Cybersecurity risk assessments are systematic processes that catch vulnerabilities and threats within an organization’s IT department. These assessments can determine the likelihood of a security event and its potential impact on any kind of business. Here are four cybersecurity assessment techniques that will strengthen your business’s IT and minimize the risk of breaches.
Review and Catalog Information Assets
Mostly all businesses maintain an online presence and use connected devices within their operations. The most proactive way to understand your asset inventory is through performing a data audit. Then, businesses can prioritize highly sensitive data or IPs of extreme value. Risk management teams should develop a list of all your business’s assets. This can include the following:
- IT Infrastructure
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service
It’s important to take note of the types of data your company collects, stores and transmits along with the locations involved.
Identify Vulnerabilities & Threats
Next, your business should identify all cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats. Vulnerabilities are weaknesses within the IT environment that are exploited during a cyberattack. Some of these vulnerabilities can include:
- IT misconfigurations
- Excessive administrative and access rights
- Unprotected protected endpoints
- Unmanaged exposed assets
- Unpatched applications
- Weak passwords
- Weak IT settings
On the other hand, threats are tactics, techniques, and methods where threat actors exploit a vulnerability, usually originating from an employee or other approved user or even outside the organization.
Specific IT threats for businesses include:
- Malware
- Phishing
- Exploit kits
- Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks
- SQL injections
- Insider threats
Implement NIST CSF or ISO 27001
As your business continues to face potential business security threats, it’s important to ensure that you are following the corresponding laws and regulations that will keep your data safe.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) is a set of guidelines for organizations to manage and reduce cybersecurity risks. This framework is a voluntary standard that will cover cybersecurity methods and help foster compliance communication across internal and external stakeholders.
NIST CSF has five functions:
- Develop an understanding of how organizations will manage cybersecurity risks
- Establish safeguards to ensure the delivery of critical infrastructure services and limit or contain the negative impact of cybersecurity risks
- Implement key activities that help discover and identify the occurrence of cybersecurity events promptly
- Respond when a cybersecurity incident is detected
- Identify plans to recover and restore functions that will be impaired by a cybersecurity incident
ISO 27001 is an international standard that can effectively maintain information security. It includes three elements:
- Information is only available to authorized users
- Information is accurate and complete
- Authorized users have access to information when needed
When using these two frameworks together, your business can tackle information security and risk management from different angles.
Use Automated Tools to Perform Assessments
Automated security risk assessments will help your organization identify and prioritize potential security risks quickly and efficiently with real-time alerts and automated incident response capabilities. Specific automated security risk tools include vulnerability scanners, threat intelligence platforms, network mapping tools, security information and event management systems, penetration testing tools, and compliance management tools. Before choosing an automated security risk assessment tool, you should first identify your needs, so you can pick the right tool.
Machado offers proactive approaches to IT solutions so you can be ready for your next annual cyber audit and assessment.
