DORA Readiness for Financial Businesses in Ireland
Landmark Technologies helps businesses assess their IT environment, identify potential cybersecurity and resilience gaps, and strengthen the technical controls that support DORA readiness.
What Is DORA?
DORA, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, is an EU regulation designed to strengthen digital operational resilience across the financial sector.
It establishes requirements for how financial entities manage ICT risk, cybersecurity incidents, operational resilience testing and ICT third-party risk.
DORA has applied since 17 January 2025.
In practical terms, DORA is about making sure financial businesses can:
- Protect critical systems and data
- Respond effectively to ICT-related incidents
- Recover from technology disruption
- Test their digital resilience
- Manage risks associated with ICT suppliers
- Identify and manage ICT risks
For businesses in Ireland, DORA makes the resilience and security of your IT environment an important part of your wider operational resilience.
Building Digital Operational Resilience
DORA brings together cybersecurity, technology risk, incident response, recovery and third-party risk into a broader operational resilience framework.
Protect Critical Systems
Strengthen the security of the systems and data your business depends upon.
Respond to Incidents
Improve your ability to detect, escalate and respond to ICT-related incidents.
Recover from Disruption
Strengthen the technical foundations supporting recovery and business continuity.
Test Digital Resilience
Understand how resilient your systems are when faced with technology disruption.
Manage ICT Suppliers
Understand and manage risks associated with cloud providers, MSPs and technology partners.
Manage ICT Risk
Identify technology risks and prioritise practical improvements.
Does DORA Apply to My Business?
DORA applies to defined categories of financial entities. Whether your organisation is in scope depends primarily on the type of financial entity and its regulatory status.
Banking
Credit institutions and other banking entities within scope.
Payments
Payment institutions and electronic money institutions.
Investment
Investment firms and certain organisations operating in financial markets.
Insurance
Insurance and reinsurance undertakings and certain insurance intermediaries.
Funds & Asset Management
Certain investment management and fund-related entities.
Digital Finance
Certain crypto-asset service providers and other financial entities covered by the Regulation.
The full scope is defined by DORA. Organisations should assess their specific entity type and regulatory status rather than relying on sector alone.
How Can I Prepare for DORA?
DORA preparation starts with understanding how your business depends on technology and how resilient that technology is.
1. Confirm Your DORA Scope
Understand your organisation’s regulatory status and which DORA requirements are relevant to you.
2. Map Your IT Environment
Identify the systems, devices, networks, applications and services supporting important business operations.
3. Assess ICT Risk
Identify where cyberattacks, system failures, outages or technology disruption could affect your business.
4. Review Access & Authentication
Check user permissions, privileged access, authentication and multi-factor authentication.
5. Review Network & Device Security
Assess the security of endpoints, servers, networks and other infrastructure.
6. Review Vulnerability Management
Make sure vulnerabilities, patches and software updates are identified and addressed appropriately.
7. Review Backup & Recovery
Check whether important systems and data can be recovered following an ICT incident.
8. Review Incident Response
Ensure practical processes are in place for detecting, escalating, responding to and recovering from technology incidents.
9. Review ICT Suppliers
Understand your reliance on cloud providers, managed service providers and other technology suppliers.
10. Prioritise Improvements
Identify the most important gaps and create a practical roadmap for strengthening IT security and resilience.
Can Landmark Technologies Help with DORA?
Practical IT Support for DORA Readiness
DORA is a regulatory framework, but many of its requirements have direct implications for your IT environment. Landmark Technologies can help financial businesses in Ireland review and strengthen the technical foundations that support digital operational resilience.
Assess Your IT Environment
Review your current infrastructure, systems, devices and security controls.
Identify Potential Gaps
Highlight areas where your IT environment may need improvement from a cybersecurity, resilience or recovery perspective.
Strengthen Security Controls
Support improvements across access control, authentication, device security, network security, vulnerability management and secure configuration.
[/icon_box]Improve Backup & Recovery
Review the technical foundations supporting backup, disaster recovery and recovery from ICT disruption.
Strengthen Cyber Resilience
Help improve your ability to protect, respond to and recover from cybersecurity incidents and technology disruption.
What Should I Do Next?
If you are responsible for IT, cybersecurity or operations within a financial business and want to understand how your technology environment supports DORA readiness, talk to Landmark Technologies.
We can help you assess your current IT environment, identify potential security and resilience gaps, and understand the practical steps you could take next.
Talk to Landmark Technologies