Security Risk Assessments |

Security Risk Assessments

You have likely seen scenarios where security risks have been skipped over or downplayed, with no acknowledgement or acceptance by management.
This could be in the form of allowing production data into non-prod environments, user access not being reviewed, over privileged service accounts, systems out of support or not approprately hardened.

Identify these risks through an assessment so management know these exist and can make well-informed decisions.

Know Where Your Risks Are

Performing a Security Risk Assessment (SRA) or following a more formal Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process is an important part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It ensures that what is going to end up in production (or perhaps is already there) satisfies the organisation’s risk appetite, with the knowledge and acceptance of the risks by those with the appropriate authority.

This enables leaders to understand and attest to the level of risk the organisation is carrying is appropriate, while making well-informed decisions based on the risk it poses to the organisation when deciding on what work to prioritise.

Appropriate Controls in Place

Once you are aware of where the problems are, it is much easier to come up with a risk treatment plan for remediation, mitigation or (as a last resort) risk acceptance, rather than gambling on that scenario never happening to your organisation.

This enables your organisation to focus resources appropriately to deal with the areas with the highest level of risk to the organisation, confirming validation of controls around sensitive data or critical systems to ensure the impact of a cybersecurity incident is not catastrophic.

The CIA of Your Data

By evaluating the risks associated with how your organisation is handling its sensitive data and critical systems, it provides a proactive approach to ensuring compliance with various regulations.

This naturally fosters a culture of ownership and accountability for the protection of your customer’s personal information, essential for preserving privacy and maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of your data and the underlying systems.

Security Risk Assessments cover:

Agreement on the scope, be it a single component or a collection of systems
Evaluating the business context and impact if data or systems were compromised
Classifying the data according to your information policies
Determining assets, threats and controls through threat modelling
Aligning with your organisation’s list of controls or industry frameworks
Leveraging intelligence on the current threat landscape to inform likelihood
Documented areas for improvement and recommendations to limit risk

Key Features

Control gaps identified

Find missing or ineffective security controls across systems and the organisation at large
Business impact understood

Document how an incident could impact the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of assets
Prioritise and manage risk

Translate the gaps in your controls into the risks it poses to your organisation if an incident occurred
To fix or not to fix

Pragmatic recommendations provided on what risks to remediate or possible mitigations
Risk-informed investments

Ensures management can make better decisions of where to make investment to lower critical risks
Independent Assurance

Provides an unbiased evaluation of an organisation’s security controls and practices