News and information about verinice.

The risk landscape is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic - maintaining business continuity is a top priority for organizations of all sizes and sectors. verinice, the leading open source solution for information security management, is introducing updates for integrated emergency management: The two products "verinice Business Continuity Management BCMS (200-4)" and "verinice Business Continuity Management BCMS (ISO 22301)" have received numerous new features and improvements. Both are available as free add-ons for verinice in the Shop. They provide organizations with a robust foundation for their BCMS and seamless integration with existing information security management systems (ISMS).

verinice Business Continuity Management BCMS (200-4)

This update provides a comprehensive basis for implementing and maintaining a BCMS, compliant with BSI standard 200-4, and integrates a detailed requirements catalog and a sample database. A key feature of the update is the introduction of a new Business Impact Analysis (BIA) view, which provides a graphical representation of process and resource dependencies. This simplifies the review and consolidation of BIA parameters, which supports a more efficient design of business continuity measures. In addition, the requirements catalog for BSI standard 200-4 has been implemented as a module in a separate information network, which provides a condensed overview of all relevant requirements of the standard. The 200-4 standard is also practicable for first-time users and SMEs thanks to the stage model that can also be implemented in verinice with reactive, structural and standard BCMS and supports the step-by-step development of a BCMS. The newly integrated standard reports enable documentation and communication, e.g. to management.

verinice Business Continuity Management BCMS (ISO 22301)

The update for the ISO 22301 version builds on the compatible foundation between the BSI 200-4 standard and ISO 22301 to exploit synergies between these standards. In addition to the introduction of the new BIA view, this update also includes structural adjustments in the ISM perspective. Furthermore, new BCM standard reports have also been introduced for the BCMS according to ISO 22301, which enable a clear presentation of the results of each phase of the PDCA cycle and thus simplify analysis and reporting.

Tutorials are now available for both application perspectives (both 200-4 and ISO 22301), which provide step-by-step instructions for getting started and are helpful for BCM implementation in verinice.

BCM as the perfect complement to an ISMS

The addition of BCM functionalities to verinice underlines the importance of a holistic view of information and business process security. BCMS and ISMS complement each other ideally by forming a robust line of defense against various threats to business continuity and information security. The integration of both systems in verinice enables organizations to be prepared for emergencies and crises while ensuring the security of sensitive information. This synergy enables a comprehensive risk assessment and management strategy that optimizes both business resilience and critical data protection.

With the updates, verinice supports organizations seeking seamless integration and management of their BCMS and ISMS. By continuously developing and adapting to current standards, verinice demonstrates its role as an ideal tool in the field of information security and emergency management.

Do you have questions or would you like to exchange ideas with other verinice users? We offer the community forum for this purpose. Or you can contact us directly: vertrieb@sernet.de

In cooperation with neam IT Services GmbH, SerNet publishes the additional module "verinice WiBA - Weg in die Basis-Absicherung" free of charge in the verinice.SHOP.  The "Weg in die Basisabsicherung" (WIBA) stands for a practice-oriented approach that the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has developed specifically for local authorities to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of IT baseline protection.

Through test questions in topic-specific checklists, WiBA enables institutions to make a well-founded assessment of their information security  - even without in-depth knowledge of the basic protection methodology. The BSI checklists form the basis for efficiently identifying and implementing the necessary security requirements. With verinice as a platform, the leading open source software for information security management, the implementation of the WiBA checklists is seamless: thanks to the specially developed sample organization and report templates, verinice provides users with a structured and clearly defined way to implement basic protection. The WiBA add-on module is available for both verinice.PRO and the verinice standalone version.

WiBA is tailored to the needs of local authorities. With the link to the IT baseline protection profile "Basic Protection for Local Government Version 3.0", WiBA enables a practical and directly implementable security strategy that confidently supports organizations on their way to improved IT security.

The additional module "verinice WiBA - the path to basic security" is based on the expertise of neam IT-Services GmbH. The company is a long-standing verinice partner and has also been awarded verinice contributor status with this contribution. Contributors are members of the partner network who also contribute to the further development of the ISMS tool in terms of content.

Meet the SerNet team with verinice on February 22 and 23, 2024 at Domain pulse in Vienna. Domain pulse is a meeting place for leading experts, companies and interested parties from the world of domains. verinice will also be there, represented by Sirin Torun from the verinice team and Dr. Johannes Loxen, Managing Director of SerNet. Together they will present the new NIS 2 domain on the verinice.veo web platform.

Until now, the BSI Criticality Ordinance was aimed in particular at larger companies. With the new NIS 2 directive, many more companies now have to deal with and demonstrate cyber security and resilience. One of the requirements of NIS 2 is that registrars and registries of domains are obliged to collect and maintain complete domain name registration data in compliance with EU data protection law. With the NIS 2 domain on verinice.veo, verinice offers web-based support in fulfilling the legal requirements.

Would you like to visit us at our stand at Domain pulse and make an appointment in advance? Then write us a message on LinkedIn with your preferred date.

The verinice.XP - the conference for information security and data protection around the open source tool verinice - will take place on February 28, 2024. The digital event is aimed at IT decision-makers, security managers and data protection officers. Tickets are available via the conference website at https://verinicexp.org.

Thanks to our sponsors sila consulting GmbH and neam IT-Services GmbH.

The 2024 program

The keynote "NIS2 and KRITIS umbrella law - what's in store for companies and authorities?" will be presented by Paul Weissmann (OpenKRITIS, Insignals GmbH) and Dr. Marian Corbe (RST Informationssicherheit GmbH). It will shed light on the expansion of the regulation of critical infrastructures in Germany through the NIS2 implementation and the KRITIS umbrella law. Other topics include "The standard data protection model 3.0 and verinice", which focuses on the continuous evaluation of technical and organizational measures (TOM) in data protection. The programme also includes "KRITIS wastewater: implementation with verinice" and "WiBA - your tool-based path to basic protection".

Workshops on 27.02.

verinice.XP will be complemented by workshops on the day before (February 27). Participants will have the opportunity to delve deeper into specific topics and learn from experts. Scheduled this year are:

• Data protection with verinice DSMS
• Security concept according to BSI standards 200-2 and 200-3 with verinice ISMS
• BSI IT baseline protection projects with verinice
• ISMS according to B3S hospital with verinice

For detailed information on the individual workshops, visit the official website of verinice.XP. The workshops can be attended independently of the conference.

Do you have questions about verinice.XP? Feel free to write to us at marketing@remove-this.sernet.de.

verinice and verinice.PRO are now available in version 1.27 - the download is possible via the verinice.SHOP or the customer repository. With this release, the verinice.TEAM delivers the revision of the Business Continuity Management (BCM) and the new overview report "Management Summary IT-Grundschutz". In addition, RPM packages are now provided for AlmaLinux 8 and RHEL 8.

The BCM according to BSI standard 200-4 has been adapted to the current status and expanded with extensive functionalities:

• The new Business Impact Analysis (BIA) view graphically displays dependencies between processes and target objects for a better overall assessment.

• The new reports for business continuity, including a sample organization, are available in the separately downloadable product Business Continuity Management BCMS (200-4).

The new overview report Management Summary IT-Grundschutz presents the most important data on IT BAseline Protection (depending on the chosen protection approach, e.g. structural analysis, protection requirements assessment, IT-Grundschutz check and risk analysis) in a compact graphical form.

RPM packages are provided for verinice 1.27 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 and CentOS 7, as well as for RHEL 8 and AlmaLinux 8. Due to the end of support for CentOS and RHEL 7 on June 30, 2024, the RPM packages for these versions will be provided for the last time with verinice 1.27! All users are recommended to migrate to AlmaLinux 8 or RHEL 8 as soon as possible.

Administrators of a verinice.PRO server please also note the security information at the end of the Release Notes.

Support needed for updating to verinice 1.27? Contact us via the contact form or reach us via mail to verinice@remove-this.sernet.de.