You're reading from A CISO Guide to Cyber Resilience

Product typeBook

Published inApr 2024

PublisherPackt

ISBN-139781835466926

Edition1st Edition

Concepts

Cybersecurity

Author (1)

Debra Baker

Security and Risk Management

This chapter is about security and risk management. We will be discussing the importance of risk management and why you need it. Security and risk management is the process of balancing cyber risks, the controls to thwart attacks, and a budget. Business is about making money, and security and risk management is the process of choosing the controls that work for your company’s budget. Your company can’t be 100% secure, nor can there be 0% risk. Security is a balance of what is most important, what can wait, and what risks are acceptable to your business.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

What is risk management?
Identifying risks
Monitoring your controls
Key performance indicators (KPIs)

What is risk management?

Security and risk management is the process of balancing cyber risks and a budget. Business is about making money, and a business will always face constraints regarding its budget. Security is a balance of what is most important and what can wait (at least for now). When selecting the controls that work for your company, there may be areas where your company is subpar or where the budget requires a delay in implementation, as well as an exception to your security policies. These exceptions can be added to the risk register.

Security and risk management is a comprehensive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks and threats to an organization’s assets, including its people, information, and physical infrastructure. It involves the systematic application of policies, procedures, and controls to minimize vulnerabilities and protect against potential harm. In addition, aligning your program with your company’s mission...

Identifying risks

The process of security and risk management begins with the identification and assessment of risks. This is also considered to be a Business Impact Assessment. This involves conducting a thorough analysis of the organization’s assets, identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities, and evaluating the likelihood and impact of those risks. Risks can come from various sources, such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, human error, or even internal misconduct. An excerpt of a risk register with example risks can be seen in Table 4.1:

Monitoring your controls

Security and risk management also involves the ongoing monitoring and review of implemented controls to ensure their effectiveness and to identify emerging risks. This includes regular security assessments, audits, and incident response planning to detect and respond to security incidents in a timely manner.

How you monitor your controls will follow the budget and priorities of your organization. You can manually do internal self-assessments at least annually. Ideally, at least annually, a third-party penetration test should be carried out on your network. At a more advanced level, you should bring in an outside third party to conduct an assessment of your network. If your organization has decided to comply with SOC2, then you would do at least one annual self-assessment, and an outside auditor would come in annually to do an audit.

At a more advanced level, you can carry out automated continuous monitoring of your organization’s controls. The...

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that helps businesses or organizations evaluate their success in achieving specific objectives or goals. KPIs are quantifiable metrics that provide insight into various aspects of performance, allowing organizations to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions.

KPIs are typically established based on the strategic goals and objectives of a business or specific areas of focus within an organization. They can vary widely depending on the industry, department, or function being measured. For example, sales teams may track KPIs such as revenue growth, customer acquisition rates, or conversion rates, while customer service departments may focus on KPIs such as customer satisfaction scores or average response times. For the information security program, at a minimum, you need to select some good KPIs to report to senior management to show the progress of building...

Quick reference

Ideally, your company’s risk management program should include the following:

Depending on where your company is in terms of building out its risk management program, the processes, planning, and remediation are as follows:

Basic: Start-ups
Medium: Companies 3–5 years into their compliance journey
Advanced: Companies who understand the importance of security and have aligned their risk management program with their business mission and objectives

Ideally, your company’s risk management should include the following:

Basic:
- Alignment with your company’s budget
- Asset inventory
- Identifying risks and tracking them in a risk register
Medium:
- Co-ordination with senior-level management
- Reporting of risks and tracking this up to senior management
- Define your most critical assets
Advanced:
- Alignment with your company’s mission and objectives
- Key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Monitoring of cont rols “continual...

Summary

In conclusion, using risk management is imperative to creating a holistic information security program. You can’t be 100% secure or have 0% risk. Balancing your controls with your organization’s budget is required. It’s very important to keep senior-level management updated on your security program. If your security and risk management program does not have the support of senior-level management, then it won’t get the budget or resources necessary to be successful. Getting buy-in from top-level management is critical in getting funding and support for your initiatives. One of the best ways to get this support is to align your security program with your organization’s mission and goals. Top companies such as Salesforce and Apple have done this successfully.

In summary, security and risk management is a continuous process that involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks to an organization’s assets. It requires making...

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Author (1)

Debra Baker

Debra Baker has 30 years of experience in Information Security. As CEO of TrustedCISO, Debra provides strategic cybersecurity CISO Advisory Services. She has an AI first startup aiming to power through the pain of Third Party Vendor Assessment and Compliance. Previously, Debra was CISO at RedSeal where she led the security program successfully getting SOC2 Type 2. Previously, she served as Regulatory Compliance Manager at Cisco. While at Cisco she founded the cryptographic knowledge base, CryptoDoneRight in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University. Debra was named one of the top 100 Women in Cybersecurity, "Women Know Cyber: 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime."
Read more about Debra Baker

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ID	Risk	Impact	Likelihood	Score	Treatment/Remediation
1	Malware	Moderate	High	50	Follow patch...