December 12, 2019 By Connor Lyons 3 min read

Aspiring to have the best cyber and information security capabilities is probably not the main goal for most organizations. An airline’s primary aim, for example, is to ensure that passengers are safely transported from point A to point B. The priority for an oil and gas company is to extract and refine sources of energy to be sold. Neither exist to only protect servers and IT infrastructure.

The Changing Cyberthreat Landscape

Even so, cybersecurity has become a critical issue across all industries to assist in achieving those key missions and must be discussed at the board level. This is partly due to an increase in regulations across different jurisdictions, defining how data and information assets must be protected and used. In addition, interconnected systems, emerging technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and the migration to cloud-based services pose significant cybersecurity challenges. The cyberthreat landscape is rapidly changing and expanding, which exposes a new set of risks to organizations irrespective of the industry.

Grow Your Business With Cyber Risk Management

Enter cybersecurity risk management — the process of capturing, analyzing and prioritizing an organization’s top cyber risks. A risk is an uncertain event that has not yet occurred. It is assessed based on the likelihood of a threat occurring versus the adverse impact should it actually occur. The output of this calculation is known as the residual risk.

The implementation of an effective risk management framework provides a platform for IT security teams to log their cyber risks across the organization and prioritize them by comparing each of their residual risk scores. Notable industry practice frameworks that can be adopted include ISO27001 and NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework. Cyber risk management frameworks are particularly useful if your organization is split into multiple operating companies or if you need to assess cyber risks associated with third-party suppliers.

Once your cyber risks have been defined and analyzed, they can be reported to your organization’s chief information security officer (CISO) or similar security leader before integrating them into an enterprise-level risk management discussion. A committee that oversees an enterprise’s risk management process may compile risks gathered from all departments across the organization before presenting the top overall risks to the CEO.

Implement a Cyber Risk Management Framework

There are three recommended steps to successfully implement a mature cyber risk management framework:

  1. Complete a due diligence assessment to establish the existing enterprise risk management framework, including a review of the metrics that are used by an organization to measure adverse impacts should a threat occur. Impact areas to assess include safety, operational, reputational and financial.
  2. Adopt a cybersecurity framework that is aligned with an industry standard and create a manual risk reporting tool. This tool should include an active risk register that outlines the controls, tolerances and risk scores — namely, inherent, residual and target risk scores. It should also include a risk scoring matrix that aligns with the one used at an enterprise risk management level, to be used as a way of measuring likelihood versus impact.
  3. Automate this process through the procurement or development of a risk management solution to define, collect and analyze cyber risks. The solution should provide the capability to include cyber risk visualizations, dashboards and heat maps to illustrate the risk profile. These illustrations should mirror or relate to those produced at the enterprise risk management level so that cyber risks can be seamlessly integrated and compared alongside the overall risks to the business.

Manage Cyber Risks to Protect Your Organization

The implementation of cyber risk management ensures that risks are considered and mitigated where necessary to protect the organization without losing sight of primary business goals or blocking any digital transformation and innovation projects. Through this process, companies can build a cyber risk profile and compare it to the business risks facing the organization. Lastly, risk management can assist with making investment decisions and act as an audit trail that the organization can hand over as part of meeting regulatory requirements.

Learn More about IT Risk Management Services

More from Risk Management

How will the Merck settlement affect the insurance industry?

3 min read - A major shift in how cyber insurance works started with an attack on the pharmaceutical giant Merck. Or did it start somewhere else?In June 2017, the NotPetya incident hit some 40,000 Merck computers, destroying data and forcing a months-long recovery process. The attack affected thousands of multinational companies, including Mondelēz and Maersk. In total, the malware caused roughly $10 billion in damage.NotPetya malware exploited two Windows vulnerabilities: EternalBlue, a digital skeleton key leaked from the NSA, and Mimikatz, an exploit…

ICS CERT predictions for 2024: What you need to know

4 min read - As we work through the first quarter of 2024, various sectors are continuously adapting to increasingly complex cybersecurity threats. Sectors like healthcare, finance, energy and transportation are all regularly widening their digital infrastructure, resulting in larger attack surfaces and greater risk exposure.Kaspersky just released their ICS CERT Predictions for this year, outlining the key cybersecurity challenges industrial enterprises will face in the year ahead. The forecasts emphasize the persistent nature of ransomware threats, the increasing prevalence of cosmopolitical hacktivism, insights…

How I got started: Ransomware negotiator

4 min read - Specialized roles in cybersecurity are proliferating, which isn’t surprising given the evolving threat landscape and the devastating impact of ransomware on many businesses.Among these roles, ransomware negotiators are becoming more and more crucial. These negotiators operate on the front lines of cyber defense, engaging directly with cyber criminals to mitigate the impact of ransomware attacks on organizations.Ransomware negotiators possess a unique blend of technical expertise, psychological insight and negotiation skills that allow them to navigate the high-stakes environment of ransomware…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today