What steps is Colabor taking to prevent future incidents, and how will these measures be reflected in its risk management framework?
What ColaborâŻGroup is doing to guard against future cyberâsecurity breaches â and how those actions will be folded into its overall riskâmanagement framework
Aspect | What the company has announced (or is logically doing) | How it will appear in Colaborâs riskâmanagement framework |
---|---|---|
Immediate incident response | ⢠Upon detection, Colabor immediately engaged âleading external cybersecurity expertsâ to contain the breach and investigate its cause and scope. | ⢠The incidentâresponse team (internal staff plus the external experts) will be documented as a permanent component of the companyâs Operational Risk process.âŻThe response plan, including trigger thresholds and escalation paths, will be codified in the riskâmanagement manual. |
Rootâcause analysis & remediation | ⢠The external experts are conducting a thorough forensic analysis to determine how the attackers accessed the internal IT environment. | ⢠Findings from the forensic work will be entered into a Risk Register as newlyâidentified vulnerabilities.âŻEach identified weakness will be assigned a risk rating, remediation owner, and target completion date, creating a formal remediation workflow. |
Strengthening technical controls (inferred from standard bestâpractice after a breach) | ⢠After the investigation, Colabor is expected to upgrade its security architectureâe.g., multiâfactor authentication, network segmentation, endpointâdetectionâandâresponse (EDR) tools, and privilegedâaccess management. | ⢠These upgrades will be captured under the Information Security subâpolicy of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program. Budgets for new tools and associated licensing will be reflected in the CapitalâExpenditure (CapEx) risk and TechnologyâRisk budgets, with periodic compliance testing built into the riskâmonitoring calendar. |
Governance & oversight | ⢠Retaining a âleading externalâ firm signals that Colabor is bringing thirdâparty expertise into its governance structure. | ⢠The Boardâs Audit & Risk Committee will now receive regular updates on cyberârisk metrics (e.g., number of detected threats, timeâtoâcontain incidents, patchâmanagement status).âŻThese metrics become key performance indicators (KPIs) in the companyâs EnterpriseâRisk Dashboard. |
Policy and procedural enhancements | ⢠The incident will trigger a review of existing security policies, incidentâresponse playbooks, and employeeâawareness programs. | ⢠Revised policies will be approved through the existing PolicyâManagement workflow and tracked as âcontrol updatesâ in the riskâassessment tool.âŻTraining completion rates will be monitored as part of HumanâResource Risk reporting. |
Continuous monitoring & testing | ⢠Ongoing monitoring by the external specialists will likely be supplemented with internal Security Operations Center (SOC) capabilities, regular penetration testing, and vulnerability scanning. | ⢠Continuousâmonitoring activities are classified as ControlâEffectiveness testing within the riskâmanagement framework. Results feed back into the risk register each quarter, allowing the riskâowner to adjust riskâtolerance thresholds. |
Vendor and thirdâparty risk | ⢠The use of external cyberâsecurity experts underscores a heightened focus on thirdâparty risk. | ⢠Colabor will extend its ThirdâParty Risk Management program to include securityâperformance clauses for all critical vendors, with periodic attestations and audit rights recorded in the vendorârisk register. |
Reporting & disclosure | ⢠The public update (press release) itself is part of the companyâs transparency obligations. | ⢠Future cyberâincident disclosures will be mapped to the RegulatoryâCompliance component of the ERM framework, ensuring that any material cybersecurity event is reported to securities regulators, the TSX, and shareholders according to the relevant disclosure standards (e.g., NI 51â101, CSAâŻCyberâSecurity Guidance). |
Summary of the Expected Impact on Colaborâs RiskâManagement Framework
Formalization of CyberâRisk Controls â All technical, procedural, and governance improvements will be entered as controls in the enterpriseârisk management system, each with owners, testing frequencies, and performance metrics.
Enhanced Risk Register â The forensic analysis will generate new risk items (e.g., identified vulnerabilities, gaps in monitoring). These will be prioritized, quantified, and tracked until remediation is complete.
BoardâLevel Oversight â Cyberârisk will become a standing agenda item for the Audit & Risk Committee, with the Board receiving dashboards that show risk exposure, mitigation progress, and residual risk levels.
Integrated Reporting â Updates on remediation, control effectiveness, and any residual risk will feed into both internal riskâmanagement reporting cycles (monthly/quarterly) and external disclosure obligations (quarterly earnings releases, TSX filings).
Budget & Resource Allocation â Capital and operating budgets will now explicitly allocate funds for cyberâsecurity tools, thirdâparty services, and staff training, reflecting these expenses as part of the TechnologyâRisk and HumanâCapital Risk categories.
Continuous Improvement Loop â Postâincident lessons learned will be captured in a âpostâmortemâ process, the outcomes of which will trigger updates to policies, training modules, and control testing schedulesâclosing the loop between incident response and proactive risk mitigation.
By embedding these steps into its riskâmanagement framework, Colabor is moving from a reactive stance (responding to a breach) to a more proactive, governanceâdriven cyberârisk posture that aligns with bestâinâclass practices for publiclyâlisted companies. This systematic approach should reduce the likelihood of a similar incident recurring and provide investors and regulators with greater confidence in the companyâs ability to safeguard its information assets.