{"id":7147,"date":"2019-01-08T15:53:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T20:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2023-05-24T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T20:02:08","slug":"cyber-risk-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/cyber-risk-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Perform a Cyber Risk Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every company needs a cyber risk assessment nowadays, here’s everything you need to know.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A cyber risk assessment is a crucial part of any company or organization\u2019s risk management strategy. Nowadays, just about every organization relies on information technology and information systems to conduct business. And there are risks inherent in that. Risks that, up until the digital age, companies never had to really contend with.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"cyber<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Risk assessments are nothing new. They’ve been around in some form or another since at least the ancient Egyptians, when they would use various calculations to try and determine whether they needed to store up extra grain because the Nile river would fail to flood. For all intents and purposes, they became much more formalized in the early 1900s when labor movements started pushing for safer workplace conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you have to be careful when you\u2019re looking for advice on performing a cyber risk analysis, because if you forget the word \u201ccyber\u201d you end up in a land of industrial manufacturing accidents and death & dismemberment clauses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019ve put together this guide on how to perform a proper cyber risk assessment. We\u2019ll be going by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines<\/a>. NIST is a US agency that\u2019s rolled up under the Department of Commerce. It publishes guidance on things like encryption best practices<\/a>. As you\u2019ll see, it also provides a system for calculating risk that will be useful as we develop our assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/span>\n\n\n\n

What Is a Cyber Risk Assessment?<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"cyber<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Cyber risk assessment is a fairly autological term, you are literally performing an assessment of the cyber risks facing your company or organization. NIST defines it thusly:
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Risk assessments are used to identify, estimate, and prioritize risk to organizational operations (i.e., mission, functions, image, and reputation), organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation, resulting from the operation and use of information systems.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You can toss out the line about \u201cand the Nation.\u201d NIST issued these guidelines for federal entities. For most of us, our cyber risks will not rise to the level of potentially being a national security threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At any rate, the primary purpose of a cyber risk assessment is to help inform decision-makers and to support proper risk responses. Bear in mind, most C-suite executives and even some directors don\u2019t have time to delve into the minutiae of your day-to-day cyber operations. So this cyber risk assessment will serve as a sort of executive summary to help those parties make informed decisions about security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best way to do that is to identify:<\/p>\n\n\n\n