As technology continues to advance, cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated – and diverse – than ever. Gone are the days when all businesses needed to worry about was the occasional virus. From phishing scams to insider threats, modern attacks can take a variety of forms. When the danger can come from anywhere – even your own staff – how can you ensure the safety of your company, data, and clients?
The first step is narrowing down which threats your business is most likely to face. You cannot even begin to protect yourself without an understanding of where the danger is coming from. This is where a cyber risk assessment becomes an essential tool. But why? What is a cyber risk assessment? And how can you perform one?
What is a Risk Assessment in Cybersecurity?
A risk assessment in cybersecurity is a methodical evaluation of your IT environment to identify vulnerabilities, assess threats, and prioritize defenses. This process is the first step in any security strategy, guiding your efforts as you implement security controls. Knowing how to do a cybersecurity risk assessment is essential, as it provides crucial visibility into your threat landscape.
What Can Happen if I Don’t Perform One?
Without a cybersecurity risk assessment, you are unable to clearly see the gaps present within your defenses. This exposes your businesses to serious consequences:
- Data Breaches: Without correctly identifying potential risks, you give threat actors the ability to easily exploit them. You are also likely not monitoring these vulnerabilities closely enough, and thus may not notice such an attack until it’s too late.
- Financial Losses: Recovering from a cyberattack is expensive – and as the damage increases, this only gets worse.
- Reputational Harm: Clients will never choose a business that has experienced a data breach over one that hasn’t. Failing to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities now could cost you many customers in a few years.
- Regulatory Fines: Knowing how to assess cybersecurity risk is essential for remaining compliant with increasingly harsh data protection standards (such as ISO/IEC 27001). Without this critical step, you open your business to fines and other penalties.
Ironically, failing to perform a cyber risk assessment is itself one of your biggest risk factors.
How to Perform a Cyber Risk Assessment
Here is a step-by-step guide for conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment:
1. Identify Your Infrastructure
Start with a comprehensive catalogue of your IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, networks, and cloud solutions. This helps define the scope of your assessment, ensuring focus and efficiency.
2. Analyze Your Biggest Threats
Now that you understand what your business is working with, ask yourself what could go wrong. Consider every single way that your IT infrastructure could be breached, taking into account internal threats (such as disgruntled employees) as well as external ones (such as malware). Research the most common attacks in your industry, and emerging technologies that might be exploited.
3. Prioritize Risks
Evaluate the likelihood of each threat on your list, and the potential impact it could have on your business. Create a risk rating system to prioritize your security controls. For example, you might use low, medium, and high, or a traffic light system.
4. Implement Controls
Develop a response plan to mitigate each identified risk, starting with the most critical and working your way backwards. The security measures you choose will depend on your vulnerabilities. Some examples include:
- Multi-factor authentication to address unauthorized account access
- Data encryption to prevent ransomware attacks
- Regular awareness training to reduce the risk associated with human error
5. Document the Process
Keep detailed records of your findings, risk rating, and mitigation strategies. This helps in two key ways:
- By allowing you to more effectively track success
- By proving compliance efforts in the case of an audit
6. Review and Update Regularly
The threat landscape constantly changes, and your vulnerabilities will do the same as your business grows. Continuous monitoring is essential to ensure your mitigation strategies remain effective. Schedule periodic reviews to assess whether adjustments have become necessary.
Common Challenges (and Solutions)
Understanding how to perform a cyber risk assessment is simple enough, but that does not guarantee success. Challenges may appear along the way that halt your progress, such as:
Lack of Time or Resources
You, like many businesses, may have incredibly limited resources to conduct these assessments. Prioritization will help you determine which risks must be addressed at once, and which can wait a little longer. Otherwise, managed services might be a good option. A managed service provider (MSP) can take care of cybersecurity for you, eliminating the need to worry about this at all – and for a lower price than handling it in-house.
Poor Visibility Across Systems
You might not have the infrastructure in place to achieve clear visibility across your IT infrastructure. In this case, use centralized asset management and monitoring tools. These allow you to track users, devices, and data more effectively.
Difficulty Prioritizing Risks
Inconsistent Follow-Through
You may perform all other steps successfully, only to realize several months later that your assessment has not been followed up as planned. You can avoid this by assigning clear ownership of tasks, and performing periodic reviews to ensure accountability.
Every Blind Spot is a Potential Attack - Find Yours Now
You cannot protect your business effectively if you don’t know where the danger is likely to come from. Understanding what a cyber risk assessment is, and how to perform one, will prove invaluable to your future success. It empowers your team to anticipate and reduce risk, stopping threats before they even have the opportunity to reach your business. If you have been putting this vital task off, now is the time to get started.
Need help? Ascentient has over two decades of experience helping high-risk clients protect their data. Our Chicago-based team can walk you through the process, providing the insight you need to reduce risk with confidence. If you’re ready to learn more, speak to a security consultant today.