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As organizations rely more on information technology to do business, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent. Without the right measures in place, you expose your company to critical vulnerabilities that could compromise your data—or worse, shut down your operations.
A cyber risk assessment ensures that you are well-equipped to protect your assets from potential cyber threats. This blog aims to help businesses identify their level of risk and guide them through the steps of performing a risk assessment.
Cyberattacks vs. Cyber Risks
Cyberattacks
What is a cyberattack or cyber risk? Those terms are probably nothing new, but let’s take a closer look so you can better understand how likely your business is to experience them.
A cyberattack refers to any intentional effort to compromise data, applications, or other assets through unauthorized access to a network, computer system, or digital device. Cybersecurity threats or attacks can come in many forms:
- Ransomware
- Malware
- Data Leaks
- Phishing
- Insider Threats
These attacks can originate from various entities, including cybercriminals seeking financial gain or hacktivists with political motives. Regardless of the type of cyber risk and its source, the consequences are severe. For instance, organizations may face direct financial losses due to theft or ransom payments. Companies might also need to pay penalties for non-compliance with regulatory standards. There can also be indirect costs from operational disruptions and reputational damage.
Cyber Risks
On the other hand, cyber risk is the potential exposure of an organization’s information and information systems to threats. In simpler terms, a cyber risk is the probability of a vulnerability being exploited or the likelihood of it occurring and its potential impact on an organization’s assets. Cyber risks can be categorized according to zero, low, medium, and high—depending on the type of threat, its source, severity, target, and legal requirement.
What is a Cyber Risk Assessment?
Both cyberattacks and cyber risks underscore the importance of proactive risk mitigation in cyber security. With the rate of cyber risks growing and the significant repercussions, it makes sense to take steps to maintain your business’ integrity.
But how can you be certain that your business is at risk? What tweaks can you make to your security framework to keep you and your customers safe? The key is to conduct a cyberattack risk assessment. It is a systematic evaluation of an organization’s information systems and processes to identify vulnerabilities and potential threats.
The goal of a cyber risk assessment is to answer the following questions:
- What are your organization’s most critical information technology assets?
- Is your business at risk from a cyberattack, and if so, what type of attacks would have the most impact on your business?
- What are the internal and external vulnerabilities?
- What would happen if those vulnerabilities are exploited?
- What is the likelihood of exploitation?
Once you are able to answer these questions, you can then develop IT security protocols and strategies for risk mitigation.
Reasons to Conduct a Cyber Risk Assessment
There are several compelling reasons to perform a risk assessment of cybersecurity:
Protect Sensitive Data
A data breach can expose customer information, intellectual property, and other confidential assets. While all businesses are at risk, this is especially true for those with e-commerce sites that handle credit card details and logins, as well as companies that store any kind of customer data like names and addresses. A risk assessment ensures your most valuable information is kept secure.
Avoid Regulatory Issues
Industry regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS mandate organizations to assess and manage cyber risks. Non-compliance can result not only in hefty fines but also in public scrutiny. A company that stays compliant with regulatory standards demonstrates a commitment to cybersecurity and customer well-being.
Prevent Financial Losses
Identifying and mitigating risks early can save businesses from the high costs associated with data breaches and recovery efforts. For example, a solid cybersecurity framework ensures that your internal or customer-facing applications keep functioning, even in the event of a cyberattack.
Stay Ahead of Threats
When it comes to cyber threats, it’s important to stay one step ahead. Regular cyberattack risk assessments help you adapt to emerging threats and ensure your defenses remain intact.
How to Perform a Cyber Risk Assessment
A cyber risk assessment can be split into many parts, but to make it easier to understand in the context of your business, here are key steps to remember:
1. Establish the Scope
Begin by determining what you want to assess. This includes:
- Systems, networks, and application
- Types of data that need protection
- Part/s or the organization to be assessed (business unit, location, or specific aspect of the business)
- Third-party vendors and partners with access to your systems
2. Identify Critical Assets
The next step is to identify and categorize the assets within your organization’s network. Create an inventory of all critical assets that need protection, including hardware, software, and sensitive data. You must also collect data on existing security measures and past incidents to get a bigger picture of your current security posture.
3. Identify Vulnerabilities
Look for chinks in your systems, such as unpatched software, misconfigurations, unauthorized devices within your environment, or even the likelihood of human error due to lack of employee training. In this phase, leverage tools such as vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to identify weaknesses in your systems. Other common threats that affect every organization include:
- Data leaks
- Data loss
- Misuse of information by authorized users (insider threats)
- System failure
- Service disruption
- External threats (third-party vendors, ad hoc groups, hackers, etc.)
- Natural disasters
4. Assess Likelihood and Impact
Not all risks require immediate attention. Prioritize them based on their likelihood (zero, low, medium, or high) and impact (minimal, significant, or catastrophic). You can use a risk matrix to classify each risk scenario. Focus on high-risk areas that could cause the most damage. One thing to keep in mind is that no environment, network, or system is 100% secure; there will always be some risk involved. Accepting this concept should be part of an organization’s security strategy.
5. Develop a Mitigation Plan
Based on the assessment findings, recommend appropriate security controls to mitigate risks effectively. Ideally, each risk should have measures to manage it. Strategies may include:
- Implementing stricter access controls
- Updating and patching software
- Providing cybersecurity training for employees
- Deploying firewalls and antivirus software
- Partnering with an IT outsourcing provider
6. Document Findings
Create a detailed report of your cyber risk assessment, including identified risks, mitigation measures, and recommendations for improvement. In this step, you translate your findings into quantifiable cyber risks. This involves calculating the effects of the risks in financial terms. By doing so, you communicate the importance of risk mitigation in a way that stakeholders or board members will understand and pay attention to, especially since they might not have a technical background. This will also help them make informed decisions about resource allocation, ensuring that your organization invests in the appropriate security controls.
7. Monitor and Update Regularly
A factor that further complicates cyber risks is how quickly technologies and threats evolve. Using old data or cybersecurity frameworks and ignoring emerging threats like AI-driven attacks is a mistake often overlooked by organizations. That’s why cyberattack risk assessments should be an ongoing process. They must be conducted regularly to address new changes in your business environment.
Eastvantage: Your Cybersecurity Partner
If your company is not equipped to adapt to the ever-evolving threat landscape, it’s crucial to outsource IT cybersecurity to a professional service provider. At Eastvantage, we are dedicated to safeguarding computer systems, networks, and data from cyber threats. If your company requires outsourcing solutions or additional personnel to enhance your cybersecurity services, we can supply skilled professionals to meet your needs. Our team includes security analysts specializing in cybersecurity tasks such as threat identification and analysis, ensuring robust protection for your organization.
By partnering with us, you can focus on your core business functions while we ensure the integrity of your cybersecurity infrastructure. Book a call with us today!
