Network security has become a top priority for most organizations, especially those that rely on network connectivity for day-to-day employee tasks.
If your organization does not have reliable network security, it can result in cyberattacks and data breaches that cause detrimental consequences. Cyberattacks and data breaches will lead to extended network downtime, damaged business reputations, lost customers, and lost revenue.
Because of this, it is important to maintain reliable network security. Implementing a risk-based security strategy will help improve network security to prevent cyberattacks and the impact they create.
COEO understands how important reliable network security is and has helped thousands of organizations improve their security by delivering solutions such as SASE while helping them implement risk-based security strategies.
We want you to understand the steps required to implement a risk-based security strategy so you can improve network security.
By the end of this article, you will understand what a risk-based security strategy is and the five main steps required to implement this strategy.
What is a risk-based security strategy?
Risk-based security identifies risks inside a network and mitigates them. Risk-based security prioritizes resources and data and applies security based on the level of risk and the importance of the data.
Risk-based security enables you to enhance your vulnerability management, ultimately improving overall security and addressing vulnerabilities in your network.
Risk-based vulnerability management is a process that enables security teams to identify, categorize, and remediate critical weaknesses before attackers can exploit them and compromise network infrastructure.
The growing number of sophisticated and advanced network vulnerabilities and potential security weaknesses has resulted in the need for risk-based security.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about risk-based security or other security solutions that can improve your network performance and security or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
The steps to implement a risk-based security strategy
It is important to understand the steps to implement a risk-based security strategy so you can implement the strategy in your organization. The steps your organization should take to implement a risk-based security strategy include:
Understand the value of organizational assets
Before implementing any risk-based security, it is important to understand the value of organizational assets.
To do this, organizations should maintain a complete and accurate inventory of current technology and data assets to understand what exists in their environment.
In addition, your organization must understand the importance of each asset within the organization. While it may be important to take the accounting value of assets into consideration, this does not always reflect the replacement cost of the asset.
To understand the value of assets, assess who uses these assets, what business processes they support, the replacement costs, and the operational and business impact of downtime.
Identify potential threats to assets
In addition to understanding the value of assets in your organization, it is also important to identify potential threats to these assets. Realizing who or what could disrupt, impact, or compromise these assets can help prevent these threats before they happen.
It is important to identify who might want to steal or damage these assets and why. This could include competitors, hostile nations, disgruntled employees or clients, or nonhostile threats such as untrained or careless employees.
This checklist should also include natural disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes, and tornadoes as well as non-environmental and non-intentional situations such as pandemics.
Once all potential threats are identified, assign each a threat level with the help of other departments, based on the likelihood of it occurring in your organization.
Identify network and asset vulnerabilities
During this step in the process, network practitioners should identify vulnerabilities and threats and assess the vulnerabilities that pose the highest threats. From there, these threats can be mitigated to prevent adverse consequences from happening.
Some of the ways to identify vulnerabilities include penetration testing and vulnerability scanning.
Penetration testing simulates an attack on the network in order to uncover exploitation points. Vulnerability scans are computer programs that assess computers, networks, and applications for any weaknesses or vulnerabilities within the network.
It may also be beneficial to use patch management tools to find end-of-life systems and unpatched areas within the network.
Physical vulnerabilities should also be checked and accounted for, including security perimeters around your office building, checking fire extinguishers, backup generators, and vulnerabilities with employee access.
Risk profiling
Once an organization’s assets, threats, and vulnerabilities are identified, the next step to implement a risk-based security strategy is to begin risk profiling. This process evaluates existing controls and measures, the risk of the combination of each asset, threat, and vulnerability.
It is important to rank the threat levels of each risk and give scores based on the impact the organization may have should the risk occur.
Risk remediation
The final, most important step is to address the risks and vulnerabilities identified and mitigate them. Following the risk profiling step, risks should be ranked from low to high risk.
Once risks are assessed against risk tolerance, your organization must decide how to address them. Some of the options to do so include:
Avoidance
Avoidance ensures your organization avoids the risk entirely, putting your assets out of the way by simply ceasing the business process that the risk may impact.
Mitigation
Another alternative to address these risks is to put a control or countermeasure in place to reduce the likelihood of any outcome that can cause adverse ramifications to your business.
Transfer
The transfer method is simply using a mechanism, such as insurance, to shift or share risks with a third party.
Acceptance
Lastly, if the risk has minimal impact on the business, the risk can be managed until it becomes more significant.
During the process of deciding what to do with each risk, it is important to document the decisions made and the reasons that led to the decision. It is important to execute this process for each threat.
It is important to remember that risk-based security is not designed to be a one-and-done process. Your IT team should continue to evaluate risks within the environment and reassess them with some frequency.
The reason the documentation is so important is that it helps determine whether risks have changed.
Determining whether a risk-based security strategy is right for your organization
Now you understand what a risk-based security strategy is and the steps required to implement a strategy. This will help you understand how to achieve your risk-based security objectives.
Organizations can’t operate effectively with network security vulnerabilities that result in threats like cyberattacks and data breaches. These consequences can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the network following an attack.
Additionally, some attacks can result in permanent network damage. For this reason, network security should be a top priority for all organizations.
COEO understands how important reliable network security is and has delivered thousands of network security solutions to organizations to improve their security vulnerabilities and help them avoid cyberattacks.
We want you to understand what a risk-based security strategy is and the steps to implement a risk-based security strategy in your organization.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about risk-based security or other security solutions that can improve your network performance and security or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the steps to implement a risk-based security strategy, read this article to learn about the top data security threats and how to prevent them:
