Ensuring Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) readiness

Ensuring Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) readiness

January 2025 is the time of the change. The Digital Operational Resilience Act comes into force, significantly altering data’s modus operandi within the European Union’s financial services sector. Be future-ready today with Avenga’s DORA readiness assessment services, as we will help you devise and implement a stepwise personalized DORA compliance plan.

How will DORA affect your organization?

A major change is looming for financial entities and service providers operating in Europe. DORA will simultaneously affect five key operational framework areas.

 

Ivan Kohut

ICT risk management

DORA will heavily influence the ICT risk management standard, which mandates European financial institutions’ accountability for assessing, mitigating, and managing risks associated with their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems. DORA reinvents the EU’s financial organizations’ protection and rehabilitation pattern against various digital threats.

Incident reporting

One key DORA requirement is to be more open about data security incidents for the greater good of your partners, employees, and clients. Incident reporting is a crucial aspect of the DORA, requiring financial institutions to establish robust systems for detecting, reporting, and analyzing ICT-related incidents. This framework controls that incidents are managed effectively and earned to prevent future occurrences.

Digital operational resilience testing

There will be more ad hoc testing as the European Commission aims to establish a cybercrime-proof data environment. Hence, digital operational resilience testing, as mandated by DORA, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that financial institutions’ ICT and ICT third-party systems are robust and capable of withstanding cyber threats.

Third-party risk management

More accountability and responsibility for your 3rd-party vendors is coming. Third-party ICT risk management is integral to the DORA framework, focusing on financial institutions’ relationships with external ICT service providers. This DORA element is designed to ensure that these third-party engagements are not a source of vulnerability in the financial institution’s operational resilience.

Information sharing

Your organization must be ready to share more information and do it securely. Information sharing, as outlined in the DORA, focuses on the collaborative aspect of cybersecurity in the financial sector. This pillar encourages financial entities to share information regarding cyber threats and vulnerabilities, fostering a community-driven risk management and resilience approach.

Ivan Kohut

Chief Technology Officer

Is your organization DORA-ready?

Get an initial estimate of your DORA readiness in less than 10 minutes. Our team of experts came up with a short yet comprehensive survey. Let us guide you on your journey toward painless and smooth DORA compliance.

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DORA

Prepare for DORA in four simple steps

1. Planning

Avenga deploys qualified compliance consultants who conduct thorough assessments of the systems through personalized interviews and questionnaires, utilizing a detailed checklist encompassing legal and infosec aspects mandated by DORA.

2. Core

Using a comprehensive checklist that covers all relevant DORA chapters and articles, we scrutinize your organization's security framework against DORA-defined scope and metrics to identify gaps in DORA compliance readiness. Our experts thoroughly assess information security and legal requirements to determine the organization's current compliance status and pinpoint areas needing improvement.

3. Outcome

Avenga delivers a detailed report on the assessment results, covering compliance findings for each clause. This report is essential for understanding specific areas of non-compliance and includes necessary actions for technical, process, and legal enhancements to meet DORA requirements effectively.

4. Recommendations

As the general report was delivered, we embarked upon defining personalized DORA-compliance gaps, providing customized recommendations to tackle the specific non-compliance areas identified during the assessment. These recommendations cover necessary infosec entities in implementing practical improvements and ensuring a smooth path toward achieving full DORA compliance.

Avenga’s unified guide to Digital Operational Resilience Act

This whitepaper holds everything you need to know about DORA, conveniently compiled in one place by Avenga's experts. While some companies are almost there with their Digital Operational Resilience Act compliance, some have only started their journey, and some are yet to hear about it, there is always something to learn and double-check regarding data in the financial sector. Learn or verify your knowledge about the main novelties in data handling and ICT third-party risk management the European Parliament will require within its financial system. Dive deep into the best strategies for DORA readiness. One whitepaper, everything there is to know about a DORA-ready future of your business.

Download whitepaper
DORA whitepaper

We can help you comply with DORA

Your company will benefit from the important functions Avenga will play in your DORA-readiness journey.

Assess the gaps other vendors don’t see.

With a comprehensive background in delivering custom financial and banking software solutions, Avenga’s experts can see the broader picture of where your operational framework might collide with DORA’s critical ICT areas.

Bring tangible personalization experience.

While DORA’s requirements are unified, approaching them from a single standpoint for each company would be, at the very least, unprofessional. We ensure DORA compliance based on your company’s requirements.

Efficient personnel training.

As a trusted tech partner, we will facilitate the creation and implementation of training programs and workshops for your employees, ensuring the best practices for maintaining dependable, operable, reliable, and available systems.

Continuous improvement and optimization.

Our experts will establish continuous improvement and optimization mechanisms, such as neoteric feedback loops, performance monitoring, and assessment tools, to ensure your organization remains aligned with DORA principles over time.

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Something’s unclear?

Frequently Asked Questions

DORA is a regulation created by the European Union. It aims to improve the IT security and resilience of financial entities. It does this by guarding against cyber threats and ICT disruptions. DORA applies to many entities in the EU's financial sector and emphasizes the importance of robust digital operational resilience. The act establishes a unified and stringent framework to help financial institutions and their ICT service providers effectively manage and withstand ICT-related disruptions.

DORA helps the financial sector manage growing risks. These risks include technology, increasing cyber-attack threats, and other ICT-related disruptions. DORA aims to strengthen the digital operational resilience of financial entities by requiring them to adopt a comprehensive approach to managing ICT risks. This includes effective incident reporting, resilience testing, third-party risk management, and information sharing. DORA's framework seeks to harmonize existing regulations and create a consistent approach across the financial sector.

DORA affects a broad spectrum of entities within the EU’s financial sector, including but not limited to: Credit institutions; Investment firms; Insurance and reinsurance companies; Pension funds; Crypto-asset service providers; Payment service providers. This approach ensures all key players in finance follow high digital risk standards and can better withstand digital threats.

DORA advances the EU’s digital operational resilience regulation for the financial sector. Yet, it may not be final. Due to technology and cyber threats’ rapid evolution, emerging risks may require updates or new regulations. Regulatory frameworks must adapt to keep pace with new challenges and advancements.

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Yuliia Hnatyk