What is the primary goal of a Gap Assessment?

A Gap Assessment primarily aims to compare an organization's current state of cybersecurity practices, processes, and controls against a desired state or established benchmarks. This method identifies discrepancies or "gaps" between where an organization currently stands in terms of cybersecurity and where it ideally should be to meet industry standards, best practices, or specific compliance requirements.

The focus of such an assessment is to evaluate the organization's performance against these benchmarks to develop a strategic plan for improvement. By identifying these gaps, organizations can prioritize their cybersecurity initiatives, allocate resources effectively, and enhance their overall security posture.

The other options may encompass important aspects of cybersecurity assessment, but they do not represent the core objective of a Gap Assessment. For example, while identifying unauthorized access is crucial, it is more specific to monitoring and incident detection rather than assessing overall gaps in cybersecurity practices. Improving internal processes may be a result of findings from a Gap Assessment, but it does not capture the assessment's comparative nature. Similarly, evaluating incident response capability is important but falls under a different evaluative type focused specifically on preparedness and response rather than on the overall state of compliance and practices against standards.