Introduction to policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines

A follow-on to the baselining overview section is policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines. This section works hand in hand with baselining and holds extreme importance within an organization. It is critical as part of your security program that well-defined policies, standards, and procedures are in place and being followed by everyone. In addition, it is important that the policies are signed off and enforced by leadership. Without this support, it becomes more difficult to enforce and collectively get behind security at an organizational level.

Start by defining and creating your company policies. As a result, your standards can then be built to form the foundation of your baselines. Once these baselines are created, procedures and guidelines can be built to implement the baselines and help accomplish the end goal. Keeping this strategy in mind will drive compliance with your company policies.

The following...