How protected from cybersecurity threats is your business?
How prepared is your company to combat an unexpected data breach?
In case of an inevitable the attack, would you be able to spring back from the loss of customer and hampered reputation?
With critical data and sensitive information out there today, there's a lot at stake for organizations of all sizes. Cyber risk has gained the infamy of a pressing business security issue in the past few years. Cyber-attacks are increasingly feared by businesses for their pervasiveness and a lack of a complete understanding of the exact nature of cyber risks. This has prompted companies to seek advanced cyber risk assessment tools.
Today, time requires
companies to develop an in-house holistic assessment tool that considers
technical analysis, governance, culture, and the financial impact of adverse
cyber events. This should be in conjunction with the present layers of security
provided by third party companies such as credit information companies
providing credit
information report. Such assessments should become a necessary tool for corporate directors who could use them to understand their
organization’s exposure to technological vulnerabilities.
What exactly is a cyber risk assessment?
At a surface level
understanding, cyber risk assessments show how well a company is prepared to
tackle cyber attacks. It identifies the information assets that could be
affected by a cyberattack (such as hardware, systems, laptops, customer data,
and intellectual property) and the risks that could affect those assets. These
assessments also measure how well a company has prepared itself to recover from
such attacks called cyber resilience. Cyber attacks can come in the form of
fraudulent bank wires, and breaches of customer privacy, all of which create
lasting reputational damage for the victim company.
In making cyber risk
assessments, mainly the chief information security officers and the team have
tended to focus on the number of previous attacks, their impact, and how
quickly they were addressed. Their objective has mostly been to take cognizance
of the known defenses. But this approach often isolates cybersecurity decisions
from the business, they are meant to serve and so may reflect a narrower view of
risk. Moreover, technical reports don’t adequately capture attributes such as
governance, culture, decision-making practices, or wider treatment of a
company’s cyber risk profile and appetite, all of which board directors and
business executives need to understand if they expect to make informed
decisions about whether to allocate capital to improve cyber defenses instead
of investing in other areas of the business
How Do You Perform Cyber Risk Assessment?
For an assessment to be
useful to directors in a strategic capacity, the board needs to be clear about
its requirements - which means it needs to know what to ask for. They should
ask for a comprehensive assessment that moves beyond the technical details and
that includes both an outside and inside perspective. Here are 3 steps to go
about it
- Identify System Weaknesses &
Define Risk Appetite
The first thing businesses should
do is determine their risk appetite with regard to cyber-loss events just as it
does with any other risk. Introspection should be done on parameters such as
customers’ expectations and the approach of peer companies to these risks. By
forming a deep understanding of your weaknesses and potential cybersecurity
threats, we're better able to set expectations from a cyber risk assessment
system.
2. Improve Your Network Strengths
Doing a full evaluation of your
current IT or tech department is also incredibly important. Having a complete,
holistic view of your business' security strengths allows us to come up with
the best solutions for strengthening them.
3. Develop a culture of cybersecurity and resilience
While there are currently varying
approaches to measuring cyber risk, the right outcome always starts with the
right culture. No security assessment can be finalized without a robust
security roadmap in place.
‘Skyminder’ by CRIF is a solution that provides a cyber risk assessment report, called KYND, and empowers business managers, owners, and professionals to easily assess cyber risk related to business. It highlights the vulnerability and acts as a security buffer between business deals. The KYND cyber risk report is applicable to any and all businesses belonging to any industry. The report is an easy, clear, and concise read and does not require an IT expert to understand. For more details on how you can secure your business from cyber risk, Contact CRIF, today. CRIF is one of the four RBI authorized credit information companies in India.
