In this discussion post, I am the CISO for a publicly traded company. What protections would I implement to ensure availability of your systems (and why)?

As the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of a publicly traded company, ensuring system availability is critical to maintaining business continuity, customer trust, and regulatory compliance. To achieve this, I would implement the following protections:

  1. Redundant Infrastructure & Cloud-Based Failover – Utilizing multi-region cloud services and on-premise redundancy ensures uptime during failures.
  2. DDoS Protection – Deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and traffic filtering services like AWS Shield or Cloudflare mitigates large-scale attacks.
  3. Disaster Recovery & Backup Plans – Implementing frequent automated backups with offsite storage protects against ransomware and system failures.
  4. Zero Trust Architecture – Restricting access through multi-factor authentication (MFA), least privilege access, and network segmentation reduces insider and external threats.
  5. Continuous Monitoring & Incident Response – Utilizing SIEM tools (e.g., Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel) enables real-time threat detection and rapid response.
  6. Patch Management – Regular software updates prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities.

These measures enhance system resilience, ensuring availability and protecting stakeholders.