Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework: Best Practices Against Cyber Attacks

No business is immune from data breaches or malware attacks. Companies of all sizes face risks that could compromise sensitive information and damage their reputation. Cybersecurity risk management is the proactive approach businesses need to mitigate those risks.

In this blog, we'll explore frequently asked questions about cybersecurity risk management, dive into key strategies, and offer insights on creating a secure business environment.

What is Cybersecurity Risk Management?

Cyber risk management identifies, assesses, and addresses cyber threats that could harm your organisation. It involves analysing potential risks, determining their impact, and creating action plans to prevent or mitigate damage. This proactive strategy ensures that businesses are not just reacting to cyber incidents but are prepared to avoid them entirely.

Human risk reporting is a cybersecurity practice that focuses on identifying, analysing, and addressing the risks associated with human behaviour within an organisation. It recognises that while technical safeguards like firewalls and encryption are vital, human errors or intentional malicious actions often play a significant role in data breaches. This approach aims to minimise these risks by proactively monitoring and managing the behaviours of employees, contractors, and other individuals with access to sensitive systems and data.

Both these practices work together to reduce the risk of breaches and lower the company's risk profile.

Why is Cybersecurity Risk Management Important?

Cybersecurity risk management is essential for businesses today due to cyberattacks' increasing frequency and severity. As organisations become more dependent on digital systems, cybercriminals' attack surface widens, exposing companies to a range of potential threats. According to a 2023 study by ITRC, there were 2,365 cyberattacks in 2023, with 343,338,964 victims, showing that it is more important than ever.

Without a structured approach to identifying and mitigating these risks, companies leave themselves vulnerable to devastating consequences that can impact their bottom line and long-term viability, including financial loss, regulatory fines, and damage to brand reputation.

Given these complexities, experts like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommend that businesses approach cybersecurity risk management as a continuous, iterative process rather than a one-off task. By regularly revisiting the risk management process, companies can adapt to new information, evolving threats, and changes in their IT systems.

The Cybersecurity Risk Management Process

A diverse group of stakeholders typically oversees the risk management process to ensure that it reflects the priorities and experiences of the entire organisation. These teams often include executives such as the CEO and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), IT and security personnel, legal experts, and representatives from various business units. This collaborative approach helps ensure cybersecurity decisions align with the organisation’s overall strategy, prevent cyber attacks, and improve security controls.

Various cybersecurity risk management methodologies are available for businesses, with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) and NIST Risk Management Framework (NIST RMF) being two of the most popular. While these frameworks differ slightly, they share a set of core steps that guide companies in identifying and managing cyber risks.

1. Risk Framing

Risk framing is the first step in the process, which involves defining the context in which risk decisions will be made. This step aligns risk management strategies with broader business objectives, ensuring that the measures taken are both practical and efficient. Without this alignment, companies might implement costly controls that inadvertently disrupt key business functions.

To properly frame risk, organisations should consider factors such as:

• Scope: What systems, data, and assets will be examined? What types of threats will be considered, and over what timeframe (e.g., next six months, one year)?
• Asset Inventory and Prioritisation: Which data, devices, and other assets are part of the network, and which are most critical to operations?
• Organisational Priorities: Which IT systems are vital to the business, and what resources (both financial and technical) will the company allocate to risk management?
• Compliance Requirements: What laws, regulations, or industry standards must the business adhere to?

This framing helps set guidelines for making risk decisions and allows the organisation to define its risk tolerance.

2. Risk Assessment

Once the risk is framed, the next step is conducting a risk assessment. This involves identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities, estimating their likely impacts, and prioritising the most critical risks to manage risk.

A company’s risk assessment typically examines:

• Threats: These are potential events or actions, such as cyberattacks, employee errors, or even natural disasters, that could compromise an organization’s information security. Examples include ransomware attacks, phishing schemes, or hurricanes disrupting data centres.
• A threat could exploit Vulnerabilities in systems, processes, or devices. They might be technical, such as an outdated firewall, or procedural, like insufficient access control policies.
• Impacts: The consequences if a threat is realised. This could range from service downtime and lost revenue to the theft or destruction of sensitive data.

Because quantifying the exact impact of a cybersecurity incident can be difficult, businesses often use qualitative data, such as historical trends and case studies, to estimate the potential damage. The criticality of assets is also crucial in determining the potential impact: the more critical the asset, the more damaging an attack could be.

During this assessment, organizations also calculate risk by determining the likelihood of an attack and its potential damage. Riskier scenarios have a high likelihood and impact, while less risky ones may involve rare threats or minimal impact.

Companies often conduct these assessments using internal data (like logs from security information and event management systems) and external threat intelligence reports. Supply chain vulnerabilities are also considered since attacks on vendors or partners can directly impact the company.

3. Responding to Risk

After assessing the risks, the company decides how to respond to each identified threat. The business may accept low-probability or low-impact risks, as mitigating such risks could be costlier than the risk itself. However, a more proactive response is required for high probability or high-impact risks.

Possible risk responses include:

• Risk Mitigation: Implementing security measures that reduce the likelihood or impact of a threat. For instance, installing an intrusion prevention system or drafting incident response protocols for rapid detection and resolution.
• Risk Remediation: Fully resolving the vulnerability so it can no longer be exploited, such as patching a software bug or retiring outdated systems.
• Risk Transfer: Passing the responsibility for the risk to another party, usually through cyber insurance, which can help cover financial losses from an attack.

4. Monitoring

The final step is monitoring. Once security measures are in place, the company must continuously monitor their effectiveness, ensuring that it meets its security needs and any regulatory requirements to help spot cybersecurity threats before they develop into problems.

Additionally, constant vigilance is needed to stay aware of changes in the internal IT environment and the broader threat landscape. New technologies or emerging threats can create new vulnerabilities, making continuous monitoring essential for keeping the cybersecurity program up-to-date and effectively increasing the security posture within the company.

Evaluating cyber risks with complete certainty is challenging for most businesses. Many organizations lack full visibility into cybercriminals' tactics, vulnerabilities within their networks, or the unpredictable risks posed by external factors such as severe weather or human error.