Risk Management Drives Cybersecurity

Blog

In CompTIA’s latest State of Cybersecurity report, researchers concluded: Risk management is the driving force behind successful cybersecurity strategy.

Feb 13, 2024

Cybersecurity

In CompTIA’s latest State of Cybersecurity report, researchers concluded: Risk management is the driving force behind successful cybersecurity strategy.

Analysts wrote that, when cybersecurity professionals 1) identify various risks, 2) assign probabilities to cyber incidents, 3) determine potential cost, and 4) propose incident response plans, “The link between cybersecurity spending and desired outcomes gets stronger.”

Why? CompTIA’s experts theorized that thorough risk analysis extends beyond technical topics to examining policies and processes that may have little to do with a company’s IT team. Moreover, leading cybersecurity strategy with risk assessments drives decisions involved in sweeping technology initiatives such as digital transformation (DX.)

In short, assessing cyber risk can improve not only IT operations, but performance across an organization. Applying a formal risk management framework can amplify this effect, helping identify areas of concern that may lie outside traditional IT system architecture.

That’s why we endorse the Cybersecurity Framework from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST.) NIST’s framework structures effective cybersecurity as a 5-step cycle:

Identify – Inventory all digital assets, ensure management procedures are in place and active.
Protect – Establish, maintain user access, authentication and privilege control.
Detect – Consider support from IT managed services providers (MSPs) versed in the latest attack vectors and monitoring techniques.
Respond – Designate personnel to handling incident response, including logging and reporting internally and externally.
Recover – Diligently perform automated backups.

We have broad experience and deep expertise in managing cyber risk. We can help. Call us for a consultation.