How to implement risk-based Security Policy

On the other hand, a risk-based security approach can determine the real risk of the most valuable assets to the enterprise, and can give priority to spending money on projects that can reduce the risk to an acceptable level. The security policy constructed by risk-based decision-making enables enterprises to set more practical and realistic security goals and spend their resources in a more effective way. This approach can meet compliance requirements and can be used as a natural result of a robust and optimized security state.

Although a risk-based security policy requires careful planning and continuous monitoring and evaluation, it is not necessarily an overly complex process. Here, this article provides some key steps for implementing risk-based security, which may seem time-consuming but can meet the security goals of the enterprise.

Assets evaluation

Companies need to determine which key information assets are, where they are located, and who own them. The enterprise needs to assess its value and include the business impact and costs related to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the damaged information assets, such as the loss caused by the paralysis of the order entry system, or the loss of reputation caused by the hacking of the website.

When it comes to security, evaluating assets in this way ensures the safety of those projects that are most important to the continuity of the business's day-to-day operations.

Identify threat

The next step is to determine who is likely to steal or destroy the assets identified in the previous step and to determine the causes and implementation steps for the damage. The people involved may include competitors, hostile countries, malicious employees or customers, as well as non-hostile threats (such as untrained employees, etc.), as well as floods, fires and other natural disasters.

For each identified threat, a threat level needs to be set based on the likelihood of its occurrence. The business manager obtains the information and enters the possibility of a specific situation to be added to the threat intelligence assessment of the security team.

Identify vulnerabilities

A vulnerability is a flaw in which a threat can be exploited to compromise security and steal or destroy critical assets. In this type of risk, penetration testing and automated vulnerability scanning tools help identify vulnerabilities in software and networks.

Companies also need to consider physical vulnerabilities, such as whether the perimeter of the company is safe and patrolling, whether fire extinguishers are regularly checked, and whether the backup generator system has been tested.

Companies also need to consider loopholes associated with employees, contractors, and suppliers, such as groups and people vulnerable to social engineering attacks, in order to prevent supply chain attacks.

Risk analysis.

After identifying the assets, threats, and vulnerabilities of the enterprise, you can begin risk analysis. Risk can be thought of as the possibility that some kind of threat exploits a vulnerability and has a business impact. The process of risk analysis is to assess existing controls and defenses, measure the risk of each asset-threat-vulnerability combination, and then assign a risk value to it. These values are based on the threat level and the impact on the enterprise when the risk actually occurs.

This risk-based approach enables enterprises to properly identify identified vulnerabilities and focus on the risks that have the greatest impact on the enterprise's business.

Risk management

The range of risks is wide, ranging from low-level risks that enterprises can accept, which have almost no negative impact on enterprises, to serious risks that enterprises must avoid at all costs.

After evaluating each kind of risk, the enterprise must make a decision on how to deal with, transfer, tolerate and terminate the risk. Every decision must be recorded with the reasons for it. The enterprise's security team implements this process for each threat scenario, thereby applying resources to the risk processing that has the greatest impact on the business. After implementing these decisions, the security team also conducts tests to simulate key threats to ensure that the new security controls truly mitigate the most serious risks.

Conclusion

The support of senior leaders is critical when creating risk-based security policies. It is also critical to get information support from all relevant people throughout the enterprise, as risk mitigation decisions can have a serious impact on operations. Without adequate communication, other relevant teams may not fully understand when the security team makes these decisions in isolation.

While implementing risk-based assessments may seem like an onerous task, companies have a large number of online tools to help assess assets, threat levels, risk scores, and so on. For example, factor analysis of information risk (FAIR) is a framework that can be used to quantify operational risks. it helps enterprises understand the real risks of key assets in their day-to-day operations and mitigate these risks.

It is impossible for an enterprise to achieve absolute security, but by deploying resources and technologies in some effective ways, the team of IT experts can make the most effective use of the valuable IT budget.