Interscale Content Hub – A detailed IT security risk assessment is a way of spotting, assessing and dealing with potential threats to your company’s valuable assets. So, how to perform detailed IT security risk assessment?
As you probably know, in today’s digital age, where businesses rely on information technology (IT) a lot, it’s vital to make sure your IT security stays strong in any conditions.
So, let’s break down each step in more detail.
Goals and Objectives of a Risk Assessment
The main goal of an IT security risk assessment is to find, look at, and deal with the risks to an organisation’s information assets.
This process, which is explained in the “Guide to Getting Started with a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment,” by CISA, is all about understanding the potential threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts on the organisation.
CISA says the goals are to make the company more cyber-resilient, make sure it’s complying with the rules, and protect its assets and reputation.
Meanwhile, as outlined in the NIST Special Publication 800-53, “Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations,” these objectives include:
- Spotting the threats and weaknesses in the system.
- Figuring out how likely it is that someone might cause harm by getting into the system without permission.
- Bringing together the risk management decisions from both the organisational and system perspectives.
This all-encompassing approach ensures that risks are evaluated in the context of the company’s operations and assets, as well as the potential impacts on individuals and external entities.
The USA Department of Education’s “Handbook for Information Technology Security Risk Assessment Procedures,” goes into more detail about what the goals are.
The handbook is all about working out how bad a threat could be for a system, so that managers can make smart decisions about security controls and fixes.
It also makes sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to measuring risk.
This structured approach helps stakeholders to decide which risks are most important based on how critical the mission is and how sensitive the information is.
You can see an example of these objectives in action in Australia, where organisations have to comply with local regulations like the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) guidelines.
These guidelines make it clear that regular risk assessments are important to keep your security in good shape and meet the rules. This helps to keep your critical infrastructure and services safe.
How to Perform a Successful IT Risk Assessment
To get the best out of your IT risk assessment, take a look at these steps below.
Find and Record Your Information Assets
First things first: you need to identify and record all the information assets in your organisation. This is the first step in an IT risk assessment.
As NIST’s Special Publication 800-53 says, it’s key to have a full list of hardware, software, data and network resources to understand the range of potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Also, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says it’s important to get a full picture of your network, including all the internal and external connections, so you can spot any potential threats and weaknesses.
Spot Potential Threats
Next, it’s key to identify any potential threats that could exploit vulnerabilities in your information assets.
The CISA says organisations should put together a list of both natural and man-made threats based on how the system is set up and how important the work is.
Using cyber threat intelligence sources like the National Cyber Awareness System helps you stay up to date with the latest threats and how they could affect you.
Find and Document Vulnerabilities
To find and record any weaknesses in your information assets, you need to look closely at all the ways they could be vulnerable.
You can do this by carrying out vulnerability assessments, penetration testing and looking at previous risk assessments and audit comments.
The NIST framework suggests doing regular and systematic evaluations to make sure you identify and document all the vulnerabilities.
For further information on the distinction, kindly read “How does an IT Audit Differ from a Security Assessment? Don’t Get Fooled.”
Evaluate Existing Security Measures
When you’re looking at existing security measures or internal controls, you need to assess how well they work at reducing the risks that have been identified.
The US Department of Education’s handbook says this includes looking at the system design documentation, operational procedures, and how changes affect security and privacy controls.
Keeping internal controls up to date is really important for keeping your IT environment secure.
Assess the Probability of Incident Occurrence
When we’re looking at the probability of an incident, we’re trying to determine how likely a threat will exploit a vulnerability.
This step looks at things like how likely it is that the threat will happen, how often it happens, and how well the current ways of stopping it are working.
CISA’s guide suggests using a likelihood matrix to determine the risk and the chance of a security incident.
Determine the Consequences of Threats
Knowing what could happen if a threat comes to fruition is key to deciding which risks are most important to tackle.
This means looking at the potential damage that could be done if a vulnerability is exploited, including financial loss, operational disruption and damage to the company’s reputation.
The NIST framework suggests a thorough impact evaluation to help you prioritise risks effectively.
Rank Information Security Risks
Once you’ve identified and assessed the risks, the next thing to do is to rank them based on how likely they are to happen and how much they’ll affect you.
A risk matrix helps you visualise and prioritise risks, which makes it easier to make decisions about how to spend your resources.
This process should take into account the organisation’s mission, objectives, cost, effort, and time constraints, as highlighted in NIST’s and CISA’s guidelines.
Develop Risk Mitigation Strategies
When it comes to risk mitigation strategies, it’s all about designing and implementing controls to address the risks that have been identified.
NIST’s SP 800-53 says this should include management, operational and technical controls that are right for the organisation.
Good controls might include things like making the network more secure, putting in place better access controls, making sure everyone’s up to date with security training, and putting together an incident response plan.
Record and Maintain Assessment Results
At the end of the day, it’s vital to document all the findings, including any risks identified, their likelihood and impact, and the recommended controls.
This documentation is useful for future assessments and shows that you’re meeting regulatory requirements.
CISA says it’s important to keep your documentation up to date, so it reflects any changes in the threat landscape or organisational structure.
Challenges of IT Risk Assessment
One of the main challenges is the ever-changing nature of cyber threats. The world of cyber threats is always changing, with new vulnerabilities and attack methods cropping up all the time.
This means we need to keep on top of risk assessments and make sure they’re still relevant and effective.
As NIST’s SP 800-53 says, it’s hard to know how likely and how bad various threats are going to be.
Organisations need to think about lots of different things, like the specific features of their information systems, the nature of their operations and the external threat environment.
On the other hand, limited resources also present a big challenge. It takes a lot of time, expertise and money to carry out a proper risk assessment.
Smaller organisations, in particular, may find it tough to allocate enough resources to perform comprehensive assessments.
It can also be tricky to get stakeholders on board. To get the best results, you need the support and cooperation of all the relevant stakeholders, including the executive team, IT staff and end users.
The CISA guide says it’s important to communicate and educate everyone involved to make sure they understand the value of risk assessments and their role in the process.
If people don’t buy in, the risk assessments won’t be done properly, and the recommended controls won’t be implemented effectively.
And don’t forget about how organisations also have to deal with specific regulatory and compliance requirements.
Keeping up with standards like the ACSC guidelines and the Australian Privacy Principles takes a lot of work and resources. It’s not easy to manage.
For fundamental reference, please refer to “Data Breaches, Downtime, and Dollars: What is IT Risk Assessment?“
How to Tackle Those IT Risk Assessment Challenges?
Let’s be clear; Yes, those challenges will, slowly, take your focus off your core business.
That’s why we’ve put together a full range of cybersecurity services to help you spot, assess and reduce the risks to your valuable assets.
What does that mean for you?
We’ll look closely at the risks to your company’s information assets and work out which ones are the most important.
We’ll help you put together a complete cybersecurity strategy that fits with your business goals and risk appetite.
We also run training for your employees to help them understand the risks and best practices when it comes to cybersecurity.
We can help you put together and put into practice plans for dealing with security breaches and getting your business back on its feet again.
We’ve got your back 24/7 with security system monitoring and management, so we can spot and respond to threats as they happen.
For example, we’re helping Davey Water Products identify and tackle some pretty major cybersecurity issues. This means they can keep their systems and data safe and secure.
With all those marketing materials above, we’d like you to do a few background checks and verification on us.
To get started, we suggest you take a look at our Interscale Cybersecurity Support page.
Or, if you want more detail and a more comprehensive adjustment, kindly make an appointment. We’re here for you 24/7.
In Closing
In today’s world, where technology is king, it’s more important than ever to protect your organisation’s valuable information.
This means doing a proper IT security risk assessment.
This process is about spotting potential threats and weaknesses, assessing how serious they are, and
So how does an IT audit differ from a security assessment? You might want to start by thinking about cybersecurity experts like Interscale, who can help you strengthen your risk management strategies.
