishing this, the firm assists government agencies in effectively securing their remote workforces and the sensitive data they can access. “From creation and management to the disposition and storage of datasets, we allow our clients to take control of their data management landscape and enable vastly improved cybersecurity,” says Steve Ursillo, Risk Accounting & Advisory Partner and Leader of Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at Cherry Bekaert.

To minimize the risk of ransomware attacks, Cherry Bekaert measures the impact of a client’s existing risk assessment policies, including best practices, technology controls, and resource requirements, pinpointing the facets that need security enhancement. The firm also conducts vulnerability assessments, attack/penetration testing, and categorization of third-party elements based on their threat level. On the other hand, Cherry Bekaert ensures that incident response management tools within government organizations are well-defined and efficiently orchestrated to collect adverse event data, perform analytics, and generate appropriate incident reports in a timely and compliant manner.

From creation and management to the disposition and storage of datasets, we allow our clients to take control of their data management landscape and enable vastly improved cybersecurity

Unmatched core competencies have helped Cherry Bekaert be a part of numerous successful collaborations with its clients. In one instance, the firm assisted an organization in gaining an overall view of their data security, risk assessment, and incident response management programs. Initially, due to their fragmented workforce, distributed system layout, resource constraints, and limited domain expertise, the client struggled to adequately protect and monitor their technology and data assets. To mitigate these challenges, Cherry Bekaert performed a comprehensive cyber risk assessment to identify the inefficiencies and deficiencies in the client’s existing security controls. Following this, the company helped the client understand their top risk factors and how to mitigate them using best-suited technology solutions and expert-backed policies. In the end, Cherry Bekaert generated an overall residual risk rating and designed a three-year execution strategy to support the client in remediating current and future risks while properly aligning solutions to their overall business and technology strategy.

This story is just one of the numerous successes that Cherry Bekaert has enabled through its exceptional combination of domain experience and cyber and digital risk know-how. The firm aims to widen its scope as a trusted advisor for businesses across various industry sectors equipping them with the tools and advisory solutions that mitigate existing and future digital transformation risks and cyber threats.