Financial institutions are becoming more and more reliant on software applications. To help ensure the security and resilience of their information and communication technology (ICT) systems, The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was introduced and passed by the European Union in 2022. It establishes a comprehensive framework to safeguard financial firms, their customers, and the broader financial ecosystem from attacks, breaches, and operational disruptions. It will take full effect by 2025 and is both a regulatory obligation for firms, and a strategic necessity.
But given the complex and fast-paced environment of modern software development, compliance with DORA isn’t always easy for financial institutions. That’s where Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) solutions, such as Cycode, become invaluable.
Keep reading to learn more about DORA’s key requirements, the role of ASPM, and how Cycode’s Complete ASPM approach addresses key compliance challenges.
Understanding DORA’s Key Requirements
With a goal of streamlining and enhancing ICT risk requirements within existing operational risk frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, etc.), DORA is built on four core pillars:
- ICT Risk Management: Financial institutions must implement strong controls and measures to manage and mitigate ICT risks, ensuring the security and availability of their digital assets.
- Incident Reporting and Management: Timely and accurate reporting of ICT-related incidents is crucial. DORA mandates financial institutions to have efficient processes in place to detect, report, and respond to security incidents.
- Digital Operational Resilience Testing: Continuous testing and validation of the institution’s ICT systems’ resilience are required to ensure they can withstand and recover from disruptions.
- Third-Party ICT Risk Management: Financial institutions must manage risks stemming from their reliance on third-party ICT providers, ensuring that these vendors also comply with DORA’s standards.
These pillars provide a structured approach to building a resilient digital infrastructure and safeguarding against potential threats. Given that applications are the lifeblood of modern financial institutions, AppSec plays an essential role here. But security and development teams have to overcome several challenges to put these pillars into practice.
For example:
- Identifying vulnerabilities across complex systems
- Balancing security and speed
- Managing disparate tools
- Data silos
- Maintaining security in CI/CD pipelines
- Managing open source risks
- Third-party risk management
ASPM can help with all of the above.
The Role of ASPM in DORA Compliance
Before we explain how ASPM supports DORA compliance specifically, let’s define ASPM generally.
Application Security Posture Management is an AppSec platform that provides complete visibility, risk prioritization, and remediation capabilities to improve organizations’ overall cyber resiliency.
Introduced by Gartner as a distinct category to fill the gaps left by traditional point solutions, ASPM platforms provide visibility of vulnerabilities across the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk scoring, enforce controls, and provide robust remediation capabilities..
Unlike traditional security tools that focus on isolated aspects of application security, ASPM platforms take a holistic approach, integrating CI/CD pipeline security, application security testing, posture management, and compliance monitoring into a unified platform.
Here’s how these capabilities apply to DORA’s key requirements, including the four pillars cited above:
Gain Complete Visibility and Control
DORA mandates comprehensive ICT risk management, which requires unified visibility across the software development lifecycle (SDLC). But according to research, the average AppSec team uses 49 tools.
ASPM platforms unify various security tools and data sources into a single interface, simplifying management and enhancing visibility across the CI/CD pipeline and SDLC.
Prioritize What Matters Most
DORA emphasizes effective incident reporting and risk management. ASPM platforms help prioritize vulnerabilities based on business impact, reducing alert fatigue and ensuring that critical issues are addressed first.
This comprehensive, data-driven approach ensures that security teams can focus their efforts on the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest threat to the organization, ultimately improving overall security posture and minimizing the potential damage from a cyberattack.
Foster Collaboration and Agility
DORA encourages a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration. ASPM platforms break down silos between security and development teams by integrating security checks early in the SDLC. This collaborative approach accelerates development cycles and reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities, both key elements of DORA’s digital operational resilience pillar.
Accelerate Incident Response
DORA requires rapid response to ICT incidents. ASPM platforms address this directly by providing actionable remediation guidance and enabling bulk remediation. Importantly, ASPM enables developers to address vulnerabilities within their familiar workflows to minimize disruption to development cycles. The result? Reduced mean time to repair (MTTR).
How Cycode Addresses DORA Compliance Challenges
Cycode offers a Complete ASPM solution that aligns with DORA’s compliance requirements.
In addition to the above, key features include:
Pipeline Security, Next-Gen AST and Posture Management All-In-One
Financial institutions often struggle with fragmented visibility in their SDLC due to the use of multiple security tools, making it difficult to identify compliance gaps. Cycode’s Complete ASPM platform addresses this by combining pipeline security, AST, and posture management into a single platform, simplifying the process of understanding, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities.
Pipeline Security
Cycode offers comprehensive protection across the software supply chain, including CI/CD security, scanning and detecting secrets, source code leakage detection, and continuous monitoring and logging. This unified approach ensures quick identification and mitigation of threats, further supporting DORA’s ICT risk management and resilience requirements.
Next-Gen AST
Cycode’s ASPM platform integrates multiple AST tools into a seamless process, ensuring consistent and accurate risk assessments.
SCA provides deep insights into the security and licensing risks associated with third-party software components (which helps institutions manage external ICT risks effectively) while SAST, DAST, and IAST help find vulnerabilities in the custom code written by developers. That means both custom code and third-party components are covered.
Posture Management
Cycode offers a unified approach to managing security posture, seamlessly integrating with existing security infrastructure and third-party tools. By consolidating vulnerability data, prioritizing risks based on DORA-defined impact criteria, and providing actionable remediation guidance, Cycode empowers organizations to build a comprehensive view of their ICT risk profile.
This holistic approach supports effective incident management, continuous monitoring, and the ongoing assessment of digital operational resilience required by DORA.
Proprietary Scanners
Cycode’s proprietary scanners offer unparalleled depth and accuracy in vulnerability detection, enabling organizations to comprehensively assess and manage ICT risks as mandated by DORA.
Our comprehensive suite of proprietary scanning tools includes:
- CI/CD Security (Pipeline Security)
- Secrets scanning & detection
- Code leak detection
- Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning
- Container Scanning
Advanced Risk Assessment and Prioritization
Cycode’s Advanced Risk Scoring aligns with DORA’s emphasis on effective risk management by providing a sophisticated, multi-dimensional approach to assessing and prioritizing vulnerabilities.
Unlike traditional scoring systems that may rely on a single metric or a simplistic aggregation of factors, Cycode’s Risk Score integrates a variety of factors, including potential financial impact, regulatory implications, and business continuity risks. This comprehensive approach empowers organizations to focus on the threats that pose the greatest risk to their digital operations, thereby enhancing their overall resilience.
Compliance Automation
Cycode simplifies DORA compliance management by automating the standardization and enforcement of security policies across source code repositories, third-party dependencies, cloud systems, and more. Unlike traditional tools that rely on manual checks, Cycode automates compliance processes, reducing human error and ensuring consistent adherence to DORA’s stringent requirements.
Bonus: The platform’s automated reporting capabilities provide clear, comprehensive insights into your organization’s security posture, facilitating smoother audits and ensuring continuous alignment with DORA’s regulatory standards.
As a result of all of these features, security and development teams can expect to experience the following benefits:
- Improved security posture
- Reduced risk of data breaches
- Faster time-to-market
- Enhanced operational resilience
- Cost-efficiency
- Better collaboration
Conclusion
DORA compliance is crucial for financial institutions as it ensures the resilience of their digital operations, helps build trust with customers, and mitigates the risk of a breach. But achieving compliance with DORA’s comprehensive requirements is no small feat, and AppSec is an essential component of any comprehensive security strategy.
By adopting a complete ASPM solution like Cycode, firms can address the challenges posed by DORA, ensuring that their ICT systems are secure, resilient, and compliant with regulatory standards.
Want to learn more about how Cycode can simplify your path to DORA compliance before the new year? Book a demo now.
