There are several major components that businesses need to consider to remain as safe and secure in their operations as possible in the current day and age. One of the most critical of said components is Cybersecurity Risk Management. The physical world is now highly connected and controlled by the virtual world, so it’s essential to ensure that businesses are protecting themselves sufficiently in virtual ways. Please continue to learn everything you need to know about the basics of cybersecurity risk management.

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Cybersecurity Risk Management : What is it, and Why is it Important?

In short, cybersecurity risk management is an ever-evolving process of identifying, analyzing, evaluating, and addressing the various cybersecurity threats that have the potential to impact your business and its operations. Cybersecurity is also not just a job for IT professionals and security personnel. It requires the full cooperation of all business employees to protect the business’s interest in an entirely consistent and comprehensive manner. Some key examples of risk management components within a business include:

• Developing tools and policies to assess risk effectively
• Identifying, documenting, and correcting internal weaknesses 
• Identifying emerging risks and their potential impacts
• Testing overall security measures
• Mitigating IT risks through the implementation of new policies, training programs, and internal controls

Understanding the Cybersecurity Risk Management Process and Developing Your Plan

In the world of cybersecurity risk management, the general process people need to understand involves four basic steps that are broken down into various components. Said steps and their components include:

1. Identifying Risks to Cybersecurity

IT risks can be considered potential and unexpected adverse business outcomes that involve the failure or misuse of IT systems. Basically, what are the overall odds of a potential threat exploiting an IT vulnerability, and what would the results of that exploitation be for the company? In short, to fully understand cybersecurity risks, businesses will examine these three primary components:

• Threats that carry the potential to affect their operations or assets negatively
• Vulnerabilities or weaknesses in security implementation, information systems, security procedures, or internal controls
• Consequences or adverse results that would likely occur in the event of a threat exploiting a vulnerability

2.Assessing the Cybersecurity Risks

Cybersecurity risk assessments are used to identify possible risks that will need to be mitigated to protect the business’s operations, assets, and overall interests. Assessing these risks is most effectively done by following six specific steps:

• Identifying and naming all assets
• Prioritizing the assets based on their general importance
• Identifying all possible threats to the assets
• Identifying environmental vulnerabilities that could put the assets at risk
• Determining the likelihood of a breach or threat event occurring 
• Estimating the potential consequences and cost impacts of all possible threat events

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3.Identifying Mitigation Measures for these Cybersecurity Risks

Once all of the necessary cybersecurity risks have been appropriately assessed, businesses will then need to develop a range of practical mitigation efforts to prevent potential threat events and manage residual risk. This is typically done through the implementation of cybersecurity best practices, including:

• Technological risk mitigation measures, including software updates, encryption systems, firewalls, threat detection software, and efficiency-based automation
• Cybersecurity training programs for staff
• Data backup systems
• Privileged access management (PAM) solutions
• Multi-factor authentication for system access

4.Developing and Using Ongoing Monitoring Procedures

After a business, company, or organization has carefully identified, assessed, and mitigated their various cybersecurity risks, they will also want to establish a range of critical, ongoing monitoring systems to help ensure the continued efficiency of their risk management system. In general, businesses will want to monitor a range of factors, including:

• Internal IT usage
• Regulatory changes and alterations to outside security expectations
• Overall vendor risk for new, third-party vendors or company partners