DORA Compliance Checklist: Your Essential Guide to Success

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) brings a new set of requirements for financial institutions in the European Union. DORA aims to strengthen operational resilience and safeguard critical operations in the digital age.

This blog post introduces the DORA Compliance Checklist, a downloadable tool designed to simplify your DORA compliance journey.

Demystifying DORA: Key Areas for Focus

DORA encompasses several key areas. Let’s break them down with actionable steps to ensure compliance for each:

1. Mastering ICT Risk Management:

• ▪️ Evaluate: Begin by creating a comprehensive inventory of your ICT infrastructure and its dependencies. This includes hardware, software, networks, and any cloud-based services you utilise.

• ▪️ Identify Your Threats: Conduct thorough risk assessments to pinpoint vulnerabilities and potential threats lurking within your ICT systems. Prioritise these risks based on their severity and likelihood of occurrence.

• ▪️ Fortify Your Defenses: Implement robust controls to mitigate identified risks. This might involve firewalls, access controls, data encryption, and system hardening practices.

• ▪️ Plan for the Unexpected: Establish clear procedures for reporting incidents, ensuring timely identification and response.

• ▪️ Bounce Back Quickly: Develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for your ICT systems. This plan should outline procedures for restoring critical operations in case of disruptions.

2. Building a Robust Incident Management System:

• ▪️ Define Your Criteria: Establish clear and consistent criteria for classifying incidents. This helps with prioritising responses based on the severity and potential impact.

• ▪️ Communication is Key: Develop communication protocols that dictate who to report incidents to and how quickly escalations need to occur. Ensure everyone within the organisation understands these protocols.

• ▪️ Responding Effectively: Implement clear procedures for investigating, containing, and eradicating incidents. This should involve well-defined roles and responsibilities for each stage of the response process.

• ▪️ Practice Makes Perfect: Conduct regular incident response drills and exercises to test your team’s preparedness and identify areas for improvement.

3. Understanding Your Reporting Obligations:

• ▪️ Know the Rules: Familiarize yourself with the specific reporting requirements outlined in DORA. This includes understanding what types of incidents need to be reported and the designated authorities you need to report to.

• ▪️ Streamlined Reporting: Establish clear and efficient processes for timely and accurate reporting of incidents and breaches. Transparency is crucial for regulators and helps identify industry-wide threats.

4. Governance and Oversight: Ensuring Accountability

• ▪️ Assign Ownership: Clearly define roles and responsibilities for DORA compliance within your organisation. This ensures everyone understands their part in maintaining compliance.

• ▪️ DORA Champions: Establish a dedicated DORA compliance program with designated resources. This program should be responsible for overseeing implementation and ongoing maintenance.

• ▪️ Integration is Key: Integrate DORA compliance into your existing risk management frameworks. This fosters a holistic approach to managing risks across your organisation.

• ▪️ Continuous Improvement: Schedule regular reviews and updates to your DORA compliance program. Regulations evolve, so staying informed and adapting your program is essential.

5. Taming Third-Party Risk:

• ▪️ Identify Your Partners: Create a comprehensive list of all third-party ICT service providers your organisation relies upon.

• ▪️ Assess Their Vulnerabilities: Conduct thorough risk assessments for these vendors to understand their security posture and potential vulnerabilities.

• ▪️ Contractual Safeguards: Negotiate contractual clauses that ensure their compliance with DORA’s requirements. This shared responsibility strengthens your overall operational resilience.

• ▪️Keeping an Eye Out: Establish oversight and monitoring mechanisms to keep a watchful eye on potential risks posed by third-party ICT service providers.

Download Your DORA Compliance Checklist and Take Action!

We’ve provided a downloadable DORA Compliance Checklist that complements this information. This checklist offers a more granular breakdown of each focus area with specific tasks you can check off as you progress.

We’re Here to Help!

Do you have any questions about DORA compliance or this checklist? Feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly. We are here to support you in navigating a successful compliance landscape.