The key to building and maintaining an effective cyber security plan for any company is to do a periodic risk assessment.

Cyber security services recommend risk assessments as a way to understand what risks are present and develop the most protective security strategy to prevent attacks.

Using the five steps outlined below, cyber security risk assessment services can test how secure a company’s IT networks are and which risks pose the greatest threats to them, then use that knowledge to reduce those risks and maintain a safer network.

Step 1: Determine Assessment Scope

A cyber security risk assessment always begins by identifying the scope of the assessment within the company’s IT infrastructure.

Cyber security services must determine whether they are assessing the entire organization, specific business locations, or specific departments or processes within the business, such as website function, payment processing, or some other function.

According to HIPPA laws and other industry privacy and security laws, some businesses may be required to periodically perform these assessments to ensure the security of their networks.

Step 2: Identify Cyber Security Risks

To identify security risks, cyber security risk assessment services must first identify all information assets used by the business, as well as all data that is collected and stored.

Then, threats must be identified using a threat library and other threat identification resources that provide up-to-date information on the most current known threats.

After identifying threats, the risk assessment must also identify what could go wrong based on the presence of those threats.

Step 3: Analyze Cyber Security Risks

With present threats known, cyber security risk assessment must analyze each threat in two ways.

They must determine the likelihood or probability that a threat is likely to become a risk and then determine the extent of the impact each threat is likely to cause.

Each should be gauged on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest rating, to assign a threat assessment rating.

Step 4: Implement Security Controls

After identifying and analyzing present risks, cyber security services will then multiply the likelihood rating with the impact rating to calculate a risk tolerance level on which responses can be assigned.

Risk tolerance responses may be to avoid the risk by discontinuing the activity or function permitting it, transfer the risk by sharing it or implementing other protections such as cyber insurance of DDoS mitigation services, or mitigate the problem by deploying solutions to eliminate it or reduce the likelihood or impact.

Step 5: Monitor and Review

Finally, with all risks documented in a risk register and all solutions implemented, cyber security risk assessment services will then monitor these solutions and test them for effectiveness.

Periodic audits and penetration testing are used to track IT security and current risk levels, the progress of treatment plans, and residual risk levels over time.

As time passes and with the introduction of new cyber threats, cyber security risk assessments should be repeated and continuously monitored to ensure effective assessments and solutions are employed.

Cyber Security Services Can Help With Risk Assessments

Cyber security risk assessments are a critical part of ensuring the safety and security of every company’s IT network.

These detailed and ongoing assessments of existing threats and needed solutions should be periodically run to ensure the development of cybersecurity practices that will be most protective for that company.

An experienced cyber security service should be consulted to plan and execute an effective risk assessment test.