7 steps for assessing your cyber security posture

Updated September 2026

Key takeaways_

A strong cyber security posture starts with understanding your risks, vulnerabilities and critical assets before they can be exploited.
Regular cyber security posture assessments help you prioritise improvements, reduce risk and strengthen business resilience.
Cyber security is not a one-off project. Continuous monitoring, employee awareness and the right security tools are essential for maintaining protection over time.

Cyber security is an increasing priority for businesses of every size. In recent years, cyber attacks have risen, with 65% of medium-sized businesses reporting a breach last year.

AI is largely driving the risk level, with criminals now using AI to co-ordinate and scale their attempts with new, deceptive methods that are harder to detect. With attacks becoming more common, it’s critical organisations can protect themselves before they fall foul of the financial, operational and reputational damage associated with a successful attack.

A strong cyber security posture helps reduce risk, improve resilience and minimise the operational, financial and reputational impact of an incident. However, to get to strong, you need to understand the weaknesses in your existing set up.

This is where a cyber security posture assessment comes in. By evaluating your existing controls, identifying vulnerabilities and understanding the threats most relevant to your organisation, you can prioritise improvements and build a more resilient security strategy.

In this guide, we’ll walk through seven practical steps to assess your cyber security posture and identify opportunities to strengthen your defences.

What is a cyber security posture?

Your cyber security posture is the overall strength of your organisation’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to cyber threats. It reflects the people, processes, policies and technologies you have in place to protect your systems, data and users.

A effective posture reduces the likelihood and impact of cyber attacks, helping you maintain business continuity, protect sensitive information and meet regulatory obligations. A weak posture, on the other hand, can leave your organisation vulnerable to threats such as phishing, ransomware, data breaches and insider risks.

A typical cyber security posture includes:

Identity security to ensure only authorised users can access systems and data.
Device security to protect laptops, servers, mobiles and other endpoints from compromise.
Data protection to safeguard sensitive business and customer information.
Threat detection and response to identify and contain suspicious activity quickly.
Security awareness and governance to reduce human error and enforce best practice.

It’s important to remember your cyber security posture is not a fixed state. As threats evolve and your organisation changes, your security controls must evolve too. Regular assessments help you understand where you are today, identify gaps and prioritise improvements that reduce risk over time.

Can I conduct my own risk assessment?

Yes, you can! We’ve put together a step-by-step guide which shows you all the steps when assessing your cyber security provisions in-house.

However, an assessment requires specific skills and resources. Ideally, it should be done by someone who understands the threats and the fundamentals of cyber security. If you do not have these skills internally, you may benefit from bringing in an external expert to support your assessment. If doing so, make sure to choose a knowledgeable cyber security partner, ideally with understanding of your requirements and relevant certifications.

How do you measure cyber security posture?

Measuring cyber security posture involves evaluating how effectively your organisation can prevent, detect and respond to cyber threats. Rather than focusing on a single metric, it requires assessing a range of controls across your people, processes and technology.

Key areas to measure include:

Identity security: Are multi-factor authentication (MFA) and strong access controls in place? How many privileged accounts exist, and are they regularly reviewed?
Device security: Are endpoints protected, encrypted and kept up to date with the latest security patches?
Vulnerability exposure: How many known vulnerabilities exist across your environment, and how quickly are they remediated?
Data protection: Is sensitive data classified, encrypted and protected against accidental or malicious loss?
Threat detection and response: Can suspicious activity be identified and contained quickly before it escalates into a breach?
Employee awareness: Are staff trained to recognise phishing attempts, social engineering attacks and other common security threats?
Business resilience: Are backups tested regularly, and is there a documented incident response plan in place?

Many organisations use security assessment frameworks, vulnerability scanning tools and security monitoring platforms to benchmark their cyber security posture.

Businesses using Microsoft technologies can also leverage Microsoft Secure Score, a built-in security assessment tool within Microsoft 365 that helps organisations understand the strength of their security posture. It assigns a score based on the security controls you have implemented across your Microsoft environment and provides prioritised recommendations for improvement. For example, it may recommend enabling multi-factor authentication, strengthening access controls or protecting sensitive data. As you implement these actions, your score increases, providing a measurable way to track security improvements over time.

While Secure Score should not be treated as the only measure of cyber security, it can be a valuable benchmark for identifying gaps, prioritising remediation efforts and continuously strengthening your overall cyber security posture.

7 steps to your cyber security assessment_

Step 1: Identify your critical assets_

The first step to your cyber security assessment is identifying your critical assets. This includes your hardware, software and data.

If you already have a list of these, it’s easy. If not, you’ll need to devote time to identifying your assets. This might include undertaking network mapping, inventory checking or brainstorming sessions.

Once you’ve outlined your assets, you’ll have a much better understanding of the scope of your assessment.

Step 2: Assess threats and vulnerabilities_

To assess your cyber security posture, you need to understand both the threats targeting your organisation and the vulnerabilities that could allow those threats to succeed. While every organisation faces a different risk profile, most cyber incidents stem from a relatively small number of attack methods.

Common cyber security threats include:

Phishing attacks that trick employees into revealing credentials or clicking malicious links.
Malware and ransomware designed to steal data, disrupt operations or lock access to critical systems.
Social engineering attacks that manipulate people into bypassing established security controls.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks that overwhelm websites, applications or services and make them unavailable.
Insider threats, whether malicious or accidental, originating from employees, contractors or third parties.

Alongside these threats, organisations should identify vulnerabilities within their environment. These are the weaknesses that attackers can exploit and often include outdated software, weak passwords, excessive user permissions, unsecured devices and misconfigured systems.

The goal is to understand which risks are most relevant to your business, industry and technology estate. For example, a professional services firm handling sensitive client information may face different priorities than a manufacturer focused on operational resilience.

Tools such as vulnerability scanning can help identify security weaknesses across your environment, while penetration testing provides a deeper assessment by simulating real-world attack scenarios. Together, these activities provide valuable insight into where your security controls are working effectively and where improvements are needed.

Step 3: Analyse identity, device and data protection_

Many of the dangers facing businesses stem from a lack of adequate protections. These cover three core areas: identity, device and data.

Identity protection_

Identity protection means ensuring only authorised people have access to your sensitive data and systems. It typically requires setting strong access controls (on a need-to-know basis) and using measures like multi-factor authentication to ensure only validated users can get in.

If you do not have strong identity and access management (IAM) solutions in place, it’s a risk you need to seriously consider.

Device protection_

Device protection refers to securing all endpoints across your business so criminals cannot use them for their activity.

The best way to do this is to ensure all your devices are encrypted, as this makes them useless in the hands of a criminal. Data loss prevention tools can enable you to do this.

If your devices aren’t protected, you are at substantial risk if they fall into the wrong hands.

Data protection_

Another crucial element to protect is data. This especially applies to your sensitive business data and customer data.

Typically, this means classifying and segmenting your data. Classification labels data based on sensitivity, allowing you to label data which is highly private. Segmentation divides datasets into smaller, more focused groups based on shared characteristics. Together, they improve data security by prioritising protection and streamlining management.

You’ll also want to enact data security best practices, such as encryption, backup and recovery.

If your data isn’t protected, it greatly increases the likelihood of a breach. And in the event of a data loss, it’ll be much harder to recover your data.

By evaluating identity, device and data, you can better understand the risk associated with your business and find areas to improve upon.

Step 4: Evaluate risk_

Once you’ve identified your key threats and vulnerabilities, the next step is understanding which of them pose the greatest risk to your organisation. This helps ensure you focus your time, budget and resources where they will have the biggest impact.

A simple way to do this is to assess each risk against two factors:

Likelihood: How likely is the threat to occur?
Impact: What would the operational, financial, legal or reputational consequences be if it did?

For example, a phishing attack may have a high likelihood of occurring, but its impact will depend on the controls you already have in place. By contrast, a highly sophisticated attack may be less likely but could have severe consequences if successful.

Many organisations use a risk matrix to plot threats based on their likelihood and impact. This makes it easier to distinguish between low-priority issues and the risks that require immediate attention. The result should be a clear understanding of where your greatest exposures lie and which security improvements will deliver the most value.

Step 5: Prioritise and document_

With your risks assessed, you can begin building a clear plan to strengthen your cyber security posture. While it may be tempting to address every issue at once, a more effective approach is to focus on the areas that present the greatest risk to the business.

Start by tackling vulnerabilities that combine a high likelihood of exploitation with a significant potential impact. These are the gaps most likely to contribute to a successful cyber attack and should form the foundation of your remediation plan.

It’s also important to document your findings. Creating a risk register allows you to record:

The identified threat or vulnerability
The systems, users or data affected
The assessed risk level
Existing controls and mitigations
Recommended actions
Ownership and target completion dates

A well-maintained risk register provides visibility into your security improvement programme, helps demonstrate compliance efforts and ensures identified risks are not forgotten or deprioritised over time. More importantly, it turns your cyber security assessment into a practical roadmap for ongoing improvement.

Step 6: Develop an action plan_

A cyber security assessment only delivers value if it leads to action. Once you’ve identified and prioritised your risks, the next step is creating a practical plan to address them.

The actions you take will depend on the gaps you’ve uncovered. Some organisations may need to strengthen basic security controls, such as implementing multi-factor authentication, improving password policies or tightening access permissions. Others may need to focus on areas such as vulnerability management, endpoint protection, data security or user awareness training.

When building your action plan, focus on initiatives that will have the greatest impact on reducing risk. This may include a combination of process improvements, staff education and technology investments. For example, deploying endpoint protection, implementing conditional access policies or introducing continuous security monitoring can significantly strengthen your cyber security posture.

Each action should have a clear owner, priority level and target completion date. Establishing timelines helps maintain momentum, ensures accountability and reduces the risk of important security improvements being delayed or overlooked.

Step 7: Monitor progress_

Cyber security isn’t a task that’s ever complete. Risk levels evolve, meaning protections may become outdated over time. You need to constantly assess, analyse and address the threat.

As you implement the actions identified during your assessment, monitor your progress to ensure those changes are reducing risk and closing security gaps. This may involve running regular vulnerability scans, reviewing security reports and tracking key metrics such as patch compliance, failed login attempts or security awareness training completion rates.

Many organisations also invest in continuous threat monitoring tools that can identify suspicious activity and alert security teams before incidents escalate. For larger organisations, this may involve an in-house security team or a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC). Others choose to outsource monitoring to a managed security provider that can deliver around-the-clock visibility and response capabilities.

Regular reviews also provide an opportunity to assess new risks, validate existing controls and update your security roadmap as business requirements change. Cyber security is an ongoing process of assessment, improvement and adaptation. By continuously monitoring your environment and responding to emerging threats, you can maintain a stronger cyber security posture and reduce the likelihood of a successful attack.

Frequently asked questions_

How often should you assess your cyber security posture?

Most organisations should conduct a formal review at least annually, alongside regular vulnerability scans, security audits and assessments following significant business or technology changes.

What is the difference between a cyber security posture assessment and penetration testing?

A cyber security posture assessment provides a broad view of your organisation’s overall security maturity, controls and risks. Penetration testing is a more focused exercise that simulates real-world attacks to identify exploitable vulnerabilities within specific systems or applications.

Can cyber security posture be improved without investing in new technology?

In many cases, yes. Significant improvements can often be achieved by strengthening existing security configurations, enforcing stronger access policies, improving patch management, removing unused accounts and providing regular employee training.

What Microsoft tools can help improve cyber security posture?

Microsoft offers a range of security solutions designed to help organisations assess, strengthen and continuously improve their cyber security posture. Microsoft Entra helps secure identities and manage access, Microsoft Defender protects users, devices and workloads from threats, and Microsoft Purview helps organisations discover, classify and protect sensitive data. For ongoing monitoring and threat response, Microsoft Sentinel provides security information and event management (SIEM) capabilities, while Microsoft Intune helps secure and manage endpoints. Businesses can also use Microsoft Secure Score to measure their current security posture, identify gaps and prioritise improvements across their Microsoft environment. Together, these tools provide a layered approach to cyber security that helps reduce risk and improve resilience against evolving threats.

How to improve your cyber security posture

Once you’ve finished your assessment, the next step is improvement. This typically requires a combination of security controls, policies and ongoing monitoring that work together to reduce risk. Once you’ve assessed your current posture and identified vulnerabilities, focus on the areas that will have the biggest impact.

Practical steps to improve your cyber security posture include:

Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all user accounts to make unauthorised access significantly more difficult.
Remove legacy authentication methods that bypass modern security controls and create unnecessary risk.
Patch vulnerabilities promptly by keeping operating systems, applications and firmware up to date.
Deploy endpoint protection to detect and respond to threats targeting laptops, servers and mobile devices.
Implement conditional access policies to control who can access business resources and under what circumstances.
Classify and protect sensitive data so critical business and customer information receives the appropriate level of security.
Provide regular cyber security training to help employees identify phishing attempts, social engineering attacks and other common threats.
Adopt continuous monitoring to detect suspicious activity, identify emerging risks and respond to incidents quickly.

The most effective organisations treat cyber security as an ongoing process rather than a one-off project. By continuously reviewing and strengthening your controls, you can improve your cyber security posture over time and remain resilient against evolving threats.

Next steps_

An assessment is critical to helping you understand where gaps are in your current cyber security posture. But once you know that, you need to implement the right measures to keep your business secure against all incoming risks.

Our cyber security checklist is an overview of everything you need as part of best practice that removes the worry of an unexpected attack – even when attackers have AI in their backpocket. Download your copy today for a practical insight into what you need to do next:

Key takeaways_

What is a cyber security posture?

Can I conduct my own risk assessment?

How do you measure cyber security posture?