If your organization has network security vulnerabilities, it can lead to cyberattacks and data breaches, resulting in extremely detrimental consequences.
Cyberattacks and data breaches lead to damaged business reputations, compromised sensitive data, lost customers, and lost revenue.
In addition, cyberattacks and data breaches can cost hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of dollars to repair a network, which is a price most organizations can’t afford.
Few organizations can survive these ramifications. For this reason, it is important to understand how to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment so you can identify any security vulnerabilities before they take place.
COEO understands the importance of network security and has helped thousands of organizations evaluate their security risks using cybersecurity risk assessments and improving their network security by delivering solutions such as SASE.
By the end of this article, you will understand what a cybersecurity risk assessment is, as well as the steps required to perform an assessment.
What is a cybersecurity risk assessment?
A cybersecurity risk assessment is the process of identifying and prioritizing risks in a network. Network security is more important than ever for organizations that rely on their network and internet connectivity.
Cybersecurity risk assessments help scan networks for cybersecurity vulnerabilities and identify risks that may have compromised the network.
Cybersecurity risk assessments evaluate network exposure to threats and quantify the potential business impact of these threats within the network.
When done properly, cybersecurity risk assessments will reveal any gaps in network security, detailing a network’s threat environment.
Cybersecurity risk assessments are not meant to be static exercises. Recalibration and real-time feedback are needed to ensure assessments keep up with the changing cybersecurity landscape.
This ensures that your risk assessment is always up to date and able to identify any new and emerging threats that may compromise your cybersecurity.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about network security or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
Steps to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment
Now that you understand what a cybersecurity risk assessment is, it’s equally important to understand the steps involved in performing one.
Following these steps ensures your network strengthens its cybersecurity posture while identifying potential threats and effectively mitigating them. The steps to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment include:
1 Understand the scope of the assessment
The first step to performing a reliable cybersecurity risk assessment is to strategize the assessment. When strategizing the risk assessment, some key items to consider include the public face of the organization and how far it reaches.
It is important to consider connections that extend outside of the organization, which can impact the assessment to include supply chains and infrastructure, depending on the company’s vulnerability to adversaries.
The locations of assets will drive much of the scope of the assessment. For example, financial assets stored in an insured financial institution can be placed outside the scope of the assessment since the institution manages that risk and liability.
However, the path to the account for deposits and withdrawals would be in the scope of the assessment. When setting the scope of the assessment, boundaries must be set that are strategic, clear and annotated.
Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that risk assessments are snapshots of a specific moment. Because of this, it is important not to overlook the importance of the plan’s time horizon.
While the window of time for the risk assessment is longer than the window for vulnerability assessments, risk assessments also need to be refreshed with some frequency. Network procedures, technologies, and personnel will change, which will all affect the risk profile of your network.
2 Identifying cybersecurity risks
Once network assets have been identified and the scope of the network has been assessed, your team can start identifying potential risks in the network. When identifying risks, it is important to be as thorough as possible with both technological and physical risks.
When determining physical risks, it is important to consider protecting access to the site and to its assets while thinking about human-made disasters associated with construction, as well as natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes.
As for technological risks, it is typically a good idea to use a security audit tool to help identify vulnerabilities, assess compliance with security standards, and ensure sensitive data is protected.
3 Analyze risks and their potential danger
The next step in creating a cybersecurity risk assessment is to analyze the potential danger of the risks identified.
Each vulnerability must be traced to every corporate function that it could impact demonstrating the dependency model of the path the risks have taken and where the vulnerability is invoked.
Determining the impact of a cybersecurity risk can be objective, subjective, or a combination of the two.
Objective measurements are typically the dollar amount of a potential threat, while subjective analysis covers intangibles, such as loss of trust, personnel, or intellectual property.
It is important to evaluate each risk and the potential objective and subjective impact it can have on your organization.
4 Risk prioritization
The fourth step in performing a cybersecurity risk assessment is risk prioritization. In this stage, your team must prioritize the cybersecurity risks identified in your network.
Following the risk analysis, your organization should prioritize the potential damage of each risk found in the network. Prioritizing these risks will help you understand the most damaging to least damaging risks.
In this step, it can be difficult to prioritize all of these. However, each entity is different, so risk analyses are unique to each organization.
It is important for your team to determine what might be most damaging to your organization since many cybersecurity experts make broad generalizations to sell security solutions.
5 Create a final cybersecurity report
Finally, the fifth step in performing a cybersecurity risk assessment is to document the process and data into a final report. While creating the report is a time-consuming process, it is important to keep track of the data identified during the assessment.
Once your cybersecurity report is documented, the cybersecurity risk assessment should identify the vulnerabilities and potential threat actors in your network.
This report should also contain a risk mitigation plan with near and long-term tactics and goals to ensure risks and vulnerabilities will not lead to significant damage.
Implementing a cybersecurity risk assessment in your organization
Now you understand what a cybersecurity risk assessment is and the steps required to perform the assessment. This will help you understand whether a cybersecurity risk assessment will be a reliable solution for your organization to go about implementing the game plan.
No organization can afford to have poor network security that leads to vulnerabilities, resulting in cyberattacks and data breaches. This will result in detrimental consequences such as damaged business reputation, extended network downtime, lost customers, and lost revenue.
For this reason, it is important to understand what a cybersecurity assessment is and the steps to perform one. This will help you improve network security and vulnerabilities.
COEO understands how important reliable network security is and has helped thousands of organizations with their cybersecurity risk assessment while delivering security solutions such as SASE to help improve security vulnerabilities.
We want you to understand what a cybersecurity risk assessment is and the steps required to perform one, so you can better secure your network.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about network security or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you know what a cybersecurity risk assessment is and the steps to perform one, read this article to learn about the future of cybersecurity:
