Cyber Security Risk Assessment: A Guide for Businesses

For small and large businesses alike, the risk and severity of cybercrime continue to rise, with organisations across the globe having to pay the price if they have suffered a cyber attack. To put it into perspective, data reveals that as many as 50% of UK businesses report having experienced some form of cybersecurity breach within 12 months. 

This is why all companies must take the necessary actions to mitigate the risk of being breached by a cybersecurity attack or incident. However, while it used to be the case that minor precautions could be taken to prevent any serious cybercrime incidents, it’s become essential for businesses to have a sound strategy in place.

 Part of this involves conducting a cyber security risk assessment, which forms the basis of any security plan. But, if you’re asking yourself ‘What is a risk assessment in cyber security?’, you’re in the right place.

In this article, we shed light on cyber security risk assessments so that you can understand what they are, why they are important, and how a successful one may be conducted to eliminate cybersecurity risks to protect your business. 

What Are Cybersecurity Risks?

Cybersecurity risks involve the probability that sensitive information could be lost or exposed resulting from a data breach or cyber attack. If you identify the weaknesses your digital systems have, which could be easily taken advantage of by hackers or cybercriminals, this will help you understand the types of cybersecurity risks that your company could be exposed to.

Some examples of cybersecurity risks include:

• Phishing
• Password attacks
• Ransomware
• Trojans
• Malware
• Data leaks

What Is An Information Security Risk and How Is It Different from a Cyber Security Risk?

Information security involves using strict procedures to ensure all information is protected within an organisation. In comparison, cyber security is just protecting data within what is known as the ‘cyberspace’. 

Many things could constitute an information security risk, and these will vary significantly from business to business. However, generally, information security risks refer to anything that could lead to the following incidents:

• Unauthorised Access: Someone gaining access to hardware, software, or data when they should not have those privileges. This could be accidental or because of forced entry for more malicious reasons.
• Unauthorised Use: This involves someone using hardware, software, or information maliciously, which is a serious information security risk. This includes attempting to steal information or money or damaging hardware or data. 
• Unauthorised Modification: Anything that may make it more likely for software to install itself on a system and modify your software or information.
• Service Disruption: Attacks, such as DOS (denial of service), that aim to overload systems to the point that they cannot handle normal requests. If this happened to an eCommerce business, for instance, this could cause serious financial harm.

What is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

Risk assessments are a very well-known component of business operations, but traditionally they relate to health and safety or even financial outlook. Most people are familiar with how a fire safety risk assessment might be carried out, and the basic principles for a risk assessment in cyber security are very much the same. 

A risk assessment for cyber security involves helping organisations understand the cyber threats and risks to their business which could damage their reputation and the service they provide.

It is your responsibility as a business to identify information security risks, including specific cyber security risks, that could harm your operations, this will allow you to take steps to reduce the likelihood of serious cyber security incidents from occurring. 

Typically, your cyber security risk assessment will be executed by someone within an internal team who often processes risk assessments, such as an IT department, as they already have knowledge of your digital systems and their current security levels. However, in some cases, you can outsource a cyber risk assessment from a third-party organisation.

Why is it Important to Conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment? 

You need to conduct a cyber security risk assessment for several reasons that pertain to legalities, finances, and maintaining your reputation as an organisation. We’ve shared a handful of reasons why you should conduct a cyber security risk assessment below.

• Avoid Direct Financial Loss: Should your organisation be affected by a cyber attack, this can cost your business upwards of hundreds, or even thousands, of pounds to repair any damage and replace any losses. 
• Maintain Your Reputation: If your business is a victim of a cyber attack, your reputation could be damaged, causing you to lose future customers and even existing clients.
• Expand Your Knowledge of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities: Conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment will help you understand what vulnerabilities lie in your business’ IT systems before they are targeted by cybercriminals. You can then take action to strengthen your IT infrastructure and cybersecurity measures before you fall victim to a cyber attack. 
• Ensure You Meet Compliance Regulations: As a business, you must ensure that you meet compliance regulations in your country as well as in your specific industry area. By conducting a cyber security assessment, you can identify whether there are any areas in which your business is not up to par against compliance requirements to protect yourself legally. 

How Do You Do Risk Assessment for Cyber Security?

Before conducting your cyber security risk assessment, you must know who in your team needs to be involved. You want professionals with the right qualifications and insights to help you identify cybersecurity threats and weaknesses in your digital systems. This can include:

• Senior management
• An external cybersecurity consultant
• Members of your IT department
• A compliance officer to ensure that you’re complying with the NIST cybersecurity framework and other cyber security standards implemented in the UK. 

The process of undertaking a cyber security risk assessment will vary based on the size of the business and its exposure to potential threats. Below are the key steps to follow to conduct a cyber risk assessment, as well as some important questions that you should ask yourself when doing so:

Determine the Value Of Your Assets

You need to know what information assets your business has and catalogue these. This includes:

• Hardware, e.g., laptops and desktop computers
• Data, e.g., customer information, accounts and email logins
• Software, e.g., accounting databases

Your information assets are anything that holds and collects important data for your business. So, you must ask yourself what this data is as well as where you store it, how you collect it, and where you document it so that you can successfully identify and catalogue all of these assets.

Identify Cybersecurity Threats

Once your information assets have been identified, the next step of your cyber security risk assessment is to find out how these could be compromised, what this might mean for the business, and ultimately how these risks can be mitigated. 

While cybersecurity threats like malware, phishing, or hacking might be the first things to come to mind, other incidents including system failures, human error, or even trusted insiders can be threats that can put your information assets at risk. 

Identify Security Vulnerabilities 

Knowing what vulnerabilities your organisation has digitally which could be exploited will help you to protect your business. Thus, by conducting a vulnerability analysis as part of your cyber security risk assessment, you can identify where these weaknesses in your current software and systems lie so that you can enhance your cybersecurity. 

Analyse the Risks and Identify Their Potential Impact 

It’s now time to assess your information assets so you know which needs to be prioritised. 

For example, you need to understand which networks or systems in your cyberspace are critical to your organisation's daily operations. Alongside this, you’ll need to understand things like the types of devices which could be most at risk of losing data, as well as the type of data that you need to anonymise or protect should your organisation’s information assets be compromised. 

Then, you must be able to quantify your risk analysis so that you can prioritise which risks are the most important. These must be considered based on two measures: 

• Probability: the likelihood of a cybersecurity breach taking place to access your sensitive data
• Impact: what the extent of harm to your business might be from a cyberattack, taking financial, operational, and reputational harm into consideration

By considering impact and probability, you can better understand what aspects of your cybersecurity need to be prioritised the most if they need to be improved. 

For example, if you have a database with publicly available data that could be easily accessed by a hacker due to a weak security system, this would be considered low risk. However, a database with very sensitive customer data that has few security measures and so could be easily accessed would be considered high risk.

Make sure you document these risks somewhere, alongside their risk level and any existing security controls that may be in place to mitigate them. This way, your organisation can reflect on them in the future. 

Implement New Cybersecurity Measures, or Improve Existing Ones

Once you have done the above, the next step of your cyber security risk assessment is to implement new cybersecurity measures or to enhance your existing ones. 

First, you’d be wise to see which cybersecurity measures you already have in place and see if these are working for your business. Or, it may be that they could be improved to enhance your security and protect your organisation from cybersecurity threats. 

Once you’ve done this, you can reflect on where additional security measures should be implemented and take the steps to put these in place, prioritising those that need to be executed first based on your risk analysis. 

For example, some security and risk controls you may want to implement include:

• Anti-malware software
• Anti-phishing software
• Multi-factor authentication
• Training your workforce
• Network segregation

Your cybersecurity risk assessment should be executed regularly, ideally at least once annually, to ensure that your IT systems are protecting your business data and that you’re meeting legal requirements. Or, this should be done if any significant changes happen to your IT systems or business digital infrastructure. 

Beyond what we’ve explained, there are also many resources available to help business owners, and those responsible for cyber security, to implement a sound cyber security risk assessment. There are initiatives such as Cyber Security Essentials which cover many of the core points that should be looked at under any risk assessment. 

Is it Essential to Have Cyber Security Risk Training? 

It may be very useful in the first instance to undertake a course to better understand cyber security for your business and the steps involved in a cyber security risk assessment.

Our Introduction to Cyber Security course may be very useful for teams that are looking to build on their knowledge of cyber security and learn how to keep their business safe. Additionally, we offer a variety of courses to help businesses protect themselves and their customers, such as our Data Protection in the Workplace Course.

FAQs

How to Measure Risk in Cybersecurity? 

Organisations can measure risk in cybersecurity by:

• Evaluating the criticality of different types of cybersecurity threats
• Considering how likely something in your business is to be exploited
• Understanding the extent of a business's IT and cybersecurity vulnerabilities

Every cybersecurity risk may be different with some having a higher potential to cause more damage than others. An equation that can help quantify this is cyber risk = threat x information value x vulnerability. 

What Is the Cybersecurity Triad?

The cyber security triad, also known as the CIA triad, is formed of three components: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Designed to help prevent data breaches, it is incorporated in the ISO 27001 which is a global standard to manage and protect information security. 

Confidentiality stands for keeping any sensitive information secure and private, whilst integrity involves maintaining accurate and complete information that is at minimal risk of being compromised. Finally, availability refers to being able to access information when it is needed. 

What is SOC in Cybersecurity?

Also known as a security operations centre, a SOC is used to detect and respond to cyber-attacks. It is often a team of specialist security professionals who can help to monitor, detect, and analyse any potential or current threats to your organisation’s cybersecurity, and respond to them accordingly. 

Summary 

Not taking the necessary precautions and steps to protect your business from cyber attacks can be the difference between your business’ reputation and financial situation being ruined and not. By conducting a comprehensive and in-depth cyber security risk assessment, you ensure that your company’s cybersecurity status is top-notch so that you can protect your business and its assets.

Our ‘Cyber Security for Leaders’ course is ideal for business owners to understand the cyber risks applicable to their organisations and understand their security threats. This can help them develop their cybersecurity strategies and enhance their cyber-safe culture to protect their business for years to come.