In today’s data-driven world it’s a challenge to keep your information intact, secure, and protected. Each company wants to have a certain level of control over its data flow. Cyber security risk poses a big challenge in retaining this control. With the rapid advancement in the cyber landscape, organizations are widely exposed to a greater risk of cybercrime.
In the digital world, cyber threats can simply demolish your dream of making it big. The confidentiality and integrity of your company’s data and customer data provide credibility to your organization. Any compromise with security or accidental breach of security is not good for the ability of organization to operate smoothly. To close this down it is imperative to manage and mitigate the cyber security risk effectively.
That’s where comes the concept of Cybersecurity risk assessment, A phenomenon that can lower the risk of any unwanted threat entering your information system.
What is cybersecurity risk assessment?
Cybersecurity risk assessment is a continual process wherein technologies, operations, and procedures are enacted to protect organizations and businesses from cyber-attacks. It is an integral part of all the measures a business takes to have control over its information.
A quick guide to performing the cyber security risk assessment
1. Identifying critical assets– Company data and customer data is the most valuable asset a business holds. Judging The value and whereabouts of the critical data is the first step to avoiding any potential risk of cybercrime.
Your network, server, database, contracts, and customer contact information are those assets whose security can not be compromised. So, the initial step in Cybersecurity risk assessment is to categorize and prioritize assets that cannot be negotiated against cyber-attacks.
2. Vulnerability assessment– Each system has some potential areas where the security can be breached easily. Discovering the weaknesses of your system and reviewing them is the next step you can take to ensure protection from threats.
It provides an idea about which system or data is at high risk. The vulnerability score can be determined by evaluating these factors-
- What data is vulnerable?
- Which system is vulnerable?
- Which business function is endangered?
Once you address these factors, you can easily locate the unprotected areas and map out a vulnerability assessment plan.
3. Threat detection– Identifying the threat that can exploit your data is the key step one can take for assessing the risk. A cybersecurity threat can hamper a company’s operations and damage the whole information system. There can be two threats that you need to keep in mind while preparing the risk assessment roadmap
- Malicious threats include hackers, malware, ransomware, and phishing emails. These threats are mostly external.
- Non-malicious threats include the accidental breach by an employee, unauthorized access to critical information, misuse of the information in the internal mechanism of the company, or unintentional leakage of data by using the unencrypted USB.
4. Impact assessments– This is the evaluation a company does assuming the impact on organization if the threat is exercised. The impact can vary between information assets. There can be high, medium, or low impact, which any organization can face depending on the vulnerability of the data and the probability of it getting breached.
- High impact would substantially damage the system and can be detrimental to the confidentiality of the business.
- Medium impact would be damaging but recoverable
- Low impact would be limited and non-existential.
Thus, it is essential to assess whether an impact is critical or dispensable.
5. Likelihood rating– Keeping in mind the control environment of your organization it is easy to assess the likelihood of data exploitation. You can rate your likelihood on the scale of high if the threat source is highly capable of attacking the target. If an efficient control environment is in place, the likelihood would be medium where the unauthorized activity can be prevented.
6. Risk determination– This is the fundamental step to reduce the possibility of any futuristic cyber security risk. For this, you need to know two things. First, how much of an impact would be felt if a compromise occurred, and second what is the likelihood of occurring?
- Risk can be qualified as severe if the threat is recent, immediate, and potent and there is an immediate requirement for action
- Risk can be qualified as moderate if the impact it can cause is medium and the likelihood of occurrence is low.
7. Coming up with documentation– Reporting the findings and existing gaps in the security system concludes the process of Cybersecurity risk assessment. This documentation includes the list of vulnerable assets, the likelihood and impact level of possible threats, and the potential risk attached to it.
It also contains the monetary risk assessment attached to it. Authentic and precise risk assessment documentation can make your business resistant to a cyber-attack.
Putting the Control Environment in place for cybersecurity risk avoidance –
Though managing the cybersecurity risk assessment is a long and difficult process, by introducing a cyber security culture, an organization can ensure raising a shield against the initial cyber threats. Assessing the control environment in your company or business is the proactive approach to prevent cyber attacks.
Here is a checklist of those actions whose compliance can efficiently close all the security gaps in your information system-
- Set strong passwords– An easy-to-remember password can likely be easy to guess and crack for hackers. Avoiding personal credentials and using more Capital characters, numerals and symbols can potentially fix the issue. Using a passphrase instead of a password is also the best way to get protected from cybercrime.
- Update firmware– To enhance the functionality and performance of your system updating firmware at regular intervals is recommended.
- Enact two-factor authentication– To limit the access boundaries of your valuable company data, enacting two-factor authentication will keep you safe. Be it your workplace account or a bank account it needs to be enabled for cyber threat prevention.
- Secure your business’s wi-fi network– The convenience of a wi-fi network makes it highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Ensuring the safety of the router, regular changes in the login information, and setting up a separate point of public and private access are some of the measures that can cover the security loops in your wi-fi network.
- Use encryption –Encrypted text is not easy to decipher, thus not easy to crack by hackers. So, to prevent any attempt of harvesting your login credentials or any other stealing of confidential data, encryption is a savior.
- Install firewalls– Installing and updating your firewall at regular intervals can mitigate the possibility of cybercrime. It removes the chances of transferring a large data file over the network to eliminate malware-containing attachments.
- Phishing emails– Most of the attacks on businesses have been through phishing emails where your data and password are hacked through an email. Cyber attacks can exploit these vulnerabilities. Therefore, being vigilant and avoiding a click on unnecessary links can save the information system from potential loss.
Conducting a regular Cybersecurity Risk Assessment is imperative not only to the business but also can increase the trust and credibility of your company. A business can initialize the process of risk assessment by putting a robust security control system in place which would cover the basic gaps in securing the information. Subsequently, a strategized roadmap for cybersecurity risk assessment should be adopted to miss the mark of any future cyber-attack.