DORA Gap Assessment
A DORA Gap Assessment is the first crucial step in evaluating your current digital resilience framework and identifying compliance gaps. TechGDPR provides a structured and efficient assessment to help your organization prepare for the regulatory requirements and avoid financial penalties.
What is the DORA?
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) introduces strict regulatory requirements for financial entities and ICT service providers operating within the EU. Enforcement began on January 17, 2025 which requires organizations ensure they meet the DORA’s five pillars.
The Five Pillars of the DORA:
- ICT Risk Management
- ICT Incident Reporting
- Digital Operational Resilience Testing
- ICT Third-Party Risk Management
- Information Sharing Arrangements
Why Conduct a DORA Gap Assessment?
A DORA Gap Assessment helps your organization:
- Enhance digital operational resilience – Strengthen cybersecurity defenses, incident response, and third-party risk management.
- Understand your current compliance status – Assess existing ICT risk management practices against the DORA requirements.
- Identify and prioritize gaps – Pinpoint areas that need improvement in order to achieve compliance with the DORA.
- Mitigate financial, operational, and reputational risks – Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, reputational damage, and operational disruptions.
- Develop a compliance roadmap – Create a structured action plan for full the DORA.
Who Needs a DORA Gap Assessment?
DORA applies to a broad range of financial and ICT service providers including:
- Banks & Credit Institutions
- Investment Firms & Asset Managers
- Insurance & Reinsurance Companies
- Payment & E-Money Institutions
- Crypto-Asset Service Providers
- Trading Venues & Market Infrastructures
- Cloud Service Providers & ICT Third-Party Vendors
If your organization falls under these categories or operates within the EU financial sector, you must take proactive steps to assess and address compliance gaps before the deadline.
Stewart Haynes
Former information commissioner and senior consultant at TechGDPR leads the DORA gap assessments.
Our Gap Assessment Process
- Initial Consultation
- Understanding your business operations and digital risk landscape.
- Identifying key stakeholders for the assessment.
- Detailed Compliance Review
- Analyzing your ICT risk management framework against the DORA’s five pillars.
- Alignment and mapping usable outputs from other Frameworks and Certifications (GDPR, NIS2, ISO27k, OWASP, BSI, etc).
- Evaluating policies, incident response plans, resilience testing procedures, and third-party risk management.
- Remediation Roadmap & Recommendations
- Providing actionable steps to close compliance gaps.
- Aligning existing policies and procedures with the DORA’s Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS).
- Ongoing Support & Compliance Monitoring
- Guidance on implementing necessary changes.
- Ongoing monitoring to ensure continuous compliance.
- Gap Identification & Risk Prioritization
- Identifying compliance deficiencies and assessing their impact.
- Prioritizing risks based on severity and business-critical functions.