A cyber security risk assessment helps the organization understand the cyber health status of their network and systems. This understanding, therefore, aids the organization to make data-driven decisions.
Defining Cyber Risk
Cyber risk faces all businesses today. That includes whether you own a Fortune 500 or just a small business. You are the target of risks and attacks.
Cyber risk can compromise the organization’s reputation and finances. These risks can be in range from zero, low, medium, and high. Moreover, these grades further tell how much attention should be given. That is, in response to threats.
Cyber risk is calculated by:
THREAT x VULNERABILITY x INFORMATION VALUE
Moreover, the following are the factors affecting your vulnerability assessments.
- The threat
- The vulnerability of the system
- Potential financial and reputational damage
Furthermore, risk cannot be fully measured. All the more with today’s business operations. We are becoming more dependent on automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Also, the cloud is in use more than ever to do business during the pandemic.
These digital transformations are good. It serves the business well. Especially when it comes to efficiency. However, these present vulnerabilities to the network too.
Thus, the key is to strengthen defenses. But before boosting the system’s and network’s defenses. A cyber security risk assessment should be executed first.
Cyber Risk Assessment
A good definition of this was given by the NIST. or the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It goes:
These assessments do “identify, estimate, and prioritize risks to organizational operations, assets, individuals, and Nation ..”
Certainly, these assessments are necessary and crucial to one’s business. Because this helps the organization employ data-driven decisions. Most especially with their responses to risks.
On the other hand, an assessment cannot be applied to all cases. What applies to a company should not apply to you. Even if you are in the same nature and field of business. Perhaps there are areas in which you play the same. But, the holistic state of your organization’s systems and networks differ from each other.
For instance, you’ll see how needs differ through the following aspects.
- Your organization’s information technology assets
- Consider how much customer information you handle
- Obvious threats and sources of your organization
- Vulnerabilities on both internal and internal sources
- Likelihood or probability of incidents to happen
These concerns should better help you decide which aspects of your organization need more protection. As a result, your assessment should also influence your risk management.
In acting for your risk management, you should also take the following into consideration:
- The risk itself
- The rate of priority according to the rate of risk
- Moreover, the efficiency of risk management
Benefits Of An Effective Risk Management
- Financial benefit- reducing long-term financial liabilities
- A template shall be made for future assessments
- Holistic knowledge of the organization’s cyber health
- Data breach protection
- Ensuring compliance– thus, protects you against regulatory issues
- Avoids system downtime
Certainly, there’s so much these cyber risk assessments do offer. However, also be reminded that this is a continuous process. Thus, diligence in handling consistent assessments empowers your security.
