Cyberattack losses to companies in the United States in 2024 range from over $350 billion to $452 billion. Nearly 43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses, but only 14% can mitigate threats. Conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment is the best way to ensure the organization does not fall victim to cyber-attacks. A cybersecurity risk assessment is a systematic approach to identifying threats and risks to information and information systems. It helps organizations identify areas for improvement in their cybersecurity program. Some assessments cover people within the organization, processes, and technology, and some aim to uncover vulnerabilities in a particular system/technology.
What is a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment:
There are many cybersecurity risk assessment frameworks and methodologies available. Some are:
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework is among the most popular risk assessment frameworks. It provides a systematic and structured approach to managing cybersecurity risk through Identifying, Protecting, Detecting, Responding, and Recovering.
- Another popular risk assessment framework is the ISO 27001:2013 standard. This standard provides a comprehensive approach to information security management, including risk assessment and treatment requirements.
- FAIR: Factor Analysis of Information Risk is another methodology for managing and quantifying organizational risk. It’s the only international standard quantitative information security and operational risk model. It is a research-driven not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline of cyber and operational risk management.
- COBIT is another framework from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).t’s a broad and comprehensive framework developed to understand, design, and implement the management and governance of enterprise IT.
A cybersecurity risk assessment should be conducted at least once a year or when any changes occur to the business or the IT infrastructure. It can be performed on Small, mid, or large enterprises with IT infrastructure consisting of legacy or complex operating systems. The risk assessment benefits public sector organizations that provide multiple services, as using personal data across different platforms requires greater vigilance.
Steps in Cyber Risk Assessment?
1. Determine the Scope:
A risk assessment starts by identifying its scope. It can be an organization’s entire infrastructure, but as risk assessment for the whole organization is a tedious task, the assessment is mostly done for one business unit, location, or a specific part of a business, such as a web application or the payment process.
2. Identify Cybersecurity Risks:
- Identify assets
This step involves identifying assets within the scope of risk assessment. When identifying assets, it is important to focus on those critical to the business and those that may seem less important, such as an organization’s picture gallery. The main objective is to ensure that every asset is treated with utmost responsibility. - Identify threats
Threats are the techniques and methods used by malicious threat actors that have the potential to cause harm to an organization’s assets. We can use a threat library base, such as Mitre ATT&CK Knowledge Base, to identify a threat any assets face. We can also use resources from the Cyber Threat Alliance, which can help us to stay up-to-date with the cyber threat information. Government agencies such as the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency can be excellent news sources on new threats in specific industries, verticals, geographic regions, or particular technologies.
3. Assessing and Analyzing the Associated Risk:
Once the organization identifies its high-priority assets and the specific vulnerabilities and potential threats, the infosec team can assess and calculate the corresponding risk levels based on these components.
This step aims to uncover any overlap between critical assets and existing vulnerabilities or threats, helping the organization determine an attack’s likelihood and potential impact. By analyzing this information, the organization can prioritize actions to mitigate risk.
4. Calculating the Probability and Impact of a Risk:
Two other important factors to consider for the risk assessment are:
- The likelihood that a threat actor will exploit the vulnerability
- The impact the risk or vulnerability will have on the organization
The likelihood of an attack happening depends on many factors, such as:
- The degree to which a vulnerability is known.
- The ease with which an attacker can take advantage of a vulnerability.
- The ability of threat actors to exploit the same vulnerability over time.
The attack’s impact is usually based on the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, Availability) of an organization’s data. These factors are linked to outcomes, such as monetary losses, Fines, or legal issues due to non-compliance.
5. Security Controls:
At this step, any risk present within the organization’s IT environment must be addressed to mitigate risk. Organizations should assess what steps they need to take to minimize the likelihood of an attack.
Security controls can be done in many forms, like:
- Data encryption.
- Software patching
- Multi-Factor Authentication.
- Employee training and awareness program.
6. Prioritize Risks Based on a Cost-benefit Analysis:
At this point, all the vulnerabilities that surfaced during the risk assessment are prioritized based on the impact they can have on the organization, the likelihood of being exploited by the attacker, and the availability of a patch to rectify the risk/vulnerability.
7. Monitor and Document Results:
The final stage is when the assessment tool provides a comprehensive report that gives the security team a snapshot of all vulnerabilities within the environment. The report also prioritizes the vulnerabilities and guides how to remediate them. The final stage involves creating a comprehensive report that will give the security team an insight into all the vulnerabilities within the System. The report also gives priority to the vulnerability and guides how to mitigate it
It is important to remember that cybersecurity risk assessment is a continuous process. Because vulnerabilities and threats change daily, organizations should conduct assessments regularly and frequently. This will help organizations ensure that they have effectively resolved vulnerabilities identified in past scans and detect new ones as they arise. We at iQuasar Cyber offer a comprehensive risk assessment to help your organization be secure from cyber threats and compliant with industry standards. Contact us today for a free consultation and discover how we can help you secure your organization from cyber threats.