Risks Assessment of Information Technology is a systematic laid down procedure for identifying, analyzing, evaluating and mitigating potential security threats to assets of any organization. This includes people (employees/staff), data at rest and on transit, operations and IT related infrastructure. The assessment basically is an inspection of your overall IT infrastructure to grasp how vulnerable it is to attacks. There is a related post titled IT Security Risks that outlines the risks.
Key Terms
Assets – These are everything of value to an organization that majorly depend on information technology systems and its processes. They include Hardware (servers, computers, network devices and access points), Software (applications and operating systems), Data (information of clients or consumers and intellectual property) and finally People (members of staff and interested parties).
Risk- A risk is the likelihood of a threat occurring & its potential impact. Typically, it’s the chance of a threat actor succeeding and the severity of the damage that will be caused. Here, we can put it this way;
Risk = Threat + Vulnerability.
Therefore, risk considers both the threat as itself and just how vulnerable your systems are to it.
Threats – A threat is anything intentional or unintentional that has the potential to cause damage, harm or disruption to the information systems of an organization. The overall known threats are Cyber-attacks (malware, ransomware, phishing etc), Technical failures (software errors, hardware malfunctions), Insider threats (human error, disgruntled employees) and Physical threats (natural disasters, theft). We have sampled and explained some of the major threats under IT Threats article.
Vulnerabilities – A vulnerability is a particular weakness that can be exploited by a threat actor (hackers or malicious persons). They include unpatched software and network devices, weak encryption/passwords among others.
Here’s a real life example for easy understanding
Threat: A slippery floor (potential for harm)
Vulnerability: A foot wear or shoe with a poor grip (weakness)
Risk: The chance of falling down and getting injured (combines the threat and vulnerability involved).
By understanding the possible vulnerabilities, threats and risks, one can make informed decisions and judgements about how to secure the IT systems.
Objectives
The objectives of risks assessment may vary from one organization to another but the aim of the end results usually remains the same;
Identify Threats and Vulnerabilities: Obviously, these are the basis of the assessment. They involves isolating all the possible ways that IT systems, networks and user data could be compromised.
Analyzing Risk: After threats have been identified, the assessment evaluates the probability of them happening and the potential effect if they occur. This assists in prioritizing which risks need the urgent attention.
Evaluate Controls: Part of the assessment is to scrutinize the existing security controls in place so as to mitigate these risks. This include things like access controls, firewalls, identity management, staff training/sensitization and physical security of IT infrastructure.
Develop a Risk Management Plan: Once the analysis has been done, the assessment helps to create a strategy to address the identified risks. This strategy sometimes includes strengthening of existing controls or deploying additional security measures.
Reporting: Documenting the exercise done, results and intended actions to be taken is seen as a way of putting in place materials for reference in the future.
Schedule
The frequency of the IT security assessment exercise largely differs due to some factors, although it is recommended for it to be done at least annually. This frequent yearly review delivers a baseline awareness of the ever evolving threat landscape and recognizes any new vulnerabilities that may have emerged in the past year. Some of the factors are;
Industry Regulations: All organizations perpetually fall under a kind of industry that are administrated by regulations and laws. Now, certain industries have precise compliance requirements that dictates the regularity and frequency of IT Risk Assessments. For instance, healthcare organizations may need to conduct the assessments more frequently due to the regulations surrounding data privacy of patients. Other organisations such as NIST provide guides on risks assessments. You can read some of the regulations in our Resources Section. In Kenya, The Computer Misuse and Cybercrime (Critical Information Infrastructure and Cybercrime Management) Regulations of 2024 dictates that cyber-risk assessment must be carried out on an annual basis.
Changes in IT Environment: Substantial changes to the existing IT infrastructure, like software upgrade implementation, hardware or network modifications, should prompt a reassessment. These changes might bring in new vulnerabilities or even change your existing risk profile.
Security Incidents: When an organization experiences an IT security incident, such as a malware attack or data breach, it’s prudent to conduct a supplement assessment to identify the root cause of the incidence and so as to prevent similar incidents reoccurring in the future.
Benefits
The assessments as a critical exercise have the following benefits to the organisation.
Improved Security Posture: By identifying, analyzing and mitigating risks, organizations can boost their security measures and lessen the likelihood of security incidents from occurring.
Compliance: As stated on the factors affecting the frequency of the assessment, the exercise itself ensure compliance with regulatory-body requirements and set out industry standards, which regularly mandate consistent risk assessments.
Resource Optimization: In the steps we will shall see later, the assessments help organizations to allocate resources more efficiently by focusing on the significant risks and the critical ones.
Business Continuity: By reducing the impact of security incidents, organisations ensure that critical operations can be able to continue with minimal disruption.
The Assessments
Whereas varied organization have different systems in place that face different risks, these are the key steps involved in a security risk assessment:
Identify Objectives of the exercise: The objectives mentioned above are identified and this helps in understanding the scope, timeline and even resources that might be needed during the assessment exercise.
Identify Assets: All the targeted critical assets that need protection are listed. These include physical assets (like buildings and Information Technology related equipment), digital assets (such as data and IT systems) and human assets (members of staff, customers and even shareholders).
Identify Threats: The potential threats are identified. These are the threats that could exploit vulnerabilities in the assets. The as stated above the threats can be natural, human or technical.
Identify Vulnerabilities: What weaknesses or gaps in the security exists that could be exploited by threats? This can include outdated software and programs, inadequacy of employee training or weak physical security measures.
Assess Risk: Here, the likelihood and potential impact of each threat is identified and the chances of exploiting the vulnerabilities is analyzed. This frequently involves determining a risk score based on factors such as the severity of the impact and the probability of occurrence. This will be covered in detailed in our IT Risk Register and IT Risk Matrix articles.
Prioritize Risks: After the risk assessment scores have been determined, they are now prioritized based on the individual scores. Focus is on addressing the most critical risks first, that pose a higher threat to the organization.
Implement Mitigation Strategies: Developing and implementing strategies to mitigate the identified risks follows. This might include technical solutions (like administration of firewalls and antivirus software), procedural changes (such as updating security policies and standard operating procedures) and physical controls (surveillance cameras, access controls and fire suppression systems). To an extent, a mitigation strategy might involve hiring or employing a new member of staff and/or training and providing IT risks sensitization to all members of staff.
Monitor and Review: The organization continuously monitors the security environment and reviews the effectiveness of the decided risk mitigation strategies. The risk assessment is regularly updated to account for new threats and vulnerabilities.
Documentation and Reporting: For future reference, all findings, actions taken, decisions made and strategies planned during the risk assessment process are documented. The reporting and narration should be clear, detailed and comprehensible to inform stakeholders involved and guide any future security planning.
Challenges
Some challenges often hinder or reduce the objectives of the assessments and they vary from one organization to another;
Fast Evolving Threats: The technology world as it is, evolves so fast, so as the threats, making some organisations difficult to cope.
Resource Constraints: The assessments needs adequate resources such human resource (experts) and budgets; and inadequacy of the two can restrict the ability to oversee a comprehensive assessments thus not meeting the objectives.
Complex Environments: Organisations with dense IT systems or huge number of processes or data can complicate the risk assessment process.
Data Sensitivity: Sometimes the scope of the assessment can not entirely be exhasuted when dealing with sensitive data as it requires stringent security measures to avert data breach during the assessment process itself.
Conclusion
We have seen how IT Risk Assessment has a pivotal role in information security. With regular risks assessments, an organization will largely be able to judge and weigh how its security posture and profile is. In our subsequent articles, we shall identify and describe the tools used in carrying out these assessments.