Ascend in prolonged engagement with OMX30 company to establish a new cyber security strategy and organization

Ascend came in after the client had experienced a severe cyberattack and needed to make improvements fast. Ascend consultants assisted in establishing a program to quickly set up new capabilities required, such as Incident Response, Vulnerability Management and End Point Protection. But this was only the start of a long journey. For two years, multiple Ascend consultants supported reshaping the cyber security organization to set a new strategy and make the needed changes to the organization and ways of working towards a more mature and agile cyber security function.

Establishing an MSS delivery model

The client wanted to move towards a Managed Security Service setup from a classic time and material contract. Ascend secured the business needs through the sourcing process with multiple suppliers and implemented the change of decided supplier in less than three months without delivery disturbances.

Swift implementation to handle pandemic requirements of safe user connectivity

As the pandemic forced most of the client’s employees to work remotely, the remote connectivity solution was pushed well beyond its limits. Ascend consultants worked closely with security technicians to secure business decisions and drive progress in a complex, global and decentralized organization to move towards an alternative solution. The implementation enabled the possibility for a 30,000+ organization to work remotely after just a few months from business decision.

Organizational development

Cyber security was one of the few areas in all businesses that increased speed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The client needed to continue the fast change, which is constant in Cyber security and even more so during a pandemic. Ascend consultants worked in multiple dimensions of organizational design and implementation. New ways of working and redefined roles and responsibilities were established to suit the unique and previously unknown situation. 

Interim managerial positions and coaching

Organizational changes with new teams can inevitably lead to gaps in managerial positions. Therefore, Ascend supported the growth of new “first time” managers to identify tools for complex employee situations and reflect on how to improve everyday manager responsibilities. 

Ascend also took on several managerial positions parallel to the recruitments to secure leadership during the gap periods. The teams varied between 4-10 employees and resulted in stable teams for the newly hired managers to take over. 

Ascend consultants transformed cyber security from a technical organization to a business driven and value realization function. Cyber security will always be controlling, but we need to help the business to understand that this is a hygiene factor to be a relevant business partner.

Anton Tornberg, Project Lead