Your organization’s information is a target for cybercriminals. You can’t stop hackers from accessing your information, but you can mitigate the impact of hacks or breaches by implementing a cyber risk assessment.

To assess your risks, you need visibility into your entire attack surface. That means listing all physical and logical assets – everything from servers to printers to security cameras.

What is a Cyber Risk Assessment?

Cyber risk assessments identify and quantify cybersecurity risks to your organization based on an objective, third-party framework. They compare your security posture against time-tested industry standards and best practices.

The first step is to identify the assets you want to protect. Typical assets include your business computers, systems, networks, and employees. It would help if you considered all the devices your staff uses to connect to the Internet and company data, such as cell phones, printers, and security cameras.

Next, you must identify vulnerabilities that threats to those assets could exploit. Vulnerabilities can result from hardware or software flaws or processes that allow malicious actors to get into your system and access information. Threats to your data can include things like ransomware, which encrypts your information and makes it unusable until you pay a ransom. The final step is calculating risk probability — how likely the threat scenarios documented in the second step will occur.

What Advantages Do Cyber Risk Assessments Offer?

A cyber risk assessment detects the weaknesses in your company’s security system and offers fresh ideas for enhancing it. This lessens the possibility of an event resulting in costly downtime, revenue loss, and reputational harm.

A cybersecurity risk assessment can also help you to avoid expensive cyber-attacks linked to data breaches. In the long run, your business saves money on expensive repairs and recovery costs.

The threat landscape is constantly evolving, and your business needs to understand its security risks well to take the appropriate measures. A cyber risk assessment allows you to identify the most important assets and processes and determines your acceptable risk level. It can also help your organization fulfill industry-related compliances like FERPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. This enables you to avoid penalties and fines that can cripple your business. Moreover, it motivates your staff to keep your business systems secure, leading to better efficiency and profits for your company.

What are the Costs of a Cyber Risk Assessment?

A cyber risk assessment can be expensive, depending on the project’s scope. Typically, a full enterprise-wide assessment will require a larger budget than an assessment of just one business unit. Finding a provider that can provide value without breaking the bank is important.

A good starting point is to ask potential providers for sample reports. Look for clear and concise reporting and assess whether key stakeholders can easily understand the report.

Once a risk assessment is completed, a plan should be developed to mitigate the identified risks. The plan should include high-risk assets that need to be addressed immediately, medium risks that need to be addressed within a short-term plan, and low risks that can be transferred or accepted as tolerated risks.

Cybersecurity risk assessments can help you determine if your organization meets industry-related compliances before it is too late. It can also prevent costly fines and other undesirable outcomes.

What are the Benefits of a Cyber Risk Assessment for Compliance?

Using cyber risk assessments, organizations can develop and execute a cybersecurity strategy that addresses threats and vulnerabilities. This helps protect assets, meet compliance requirements, and improve overall cybersecurity posture.

Threats and vulnerabilities are weaknesses that cybercriminals can exploit to gain access to a firm’s resources, systems, or networks. A cyber risk assessment determines the likelihood of those risks occurring and their impact on an organization. The assessment also identifies mitigating controls to help minimize the chance of these threats and vulnerabilities taking hold.

One benefit of a cyber risk assessment is that it provides a template for future assessments, providing consistency across all areas of your business. This helps ensure a repeatable process even when staff changes.

A risk assessment can also help you identify areas where your organization may need more industry-related compliance standards. This can help you avoid massive fees and penalties related to data breaches and noncompliance. You can use this information to ensure you meet HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR.