The Complete Guide to Managing Cyber & IT Risk Management

What is IT and Cyber Risk?

Information technology is no longer a siloed function within an enterprise. Today, technology powers almost all business units and organizations within a company. With that technology comes risk in the form of a cyber attack, a data breach, a social engineering attack, and any other cyber event that can disrupt business operations or damage the company’s credibility. As with any other form of risk (financial, operational, etc.), companies must embrace some IT risk to achieve their business goals, be it the adoption of new technology or forgoing an update or upgrade of legacy technology to save money. Each technology decision comes with a set of risks.

Information security leaders and their teams are responsible for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating the risks that the company accepts based on a given strategy to ensure that the organization stays secure while on the path to growth.

What is IT Risk Management?

IT risk management is a critical function in today’s businesses. As more organizations have come to see IT risk as an essential part of an overall enterprise risk management program, defining, tracking, and mitigating cyber risks has become a regular talking point in Boardrooms across the globe.

IT risk management is the process by which information security teams identify risks, understand their potential impact on the organization, and prioritize remediation based on that impact to determine how to allocate resources to mitigate potential risks to the extent possible.

Read more about IT and cyber risk management.

Like any business function, managing cyber risk requires an understanding of how the organization tracks, analyzes, and mitigates risks.

Cyber Risk Assessment Templates

The cornerstone of all IT risk management programs is risk assessment. Sometimes mandated by cybersecurity regulations to achieve compliance, risk assessments enable an organization to understand the risk landscape at the organizational level.

Cyber risk assessments are typically conducted using a template or framework. Many organizations turn to leading standards and regulatory bodies for guidance on how to approach their risk assessments. Top organizations that have published robust risk assessment templates are the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the Center for Internet Security (CIS).

Read more about risk assessment templates.

Cyber Risk Quantification Methods

Information security teams are responsible for analyzing and quantifying the risk discovered following a risk assessment. Quantifying risk in a meaningful way enables executive management to integrate IT risks with the forms of business risk they have been basing decisions on for decades.

As many CISOs and information security leaders have begun to embrace risk quantification in their programs, so too has the discussion around which risk quantification method is best. To understand what risk quantification methods are most commonly used and how to choose one for your organization, download our risk model comparison brief.

Risk Registers

Risk registers are an optimal way to keep track of and aggregate risks for the entire organization, especially for larger organizations responsible for tracking large volumes of risks for the enterprise. By developing IT risk registers, information security teams can understand which cyber threats have the most significant impact and probability. Leaders can prioritize asset allocation to manage those risks in line with the overall risk management strategy.

See examples of cybersecurity risk registers here.

Cyber and IT Risk Management Tools

Managing IT risk has become a Board and executive-level issue. As more business leaders demand more insight into CISOs' risk management programs, the manual and modular processes that served them well when operating in a silo are beginning to break down. As a result, a new generation of cyber risk management solutions has emerged to help modern CISOs.

Learn what to look for in an IT risk management tool here.

In recent years, we have seen a tectonic shift in how executives and Boards approach cyber risk. Before the Equifax breach, IT and cyber risk operated mainly in a silo, and information security leaders would typically report to the Board annually on the organization’s cybersecurity posture. However, today, Boards and CEOs are demanding greater insight into security practices and IT risk data. As a result, CISOs must prepare and embrace their role as the bridge between business-side executives and technical security teams.

The recent SEC cybersecurity rules are evidence of that. 

Using a Risk Matrix to Present to Executive Management

Risk matrices are a standard method for conveying risk information to business leaders. For cyber risk managers and information security leaders, a cyber risk matrix is the culmination of their organization’s efforts to identify, analyze, quantify, and mitigate cyber risks facing the organization. As a result, this helps business leaders understand where the organization stands on cybersecurity and helps all stakeholders understand where to direct resources for risk mitigation and develop response plans.

Why Black-box Risk Quantification Falls Short in the Boardroom

A trend that has followed on the back of CEOs and Boards requiring more insight into the enterprise's cybersecurity posture has been the rise of “black-box” risk quantification and reporting tools. These platforms and tools often ingest risk assessment data and produce reports with obscure quantification of the organization’s cybersecurity risk. This is detrimental to information security leaders and organizations at large for a host of reasons. CISOs should be wary of products that offer little insight into how they quantify cyber risk.

Read about trusted and transparent cyber risk quantification frameworks here.