Risk assessment: The first step in improving cyber security
Despite the proliferation of high profile cyber-attacks over the last 18 months, many organisations are still too disorganised in their approach to security. While it is no longer feasible to guarantee 100% protection against a breach, businesses are setting themselves up for a fall by failing to adequately understand and prepare for the risks facing them.
PwC’s 2018 Information Security Survey, which surveyed more than 9,000 business and technology executives around the world, found that more than a quarter (28%) don’t know how many cyber-attacks they have suffered in total, and a third also don’t know how they occurred. While some security incidents are the result of high level attackers using advanced techniques to disguise their activity, the vast majority of cases are caused by common security failings and could be easily prevented with better governance and process control.
Perhaps the most important step an organisation can take to improve its security is to undertake a thorough IT risk assessment. This is crucial to understanding where the biggest vulnerabilities within the organisation are, as well as what potential external threats it may be facing. Any company attempting to create an IT security strategy without this knowledge will simply be throwing money at the problem. This approach will certainly miss the basic mistakes in IT management that enable attacks and lead to accidental breaches.
A comprehensive risk assessment needs to not only take into account the internal processes at the company, but also a variety of third parties including suppliers and contractors, as well as the role of an increasingly mobile workforce. With this in mind, a thorough assessment is no small task, and usually takes a great deal of planning and preparation to execute.
Choosing a risk framework
As a result of the complexity involved, most companies usually turn to one of the various pre-existing risk assessment frameworks that have been developed over the last few decades as the IT industry has matured. While these frameworks are extremely useful resources, companies should not rely on them to entirely shape their strategy. We still see too many organisations taking a premade framework and going through it as a tick-box exercise. No two businesses are the same, so assessment frameworks can only ever be a general guide and starting place.
Instead, companies need to base their assessment around their own unique structure and risk profile, incorporating elements of existing frameworks where they are appropriate. Encouragingly, 53% of respondents in PwC’s survey stated that spending on their information security budget was based exclusively around risk.
Perhaps the most popular choice of risk assessment frameworks are those created by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST 800-53 and NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) are regularly used by governmental agencies and educational institutions as well as private enterprises.
Exploring NIST and ISO
The earlier framework NIST 800-53 was designed to support compliance with the U.S. Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). This special publication provides organisational officials with evidence about the effectiveness of implemented controls, indications of quality of risk management processes used and information regarding the strengths and weaknesses of information systems.
The CSF was designed to help organisations of all sizes and any degree of cyber security sophistication apply best practice of risk management. The framework is comprised of three components: framework profile, framework core and framework implementation tiers.
NIST’s roots with the US Commerce Department make it fairly US-centric, but the CSF also incorporates globally recognised standards, making it useful for risk assessment around the world. It is also designed to be flexible and can be used alongside other cybersecurity risk management processes, such as the ISO (International Organisation for Standardization) standards.
Indeed, the ISO/IEC 27000-series, jointly published by the ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), is another of the most well-known and widely used frameworks. Like NIST, the ISO frameworks are flexible enough to fit most organisational sizes and structures. The frameworks can be useful in dissuading an organisation from the tick box compliance mindset, as they encourage organisations to assess their own information security risks and implement controls according to their needs. The ISO series also promotes a continuous feedback approach to address changes in the threat landscape or within the company and implement iterative improvements.
Other strong framework choices to consider include OCTAVE, which has a broader, simpler approach that easy to integrate, and COBIT, an operational framework with a focus on uptime that is well-suited to manufacturing firms and others where uptime is important.
Taking risk assessment to the top
Whichever combination of frameworks the company decides to incorporate for its risk assessment, it is essential to relate the process back to the organisation’s unique operational structure and business objectives. One of the most important activities in preparing a comprehensive assessment is to conduct in-depth interviews with senior management, IT administrators and other stakeholders across the organisation. This will help to develop a much more realistic understanding of the organisation’s potential threats, likelihood of compromise and the impact of the loss, as well as relating everything back to its business priorities.
It is also essential that the risk assessment is understood and supported at the highest level of the organisation. PwC’s survey found that only 44% of boards are actively participating in their security strategy. Without buy-in from the board and other senior leaders, a risk assessment is likely to end up being little more than a series of recommendations that are never actually implemented. By aligning popular industry assessment frameworks with their business objectives, organisations can conduct an assessment that not only highlights potential threats, but goes on to implement real changes that improve its security posture.