The maze of regulatory requirements across the EU has left many financial institutions and fintechs grappling with assessing their compliance progress, especially under the demanding Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). To address this critical challenge, CyberUpgrade has introduced a free, anonymized DORA Self-Assessment Tool designed to simplify the compliance journey and help organizations close the readiness gap efficiently.
This article explores why DORA matters, its challenges, and how our new tool can help organizations take practical steps toward compliance.
What is DORA, and why should you care?
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is the EU’s landmark regulation designed to ensure the security and operational resilience of the financial sector. At its core, DORA aims to safeguard the network and information systems that power financial operations—everything from banks and insurance companies to third-party ICT providers.
This isn’t just another layer of bureaucracy. DORA’s scope covers key areas such as:
- Operational resilience: Firms must maintain essential operations even during severe disruptions.
- Cybersecurity: Robust defenses against cyber threats are non-negotiable.
- Reporting obligations: Organizations are required to log, monitor, and report major ICT incidents.
While DORA lays out a clear framework, becoming compliant proves to be anything but easy. Recent figures reveal that only 1% of EU firms are fully DORA-compliant—a staggering gap that leaves most of the market exposed to risk.
How the CyberUpgrade DORA Self-Assessment Tool helps
For many financial institutions and fintechs, DORA compliance feels overwhelming. A shortage of in-house expertise, difficulty interpreting regulations, and uncertainty about where to start leave many firms struggling to assess their readiness. Even experienced teams can miss gaps in resilience, cybersecurity, or incident reporting, increasing the risk of fines or reputational harm.
The CyberUpgrade DORA Self-Assessment Tool offers a practical solution. Our free, anonymized tool is designed to simplify compliance assessments and quickly assess DORA readiness. The DORA Self-Assessment Tool is designed for a broad audience — not only technical cybersecurity and compliance specialists but also executives, managers, and anyone interested in evaluating their organization’s security posture. Its user-friendly design makes it accessible to individuals at all experience levels.
What makes this tool stand out is its flexibility. It offers two modes tailored to different needs:
- Fast Track Mode: A five-minute, high-level snapshot that gives organizations an immediate sense of where they stand on DORA readiness.
- Full Scope Mode: A deeper, 25-minute dive that delivers a detailed readiness score, uncovers compliance gaps, and provides actionable insights.
The tool generates easy-to-read reports that show strengths and gaps, allows teams to track progress over time, and offers actionable next steps—all without requiring prior DORA expertise. By making compliance clearer and more manageable, our tool helps organizations strengthen resilience and reduce regulatory risk with confidence.
The importance of early DORA compliance assessment
Why does acting early matter? Because the stakes are high. Financial institutions falling short of DORA’s standards face serious regulatory risks, including administrative fines, business restrictions, or even losing operating licenses.
The risks are even sharper for third-party ICT service providers, who are directly supervised by European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and face strict oversight and penalties.
The urgency is particularly acute for fintech. Falling behind exposes them to regulatory danger and threatens their reputation, customer trust, and long-term growth.
Why CyberUpgrade’s tool stands out
The expertise behind our tool makes it more than just a checklist. Experienced CISOs and fintech pioneers developed the CyberUpgrade platform and Self-Assessment Tool to ensure it meets the specific needs of financial institutions under DORA.
But CyberUpgrade doesn’t stop there. Beyond DORA, the platform supports multiple compliance frameworks—including NIS2, ISO 27001, and SOC2—and helps firms streamline vendor management, risk assessment, and audits. In the near future, we are planning to deliver self-assessment for additional frameworks, ensuring that top-tier protection and compliance tools are accessible even for smaller companies.
How to get started with the DORA Self-Assessment Tool
Our DORA Self-Assessment Tool is simple to use and involves only four steps:
- Visit the tool’s page: Head over to the CyberUpgrade DORA Self-Assessment Tool.
- Choose your mode: Select Fast Track for a quick overview or Full Scope for a detailed evaluation.
- Complete the assessment: Answer a series of questions tailored to your organization’s operations.
- Download your report: Receive an instant report outlining your compliance readiness, gaps, and recommended next steps.
Best of all, no sign-up is required—there are no hidden fees or obligations. It’s a risk-free, high-value resource for any fintech or financial institution.
Stay ahead with the DORA readiness assessment
Early action is your best defense in a regulatory environment that’s only getting tougher. By using the CyberUpgrade DORA Self-Assessment Tool today, fintechs and financial institutions can reduce compliance risks, strengthen cybersecurity resilience, and gain a competitive edge. Are you ready to become part of the top 1% of companies fully compliant with DORA requirements? Get started here.
