What is a Cybersecurity Audit?
Our audits benchmark security controls against standards and requirements including the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT), NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), Cyber Essentials, and ISO 27001.
Who Needs a Cybersecurity Audit?
A Cybersecurity audit is valuable for any business whose leadership team needs assurance that its security controls are appropriately aligned with regulatory standards. This is critical for NHS IT suppliers, digital health companies, medical device manufacturers and AI providers that process, store, or transmit clinical data. Regular external security audits are increasingly required by healthcare organisation procurement teams, investors and insurers based on standards such as ISO27001, Cyber Essentials and DSPT. By benchmarking security controls against recognised standards, a Cybersecurity audit provides a roadmap for demonstrating assurance to your key stakeholders.
What Does a Cybersecurity Audit Involve?
- 01
Scope
The audit begins by defining the scope of the exercise, including business units, systems, services, suppliers, and data flows. We determine the most appropriate standards based on your operations such as the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DSPT, or a combination of requirements.
- 02
Discovery
The next stage involves collecting evidence that corresponds to the requirements of the chosen standards. This includes document reviews, stakeholder interviews, technical configuration reviews, and critical supplier reviews. This is a key step for the gap analysis process.
- 03
Gap Analysis
Using the gathered evidence we assess the effectiveness of existing policies, processes and controls. Our experts determine whether requirements are fulfilled, partially met or absent. The output of this is a detailed gap analysis matrix showing how current controls compare to the chosen frameworks.
- 04
Risk Rating
Not all findings or recommendations will carry the same level of risk. We assess every identified gap based on its potential impact, likelihood, and relevance to your business's operation. Findings and recommendations are prioritised to focus resources on risks that will deliver the greatest improvements in security and assurance.
- 05
Roadmap
The final stage brings together all findings and recommendations into a strategic report. This report is optimised for executive leadership using business language rather than technical jargon to grade current Cybersecurity. The report includes a practical remediation roadmap so that CISOs/CIOs can prioritise actions that align with commercial and go-to-market roadmaps.
Common Challenges
Most healthcare businesses only implement penetration tests which provide a very narrow point in time snapshot relating to vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity regulations and international standards demand far more including regular security governance audits. However, even a Cybersecurity audit can be of limited benefit if it's scoped too narrowly or treated as a check-box exercise. This is why our experts spend significant time at the scoping stage of every audit. Navigating multiple frameworks, including DSPT, NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), ISO 27001, and Cyber Essentials can also be confusing. Our specialist guidance ensures multiple standards can be incorporated into a single audit efficiently and effectively.
Finally, traditional security audits might identify many vulnerabilities but struggle to prioritise these in the context of the health sector. As a health sector specialist this is precisely where we excel.
Experienced, healthcare-literate support helps ensure audits deliver practical, prioritised outcomes that strengthen security, support assurance requirements, and drive meaningful improvement.
How AbedGraham Supports Cybersecurity Audits
A True Cybersecurity Audit
Our audits assess the efficacy of security controls across people, processes, and technology. The result is an assessment that's contextualised for your business.
Gap Analysis
For organisations preparing for procurement, certification, or assurance activities, our audits are benchmarked against recognised standards and frameworks such as DSPT, NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), ISO 27001, and Cyber Essentials.
Strategic Assessment
We audit holistically across governance, risk management, operations, and technical controls. We support leaders to understand where maturity is today and map an achievable target state aligned to commercial objectives.
Dynamic Support
Beyond an audit, our recommendations are all activities that our experts can oversee and project manage over time. A Cybersecurity audit is an excellent baseline to support further engagement such as the use of our vCISO service.
Why Choose The AbedGraham Group?
The AbedGraham Group combines deep expertise in healthcare, life sciences, medical devices, AI and cybersecurity to deliver audits that are aligned to business objectives. We are known for our proportionate and risk-based methodology, focusing on the risks that matter most in healthcare. Our expertise in standards and frameworks such as ISO27001 and DSPT results in defensible, board-ready cybersecurity strategies that will have a tangible impact on business resiliency.
Beyond auditing, our experts are ready to work as an extension of your team, to help close gaps, enhance security maturity, and demonstrate assurance.
Cybersecurity
Talk to a Cybersecurity Specialist
Contact our healthcare cybersecurity experts today to discuss your audit and assurance requirements.
Services Related to Cybersecurity Audits for Healthcare
DSPT Independent Assurance
Readiness assessments, independent assurance audits, and remediation support to help NHS suppliers meet Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) requirements with confidence.
ISO Cybersecurity Services
Expert support for ISO 27001 certification, information security management systems, and related standards such as ISO 22301, helping organisations strengthen governance and demonstrate assurance.
Frequently asked questions
A cybersecurity audit is an assessment of the cyber-maturity of your business according to the latest relevant laws, regulations and international standards. It provides your organisation with a roadmap to improve cyber-resiliency and compliance in complex areas such as healthcare.
A penetration test is a narrow, point in time technical assessment of the vulnerabilities and misconfigurations of software within your network. It does not address governance, policies, processes or threat intelligence. It is typically one component of legal and regulatory requirements.
A cybersecurity audit can be mapped against any law, regulation or international standard relevant to your business. That includes EU NIS2, ISO27001, Cyber Essentials and NHS DSPT.
The duration of a cybersecurity audit depends on the size, complexity, and maturity of the organisation, as well as the scope of the assessment. A focused audit of a smaller organisation may be completed within a few weeks, while broader multi-framework assessments can take longer. Timescales are typically influenced by the availability of evidence, stakeholder interviews, and the number of systems and services in scope.
NHS suppliers are already expected to fulfil the mandatory requirements of a DSPT audit on an annual basis. However, more rigorous audits that capture additional standards are highly recommended and all DSPT requirements can be folded into a larger scale cybersecurity audit.
The outcomes of an audit include a gap analysis report against all relevant standards and regulations, a strategic improvement roadmap and guidance about how our team can operationally accelerate these actions on your behalf.
We recommend all businesses in healthcare be audited annually and after any major incidents.
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