While the recent acceleration in digital transformation has brought numerous benefits to businesses, it has also increased cyber risk in organizations.
Regardless of your industry or how big your business is, one thing is for sure every company that wants to stay relevant and remain competitive must have a cybersecurity risk management plan. The plan’s purpose is to solidify an organization’s cybersecurity posture to protect its data from loss, theft, or any breach.
That said, the cybersecurity risk management plan should be integrated into a holistic plan that accounts for all business risks. This post will teach you how to create a successful cybersecurity risk management plan. But first, a brief definition of what it is.
What is a cybersecurity risk management plan?
A cybersecurity risk management plan is a strategic approach to prioritizing threats. It’s an ongoing process for identifying, analyzing, and addressing cybersecurity threats within an organization. A cybersecurity risk management plan’s primary objective is identifying and managing threats to prevent data breaches.
There are different cyber risk management frameworks, including NIST CSF, ISO 27001, FAIR Framework, and DoD RMF.
Steps for creating a cybersecurity risk management plan
Follow these steps to create an effective cybersecurity risk management plan:
1. Identify the most valuable digital assets
The first thing to do when developing a risk management plan is to identify your organization’s most important digital assets. These could be your data, networks, computers, company systems, and other digital assets targeted by threat actors.
Determine the assets that are more likely to become targets of cybercriminals and those that have inadequate security measures. Create a list of those assets, with those lacking the most security at the top. Also, the critical list items should be prioritized in your plan.
2. Conduct an audit of your organization’s data and intellectual property
Creating a sound cybersecurity risk management plan can be challenging without auditing your data. Businesses should know the exact types of data they collect, the storage location for this data (e.g., on-premise or the cloud), and who can access it.
When conducting the audit, identify digital assets such as applications, intellectual property, and software. Additionally, you should identify the data in your database, including customer and employee records. The data audit should factor in the estimated recovery cost if confidential or sensitive data is compromised or stolen.
3. Conduct a cyber-risk assessment and analyze your security posture
Today, cyber risks have become commonplace with the recent increase in data leaks, phishing, insider threats, malware, and ransomware. A cyber risk assessment can help you identify the different types of information assets that a cyber-incident can impact, such as customer data, computers, hardware, and systems. In short, a cyber-risk assessment can help you determine where vulnerabilities exist and minimize security loopholes.
It’s also vital for businesses to understand their posture in terms of cybersecurity and potential threats. Conducting both a threat assessment and a security assessment could offer insights that could help organizations better determine their cybersecurity posture.
A threat assessment focuses on determining who might want to attack a business and the attack vector they might use, while a security assessment analyzes network, hardware, and storage infrastructures.
4. Establish a cyber-risk management committee
A cyber risk management committee is integral to your cyber risk management plan. The committee, usually led by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), is tasked with monitoring risks and evaluating your business’s unique cybersecurity needs as it grows.
That said, while people are a big part of your cyber risk management plan, automating specific risk mitigation tasks will save you time and money, enhance workplace efficiency, and minimize the risk of human error.
When automating risk mitigation and prevention tasks, ensure you choose a solution that’s easy to use and leverages real-time data to analyze existing and new risks.
5. Create an incident response plan and educate your employees on cybersecurity policies
An incident response plan constitutes a set of instructions that address various cybersecurity threats, including cybercrimes, service outages, data loss, and other incidents that could negatively affect normal business operations. The incident response plan can help employees effectively identify, respond to, and take appropriate measures to recover from cybersecurity incidents.
Besides creating a comprehensive incident response plan, you should educate your staff on cybersecurity policies. Developing a human firewall by conducting employee cybersecurity awareness training is the best defence against a breach.
An organization must educate its employees on cybersecurity policies and best practices to ensure its cyber risk management plan is successful. Organizations must invest in cybersecurity awareness training—the training should address relevant threats that the business faces, such as risky employee behavior, malware, and phishing.
