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Executive Summary
As the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) came into full effect across the European Union, financial organisations face unprecedented regulatory requirements for cybersecurity and operational resilience. A revolutionary partnership between three specialised cybersecurity firms offers a seamless, cost-effective solution that addresses the complete DORA compliance lifecycle through an integrated four-stage approach, incorporating TIBER-EU framework standards for comprehensive threat-led penetration testing (combining threat intelligence and red teaming activities).
The Integrated Solution Framework
Stage 1: DORA Gap Assessment — Trausta
Trausta performs a comprehensive DORA compliance assessment through gap analysis against all regulatory requirements, including Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS), which specify DORA areas in more detail. The assessment includes operational resilience maturity evaluation, risk management framework analysis, incident response capability review, and third-party risk management assessment.
Stage 2: Threat Intelligence — AmonSul
The foundation of effective cybersecurity begins with comprehensive threat intelligence. AmonSul provides real-time threat analysis specific to the financial sector, including sector-specific threat actor profiling and attack pattern identification. The company delivers regulatory intelligence updates and compliance trend analysis while offering customised threat feeds tailored to organisational risk profiles.
Stage 3: Threat-led Red Teaming — Tenendo
Building upon AmonSul’s intelligence, Tenendo conducts targeted security assessments through intelligence-driven red teaming based on actual threat scenarios. The company simulates real-world attack vectors identified in the threat intelligence phase, performs a comprehensive vulnerability assessment across all critical systems, and provides detailed exploitation analysis with risk quantification. Tenendo’s approach aligns with TIBER-EU framework requirements, ensuring that red teaming meets European Central Bank standards for threat intelligence-based ethical red teaming.
Stage 4: Independent DORA Compliance report — Trausta
The final phase delivers comprehensive independent compliance reporting that synthesises findings from all previous stages. Trausta provides detailed compliance documentation, regulatory reporting assistance, ongoing monitoring recommendations, and establishes frameworks for continuous compliance maintenance and future assessment cycles.
Partnership Compliance with DORA Independence Requirements
This three-partner model is specifically designed to meet DORA’s strict independence requirements. Each organisation maintains separate operational structures and decision-making processes while ensuring financial independence with no cross-ownership or financial dependencies that could compromise objectivity. Trausta operates independently from the organisations providing intelligence and testing services, ensuring complete adherence to DORA Article 18 independence criteria for third-party risk management.
Key Benefits of the Integrated Approach
Seamless Information Flow
The partnership ensures smooth transfer of essential documents, reports, and intelligence throughout all project phases. Standardised documentation with unified reporting formats across all stages eliminates information gaps, while secure, encrypted and auditable information sharing protocols maintain data integrity. Each stage builds upon previous findings through continuous context preservation, ensuring no critical information is lost. Streamlined communication through a single point of contact coordination reduces complexity and enhances project efficiency.
Validated Methodology and Expert Consultation
All three partners have developed and validated a comprehensive methodology that ensures consistency and quality across all service delivery phases. This collaborative approach enables cross-consultation between all solution participants throughout every stage of the work, providing clients with access to combined expertise from threat intelligence, red teaming, and compliance assessment specialists. The methodology has been refined through extensive practical application and represents industry best practices in integrated cybersecurity compliance.
Exceptional Expertise and Specialisation
Each participating company brings extensive experience and deep specialisation in their respective domain. AmonSul’s threat intelligence expertise spans years of financial sector threat analysis, Tenendo’s red teaming capabilities are honed through countless security assessments, and Trausta’s DORA compliance knowledge encompasses comprehensive regulatory expertise. This specialised focus ensures that clients receive the highest quality service in each critical area while benefiting from the synergistic effects of integrated delivery.
Key Benefits of the Integrated Approach
Seamless Information Flow
The partnership ensures smooth transfer of essential documents, reports, and intelligence throughout all project phases. Standardised documentation with unified reporting formats across all stages eliminates information gaps, while secure, encrypted and auditable information sharing protocols maintain data integrity. Each stage builds upon previous findings through continuous context preservation, ensuring no critical information is lost. Streamlined communication through a single point of contact coordination reduces complexity and enhances project efficiency.
Validated Methodology and Expert Consultation
All three partners have developed and validated a comprehensive methodology that ensures consistency and quality across all service delivery phases. This collaborative approach enables cross-consultation between all solution participants throughout every stage of the work, providing clients with access to combined expertise from threat intelligence, red teaming, and compliance assessment specialists. The methodology has been refined through extensive practical application and represents industry best practices in integrated cybersecurity compliance.
Exceptional Expertise and Specialisation
Each participating company brings extensive experience and deep specialisation in their respective domain. AmonSul’s threat intelligence expertise spans years of financial sector threat analysis, Tenendo’s red teaming capabilities are honed through countless security assessments, and Trausta’s DORA compliance knowledge encompasses comprehensive regulatory expertise. This specialised focus ensures that clients receive the highest quality service in each critical area while benefiting from the synergistic effects of integrated delivery.
Cost-Effectiveness
The integrated approach delivers significant cost savings compared to engaging separate vendors across multiple dimensions:
Procurement Cost Savings:
- Elimination of separate vendor selection processes for each service component
- Single contract negotiation instead of multiple complex agreements
- Reduced due diligence and legal review expenses
- Streamlined procurement timeline, reducing internal resource costs
Administrative Overhead Reductions:
- Single project management fee instead of multiple vendor coordination costs
- Unified invoicing and accounting processes
- Elimination of duplicate onboarding and setup fees
- Reduced vendor management administrative burden
Bundled Pricing Benefits:
- Volume discounts are unavailable when purchasing services individually
- Elimination of typical markup costs from multiple vendor relationships
- Shared infrastructure and resource utilisation across project phases
- Competitive pricing through partnership economies of scale
Efficiency and Time Savings:
- Accelerated project timelines minimise internal resource allocation
- Seamless information flow, eliminating costly delays and coordination efforts
- Reduced the need for internal teams to serve as intermediaries between vendors
- Faster decision-making through unified communication channels
Risk Mitigation Cost Advantages:
- Eliminated the risk of costly compliance failures due to poor coordination between multiple vendors
- Reduced the likelihood of costly remediation work from incompatible deliverables
- Lower risk of regulatory penalties from fragmented compliance efforts
- Elimination of expenses associated with vendor miscommunication and rework
Enhanced Quality and Consistency
The partnership delivers a unified methodology with consistent approaches across all compliance stages. Quality assurance through cross-partner review processes ensures the highest standards, while comprehensive coverage addresses every regulatory requirement without gaps. Continuous improvement through shared learning enhances service delivery across all partners, creating an evolving solution that adapts to emerging threats and regulatory changes.
Why This Matters for European Financial Organisations
Regulatory Compliance
DORA represents one of the most comprehensive cybersecurity regulations in the financial sector, working in conjunction with TIBER-EU requirements for threat-led penetration testing. Non-compliance can result in significant financial penalties up to 1% of annual turnover, operational restrictions and business limitations, reputational damage and loss of customer confidence, along with increased regulatory scrutiny and oversight.
Operational Benefits
Beyond compliance, this integrated approach delivers strengthened cybersecurity defences through comprehensive threat-based security improvements. Organisations benefit from risk reduction through proactive identification and mitigation of operational risks, improved business continuity with enhanced resilience against cyber threats and operational disruptions, and competitive advantage through demonstrated commitment to cybersecurity excellence.
Strategic Value
The solution provides future-proofing through ongoing support that ensures continued compliance as regulations evolve. Stakeholder confidence increases through an independent compliance assessment that assures customers, regulators, and partners. Operational efficiency improves as streamlined processes reduce internal resource requirements, while market positioning strengthens with DORA compliance serving as a differentiator in the European financial market.
Implementation Timeline
An integrated solution follows an optimised timeline that leverages TIBER-EU methodologies while maintaining practical efficiency. While DORA recommends rather than mandates the use of TIBER-EU as a framework, this provides the flexibility to adopt all proven TIBER-EU approaches for threat-led penetration testing implementation while reducing execution timeframes to reasonably justified periods.
The partnership’s timeline estimation is based on extensive experience from numerous similar projects, a deep understanding of client infrastructure characteristics, and comprehensive knowledge of organisational needs, rather than strictly adhering to literal TIBER-EU timeline recommendations. This practical approach ensures thorough testing while respecting business operational requirements.
Phase | Duration, weeks | Key Activities | Responsible Partner |
---|---|---|---|
1. DORA Gap Assessment | 1-2 | Review current policies and controls, map to DORA requirements, identify compliance gaps, and a draft remediation roadmap | Trausta |
2. Threat Intelligence | 2 | Collect and analyse targeted TI, identify relevant threat actors and TTPs, map critical functions, and produce a TI Report | AmonSul |
3. Threat-led Red Teaming | 5–15 | Simulate real-world attacks, exploit identified attack paths, test detection and response, and deliver RT Report | Tenendo |
4. Independent DORA Compliance Report | 1 | Review current policies and controls, map to DORA requirements, identify compliance gaps, and draft a remediation roadmap | Trausta |
Important Note: The timeline presented above represents minimum and maximum execution duration under optimal conditions. Actual implementation timelines are customized for each organization and depend on multiple critical factors including organizational size and complexity, existing cybersecurity infrastructure maturity, number of essential systems and applications requiring assessment, availability of internal technical teams for coordination, complexity of the IT environment and network architecture, current compliance readiness level, scope of third-party integrations and dependencies, organizational change management processes, and regulatory reporting requirements specific to the institution's operational profile.
Conclusion
Start Your DORA Compliance Journey Today!
As European financial organisations navigate the complex landscape of DORA compliance, the integrated solution offered by AmonSul, Tenendo, and Trausta represents a paradigm shift in cybersecurity service delivery. By combining specialised expertise, maintaining regulatory independence, and delivering seamless service integration, this partnership provides a comprehensive, cost-effective path to DORA compliance.
Organisations choosing this integrated approach benefit from reduced costs, enhanced quality, streamlined processes, and the confidence that comes with comprehensive regulatory compliance. In an era where cybersecurity is not just a technical requirement but a business imperative, this solution positions European financial organisations for success in the digital age.