This blog is about risk management in cyber security. In four easy steps, you’ll get all the information you need to begin formulating a comprehensive plan:
Step 1: First, we’ll answer the question “What is risk management in cybersecurity? Including a discussion of the key components of effective risk management.
Step 2: Next up, best practices are highlighted, and suggestions provided.
Step 3: Since staff is nearly always stretched thin and budgets constrained, suggestions on how to prioritize activities are delineated to maximize the return on your investments.
Step 4: Finally, because time is of the essence, common pitfalls and ways to avoid them will be addressed.
With the escalating levels of cybersecurity threats and attack vectors, the importance of an effective and comprehensive risk management strategy continues to grow for organizations of all sizes—the material in this article can help you overcome these hazards.
Table of Contents
Step 1: What is Risk Management in Cybersecurity?
Like any other form of risk management, when it comes to cybersecurity it’s all about identifying, assessing, and then mitigating risk factors within an organization with the focus on protecting IT assets and critical, sensitive data that resides on or traverses these resources.
Risk management begins by quantifying threats and vulnerabilities. Next, assessing the impact of potential cyberattacks or data breaches on the organization. Finally, taking appropriate measures to reduce those risks to an acceptable level.
There are five key components to risk management. It starts with identification of risks associated with IT assets. Once this is completed, then an assessment of probability of threats being exploited and their potential impact which can include qualative or quantitative methods is done.
Next, risk mitigation including the use of cyber insurance,implementing counter-measures to reduce or limit risk exposure is performed. At this point, the work associated with risk management is still incomplete.
It remains for IT teams to perform ongoing risk monitoring as threats evolve and the efficacy of current stratagies measured. The last component, which is a more open-ended activity is critical; organizations must continously re-assess deciding which risks they will accept, transfer, or avoid.
Step 2: Cybersecurity Risk Management Best Practices
Here are nine best practices that can, if implemented, greatly improve organizatinal cybersecurity risk management.
- Conduct Regular Risk Assessments – This includes identifying and prioritizing IT resources, assessing vulnerabilities and related threats. The use of a formal structured framework such as CIS Critical Controls, ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity, among others is important.
- Utilize Defense-in-Depth Layered Strategy – Multiple layers of protection strengthen cybersecurity posture
- Implement Strong Cybersecurity Policies – Three key aspects here, first the designing of clear rules related to data protection, access control, incident response, and acceptable use of systems, next ongoing review (and updates as required), and consistent enforcement across the organization
- Ongoing IT Asset Monitoring – Deploy appropriate cybersecurity tools, check out the blog links at the bottom of this article for additional excellent information. This is also a good time to consider automation, whether dedicated tools or processes—there is a blog link below which addresses this topic as well. Finally, as new vulnerabilities are discovered (e.g., zero-day threats) or as the business environment changes, reassess and reprioritize risk management monitoring efforts.
- Perform Patch / Updates Consistently – All IT assets must have patches and updates done constantly—consider automating the process.
- Complete Systematic Audits and Compliance Reviews – Ensuring compliance begins with ongoing audits of security controls and procedures to validate adherence by all employees. In parallel, confirming alignment with relevant industry and governmental guidelines is crucial.
- Data Backup & Encryption – The backing up and storing of all critical data is a must, as is data encryption (in-flight and when stored) is also important. Be sure there is also a process to rapidly restore if the need arises is also in place (and tested).
- Employee Training & Building a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness – Periodic security training is important for all employees including occasional stimulated attack exercises to ensure compliance. Building a mindset that promotes consistent safe internet practices which includes leadership is fully onboard is also optimal.
- Design & Test Incident Response Plans – It begins the development of the plan with clearly documents steps from detection to recovery, assigning roles and responsibilities, and then regular testing is a must.
Step 3: How to Prioritize Cybersecurity Risk Management Actions
As was shown above in the best practices section, there is much to do to achieve an effective cybersecurity risk management strategy. Given this, prioritization takes on added urgency to ensure resources of being focused on the most significant threats and vulnerabilities that can impact your organization. Here is a list of actions to consider:
- Identify and Categorize Assets – Build a list of all critical IT and related resources, then classify by importance and sensitivity (from both a data and infrastructure perspective) for the organization prioritizing the most critical.
- Assess Threats and Vulnerabilities – With the asset list complete, the next step is to identify potential threats for each, evaluating for vulnerabilities using vulnerability scanning tools.
- Quantify the Probabilities and Impact of Each Risk – Determine how likely a particular vulnerability could be exploited within the context of your environment. Next, assess the damage (e.g., financial, regulatory business reputation) should the event occur. Finally, utilize a risk scoring model using frameworks such as NIST’s Risk Management Framework (RMF), FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk), or CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) to quantify or qualify risks in terms of likelihood and impact.
- Develop a Risk Matrix – A great method visual this data is to plot “Probability” on one axis and “Impact” on the other. Once complete, first target high-probability and high-impact risks, then on the remaining low-priority risks. Prioritization should include alignment with business goals while also considering the cost-benefit of mitigating a risk against the potential damage if it were to occur. If mitigation costs are significantly lower than the impact, the action should be prioritized.
- Address “Quick Wins” First – Start with actions that can quickly reduce risk with minimal effort and resources, such as applying critical patches, enabling multi-factor authentication, or implementing stronger password policies. Keep in mind that actions that have a high security impact but require relatively little time or cost should be prioritized to quickly reduce your risk profile.
- The Value of Industry Frameworks and Guidelines – As described above, structured security frameworks such as CIS Critical Controls, ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity are useful and should be utilized.
- Regulatory and Compliance Requirements Focus – Risks that could lead to legal penalties, fines, or non-compliance with regulations (like PCI DSS, HIPAA, or GDPR) should be top priority as they can be damaging to the organization at multiple levels.
- Stakeholder Collaboration is Key in Prioritization – Remember stakeholders go beyond simply senior leadership and executives. Be sure to include all IT and security teams as well as other departments that are potentially directly or indirectly impacted. High-risk assets and compliance-related risks must be targeted for in-depth and cross-team discussions.
Step 4: Common Cybersecurity Risk Management Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
The best way to avoid common cybersecurity risk management pitfalls is to follow best practices as described above. Failure to do this, for example by not ensuring ongoing patch management can leave an organization at elevated risk exposure. However, utilizing these best practices and prioritizing efforts effectively can get you a long way towards a robust risk management posture. Even with all these, there still remains several possible difficult areas you should keep in mind:
- Underestimating Cybersecurity Threats – In this day and age, every organization—even ones with a low profile—should consider themselves possible targets for attack. A healthy dose or paranoia (at least with risk management is a good thing). Act accordingly—see suggestions above in the best practices section.
- Focusing Only on Outside Threats – Sometimes the “bad guys” are not external. It is always best to implement measures to address both internal and external threats. Note this includes considering third-party entities.
- Poor Risk Communication to Leadership – Even when following all the best practices, if senior leadership are not kept in the loop it can lead to a lack of support for necessary investments in security and degraded risk management efficacy. To address this exposure, be sure to frame cybersecurity risks in terms of potential business impact—such as financial loss, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. Use metrics and clear language to demonstrate how addressing risks contributes to overall business goals. Engage leadership in cybersecurity strategy and decision-making.
- Not Adapting to New Threats – Given the constantly evolving threat landscape, failing to update cybersecurity practices in response to emerging threats can leave organizations exposed. Staying informed about the latest threat trends and adjust security policies and defenses accordingly is the best defense here.
In Summary
In conclusion, like many topics related to cybersecurity, risk management is complex, multifaceted, and in a constant state of flux. The best way to overcome these obstacles is to implement industry best practices, with an eye toward prioritization to focus on the highest-level threats first, then progressively lower-level items all with the goal of optimizing cost effectiveness with whatever actions are completed. Part of this is to be sure to avoid the common pitfalls of achieving a viable risk management strategy. If you follow these steps, you and your organization are well on their way to a successful risk management posture.
How CyberScope can help
CyberScope Edge Network Vulnerability Scanner can assist your risk management initiatives, specifically at the edge network. With the ability to perform comprehensive cybersecurity assessments, CyberScope can quickly root out vulnerabilities often missed by other tools. In the process, it can also serve as a contributor to larger enterprise-wide compliance efforts and audits.
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