Cybersecurity Risk Management

Published on :

21 Aug, 2024

Blog Author :

Edited by :

Reviewed by :

Cybersecurity Risk Management refers to an ongoing procedure of identification, analysis, evaluation, and redressal of cybersecurity threats to an organization. Its primary objective has been to stop hackers, trojans, and malicious users from penetrating an organization's IT network and hijacking the system or planting destructive viruses or malware to compromise its security or destroy the whole network.

It helps businesses manage threats to information effectively and prevent severe damage to security and infrastructure. Finally, it establishes that cyber threats are not eliminated but that ongoing risk management is needed to contain them and reduce the impact to a minimum level.

What Is Cybersecurity Risk Management?

Cybersecurity risk management means the cyclical process of identification, assessment, control, and review of risk control to mitigate the threat emanating from cyberattacks on its operations promptly.
Its main goal consisted of preventing attackers, malicious software, and other harmful users from breaking into an institution's IT infrastructure and taking control of the system, infecting it with malware that would undermine its safety or destroy the network.
One can use internal compliance and the audit team, conduct training programs, update software, and implement PAM, multi-factor access authentication, and dynamic backup data.
Mitigate risks by understanding assets, creating a solid strategy with embedded values, and enforcing continuous, trustworthy security protocols.

Cybersecurity Risk Management Process Explained

Cybersecurity risk management is understood as undertaking non-stop procedures in a repeated manner spanning throughout the whole lifetime of an organization's network. Thus, strategically prioritizing cyber threats enhances the safety of an organization's information and assets. By setting up a cybersecurity management process, an organization can address its highly critical shortcomings, attacks, and threatening trends.

Before implementing it, one must understand the four critical stages of a cybersecurity risk management framework, as discussed below:

Risk identification: It means assessing a business's security environment to identify existing or potential risks affecting its operations.
Risk assessment: Once someone identifies the risk, they must analyze it to determine the extent to which it can impact an organization's operations, along with quantifying the impacts it can have on the business.
Risk control: After risk assessment comes controlling the risk to help a business mitigate its effects through various methods, processes, technologies, or other suitable measures.
Risk controls review: Once the risk gets under the control of the business, it must review the control system put in place by the cyber security teams through continuous evaluation to check the level of risk mitigation in place by adding or reducing the controls as per the requirements. It becomes essential to practice the prioritization of measures of cybersecurity defense on the basis of the expected worst effects of the threats they are made to defend. Cybersecurity threat management acknowledges that one can never eliminate all the vulnerabilities or weaknesses against cyberattacks. Therefore, cybersecurity threat management addresses threats' flaws and trends first and attacks that matter the most to one's business.

How To Plan?

Let us prepare a comprehensive plan to prepare a management strategy as listed below:

Identification of cybersecurity risks
Assessment of cybersecurity risks
Recognizing potential measures of risks due to cybersecurity
Deploy continuous monitoring of cybersecurity risks
Requirements of standards and frameworks that need an integrated approach to cyber security management
Using internal compliance along with the audit team in IT risk management
Conducting training programs for cybersecurity
Updating software of every business
Implementing privileged access management (PAM)
Deploying robust multi-factor access authentication
Deploying backup of dynamic data

Examples

Let us go through a few examples to clarify the concept of cybersecurity threat management.

Example #1

Let us study the cybersecurity threat management application in the healthcare sector. In California, a low-budget hospital was facing online security risks. They contacted a cyber-threat management company to handle the risk. It also contacted the company to aid it in ensuring improved protection of protected health information (PHI) in conformity with HIPAA and HITECH. As a result, while working within its current budget limitations, the hospital has strengthened its cybersecurity management and built strong susceptibility and threat management features.

Example #2

According to an article published on November 8, 2023, Deloitte is named as a leader in cybersecurity risk management. By integrating cybersecurity with clients' business strategies and objectives, the company's business-led approach offers them safe and profitable operations. In order to help clients make correct decisions about their cyber investments and keep developing, Deloitte guides them through growing complexity, shifting business environments, and regulatory requirements.

The cybersecurity strategy strikes a perfect balance between enterprise enablement and protection by making cyber a strategic business enabler. Thus, to fulfill the objective of providing cyber services and SaaS-based modular platform solutions around the clock, the company operates three global delivery centers in addition to a network of in-region satellite delivery centers.

Best Practices

This section puts together six best practices to develop a robust program for protecting effectively, as discussed below:

First of all, one should know an organization’s assets and IT environment.
Then, one must prepare a sound and robust strategy.
After this, one must embed cultures and values into it.
The risk assessment must be actionable, adaptive, and continuous.
Furthermore, one must strictly enforce security protocols in the organization.
Moreover, trustworthy visibility on a real-time basis is essential.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is cybersecurity risk management complex?

With the increasing use of the internet and intranet in every aspect of operations and business management, cyber threats have increasingly been used to steal confidential information and data to hijack and destroy businesses. Hence, it has become a grave threat to security and has become more complex.

Are cybersecurity risk management processes similar from system to system?

No, for every system, different risk management processes have to be used, as every system has different configurations and settings. Moreover, the level of protection using antivirus protocols also differs, so it becomes essential to arrange different risk management processes from system to system.

Why cybersecurity risk management is important?

It has become essential to stop cyber-attacks and decrease the risk of cyber-attacks. A robust risk treatment plan could address risk appropriately, and the best defenses could be implemented.