In the age of digital transformation, adhering to aging cybersecurity rules, policies, and standards set a few decades ago is an open invitation for setbacks. This is why the EU is updating and taking significant steps to strengthen existing regulations and bring new ones to unify existing risk management in individual EU member countries.
Keeping pace with the modernization of complex technology is challenging, but resilience in times of adversity is the need of the hour. One such regulatory measure enacted by the EU to keep a tap on the existing cybersecurity framework is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which entered into force on Jan 16, 2023, and will apply from Jan 17, 2025.
What is DORA?
DORA is a critical advancement in the EU's regulatory landscape, designed to enhance financial entities' cybersecurity and operational resilience. Since the financial sector relies increasingly on digital technologies, the need for robust frameworks to manage information and communications technology (ICT) related incidents and cyber threats has never been more pressing. DORA addresses these challenges by preparing financial institutions to manage such incidents by imparting the necessary strategies and tools to mitigate risks, maintain operational continuity, and reduce systemic vulnerabilities.
Why is DORA important?
The financial sector depends on technology and tech companies to deliver financial services. DORA aims to harmonise and strengthen the IT security of various financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, payment service providers, investment firms, and suppliers, such as third-party service providers, to ensure the European financial sector remains resilient during severe disruption. This framework is designed to safeguard the operational resilience of European financial institutions. It will help ensure critical operations and services can be maintained during cyberattacks or disruptions due to technology-related failures.
What is the Scope of DORA Regulation?
DORA aims to create a consistent, unified approach to digital operational resilience across the EU. The regulation seeks to protect various financial entities from operational risks stemming from ICT vulnerabilities and third-party dependencies. These guidelines promise enhanced resilience across the financial ecosystem, from strengthening cybersecurity frameworks to prioritising digital resilience and addressing unique digital risks.
Its primary objectives include:
The potential financial penalties are significant, with fines reaching up to 2% of total annual global revenue for firms. Individual violations can result in fines up to $1,000,000, while third-party ICT violations may incur penalties up to $5,000,000. In extreme cases, regulators may even suspend company operations. The stakes are high, and the time to act is now.
How SolarWinds Can Help
When preparing for DORA, SolarWinds offers a suite of products to help your organization’s security posture. This, in turn, can assist with your DORA compliance in critical areas such as risk management, incident management, reporting obligations, access management, and vulnerability management requirements.
SolarWinds Security Observability
Security Observability dashboards, the security integration into SolarWinds® Observability software (available as Self-hosted or SaaS), provides real-time visibility into your organisation’s cyber resilience status. Powerful observability capabilities help customers identify risks, vulnerabilities, and infringements on dedicated security dashboards. These dashboards help teams focus on critical issues without drowning in telemetry data. This can help senior management make informed decisions quickly during an incident.
SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
SolarWinds® Security Event Manager (SEM) is a powerful tool designed to enhance your organization’s cybersecurity posture by providing real-time visibility across your distributed environment. SEM provides real-time event correlation and security analytics, enabling you to detect and respond to security incidents promptly. It offers built-in report templates and advanced reporting tools making it easy to customise reports.
SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM)
SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) enables you to manage and audit user access rights across your IT infrastructure from a single console. With ARM, you can quickly identify who has access to what in your environment and when they accessed it. ARM helps you maintain control over sensitive data. In addition to user account management for faster incident response and risk assessment, it also helps maintain security policies; built-in reports help you identify and investigate privilege abuses, suspicious account activity, and other vulnerabilities.
SolarWinds Patch Manager
SolarWinds Patch Manager can simplify your patch management process and automates patching for Microsoft servers, workstations, and third-party applications, helping keep your systems up-to-date and secure. DORA compliance requires financial institutions to implement robust security measures, including regular software updates.
Solutions Built to Enhance Security Posture
By mandating stricter cybersecurity measures and overseeing every technology dependency in the EU, DORA represents a significant update to the EU’s approach to harmonising and strengthening the IT security of the financial sector and ICT third-party service providers. While it presents new challenges for organisations, solutions offered by SolarWinds can assist you with your compliance goals. With these tools, you can enhance your organisation's DORA cybersecurity measures, improving the agility and flexibility of your security and compliance teams.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. SolarWinds makes no warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information contained herein.
