Security Management Services
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Cybersecurity Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions

Risk Management / Security Maintenance Program

External Attack Surface Management (EASM)
Security Management Services
For more than two decades, HALOCK Security Labs has helped implement and maintain information security programs to help protect our clients’ critical assets. Our Purpose Driven Security® approach utilizes risk assessments and risk management principles to prioritize and optimize your security information management investment. Through the Duty of Care Risk Assessment (DoCRA) standard, HALOCK helps to define Acceptable Risk and Reasonable Controls that considers all interested parties without overly burdening your organization. We apply the right amount of cyber security assessment and management to protect your organization’s mission, objectives, and obligations – satisfying compliance requirements and supporting social responsibility and corporate goals. You achieve reasonable and appropriate risk and security management strategies. Getting to reasonable has never been easier. Maintaining your Security Program is a priority for HALOCK. Our Risk Management Program can provide you with on-going fractional cyber security experts, tools and frameworks to operate and maintain your program to keep risk low and align with the needs of all parties. We support your management of risks operations. HALOCK can provide you with the perspective, tools and frameworks to prioritize and control cyber security asset management initiatives so that they align with corporate objectives and are more likely to succeed in your unique environment.
Learn how to establish reasonable security.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Reasonable Security
What Is Reasonable Security?
Reasonable Security is appropriate cybersecurity protection for your organization. Based on your size, data types, and risk profile, reasonable security can be a legal standard of care and a cybersecurity best practice, both of which show that you took defensible steps to protect information.
Why is “Reasonable” Security Important?
“Reasonable security” language is found in most state and federal privacy laws, and regulators have ruled that you must show you took “reasonable” steps to protect sensitive information.
Reasonable security does not mean perfect security, but rather security that makes sense based on your risks and resources.
Organizations with reasonable security:
- Have a better chance of avoiding regulatory action after a breach
- Are better positioned during litigation and investigations
- Have more support from cyber insurance carriers and adjusters
- Instill more confidence with clients, partners, and stakeholders
What Laws Reference “Reasonable Security”?
In the United States, a variety of state and federal laws require organizations to have “reasonable security practices and procedures.” These include, but are not limited to:
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA / CPRA)
- New York SHIELD Act
- Illinois Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)
- Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00
- Connecticut Data Privacy Act
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Safeguards Rule
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – references “appropriate technical and organizational measures.”
The laws do not specify exactly what controls you should use, but they do typically require some defensible evidence that you assessed and mitigated risk appropriately.
How Do You Demonstrate Reasonable Security?
The most effective way is through a documented, risk-based assessment process that allows you to show how your organization identifies, prioritizes, and mitigates risks.
A legally defensible risk assessment provides a fact-based argument that your actions were prudent, informed, and proportionate.
Key elements include:
- Risk identification: What data, systems, and processes are impacted?
- Threat and vulnerability analysis: What risks are credible and foreseeable?
- Impact assessment: What could cause harm to customers, partners, or operations?
- Control evaluation: What safeguards are reasonable under current conditions?
- Documentation: Written records of your findings, decisions, and mitigations.
Security and legal frameworks such as NIST SP 800-30, ISO 27005, CIS Controls, and DoCRA (Duty of Care Risk Analysis) can help define and prove what “reasonable” looks like in practice.
What Is the Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DoCRA)?
The Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DoCRA) standard is an approach to establish and document reasonable security for an organization. It states that reasonable security is:
“Security that balances the interests of the organization with the interests of others who may be harmed if security fails.”
DoCRA helps organizations to review and justify risk decisions, not only from a compliance point of view but also with respect to fairness, proportionality, and legal defensibility. In essence, it considers an organization’s mission, objectives, and obligations. It effectively bridges security, business, and legal aspects in one defensible framework.
How HALOCK Helps Organizations Demonstrate Reasonable Security
HALOCK offers cybersecurity assessments that are risk-based, legally defensible, and aligned with the Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DoCRA) standard.
HALOCK assessment helps you to:
- Identify, quantify, and prioritize cyber risks
- Select and balance controls with business impact
- Document a reasonable security posture for regulators, courts, and clients
- Establish an accountability and continuous improvement process
Use Cases with DoCRA and Reasonable Security
How Can You Define “Reasonable Security”?
Reasonable security means implementing safeguards that are:
Appropriate: Based on your business size, industry, and data sensitivity
Proportionate: Controls balance protection with business practicality
Recognized: Align with accepted frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, CIS, DoCRA)
Documented: You can prove decisions, policies, and risk management actions
Adaptive: Regularly reassessed as technology, threats, and operations evolve
Can a DoCRA Risk Assessment Help Manage our Security Program for AI?
Organizations using AI should incorporate reasonable security and appropriate safeguards into their risk strategy.
Establish reasonable security through duty of care.
With HALOCK, organizations can establish a legally defensible security and risk program through Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DoCRA). This balanced approach provides a methodology to achieve reasonable security as the regulations require.
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