Information Security Risk Management

Why is risk management critical in information security?

Information security risk management is the ongoing process of discovering, correcting, and preventing security problems. Risk assessment is an integral part of an organization's risk management process, designed to provide appropriate security levels for its information systems and data.

What is information security risk management?

IT enterprise security risk management allows the organization to assess, identify, and modify its overall security posture. It also enables security, operations, organizational leadership, and other personnel to collaborate and view the entire organization from an attacker's perspective.

Comprehensive security risk management can also determine the value of the various types of data generated and stored across the organization. Without valuing multiple data types, it is nearly impossible to prioritize and allocate technology resources where they are needed most. To accurately assess risk, management must identify the most valuable data to the organization, the storage mechanisms of said data, and their associated vulnerabilities.

What makes a good information security risk management approach?

Many frameworks can be used to create good information security risk management.One of the most common is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework detailed below.

• Identify— Activities in this group aim to understand the cybersecurity risks to systems, people, assets, data, and capabilities. Understanding the business context, current business needs, and related risks help organizations determine threats and prioritize their security efforts.
• Protect — Organizations implement appropriate safeguards and security controls to protect their most critical assets against cyber threats
• Detect— Organizations need to spot events that could pose risks to data security quickly.
• Respond — Organizations take action against a detected cybersecurity incident.
• Recover— Organizations develop and implement activities to restore capabilities or services impacted by a security incident.

This will be an ongoing process for each organization.To manage risks effectively, organizations should evaluate the likelihood of events that threaten the IT environment and the potential impact of each threat/risk.