As the world becomes more technologically driven, cybersecurity threats have also been growing. This growth necessitates businesses to implement robust security policies and plans. To help you develop these policies, you must conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment.
You can carry out the exercise with internal oversight if you have a capable internal IT team. However, security experts recommend getting the services of a managed IT services provider (MSP). The reason is that the MSPs are more updated on current trends in cybersecurity threats. Additionally, they can provide an unbiased assessment which could be more beneficial to you. To learn more about managed IT services, you can visit https://intellicomp.net/.
What Is Cybersecurity Risk Assessment?
Cybersecurity risk assessment is a comprehensive process that analyzes your business’s probability of exposure to a data breach. This process looks at data handling, staff cybersecurity awareness, and network vulnerabilities, among other factors.
A cybersecurity risk assessment is essential for small and large business ventures. It’s even more vital to small businesses because hackers may see them as having fewer security measures to protect their networks. Thus, if you haven’t done one, it’s crucial to schedule one with an MSP.
Why Your Business Needs Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
Carrying out a cybersecurity risk assessment helps you understand the current vulnerability level of your business. In addition, it can provide you with a baseline to develop cybersecurity policies and how to implement them. Read below to find out why your business needs a cybersecurity risk assessment.
1. Helps Identify Your Business’s Cybersecurity Threat Level
During a cybersecurity risk assessment exercise, experts examine various risk factors. For instance, potential entry points that may expose your network to cyberattack. These entry points can be weak passwords or lack of end-point protection.
Therefore, after a risk assessment exercise, you can know your vulnerabilities. Thus, you can find ways of mitigating the risks involved. Cybersecurity risk assessment outlines the likelihood of a threat becoming a reality. Additionally, it helps outline both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the risks. A quantitative evaluation would provide an analysis of financial and data risks and the criticality of these risks to your business.
On the other hand, a qualitative assessment provides a status of your existing cybersecurity policies and their effectiveness in protecting against a cyberattack. It uses historical data to determine your business’s potential risks, prioritize them, and show your vulnerability level.
2. Assist In Developing Robust Cybersecurity Policies
Even though you may have cybersecurity policies in place, they may not address the high-risk areas of your business. Additionally, the existing policies might not provide a comprehensive plan to follow if a cyberthreat is identified in the system.
Conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment helps you prioritize high-risk factors, which help provide a basis for a robust security plan. For instance, it can help you know the devices with the most threat exposure. Thus, you can devise a policy to change or upgrade these devices and what software updates you need. You can also develop a plan on how your team members access and use their work devices.
3. Ensures You Meet Regulations And Compliance Requirements
Cyberthreats are constantly evolving, and regulatory bodies adjust guidelines and requirements in their respective industries. For instance, if you’re in the healthcare industry, you must keep a close eye on provisions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In addition, if your business accepts online payments, it would be best to comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).
Therefore, a cybersecurity risk assessment can help check whether your business complies with such regulations. Thus, you can know where you fall short on your data handling procedures and develop necessary policies to correct the shortfalls.
4. Improves Your Team’s Cybersecurity Awareness
Cybersecurity experts consider staff as part of the frontline defense against cyberattacks. Thus, the MSP experts will evaluate your team’s vulnerability to cyber threats during a cybersecurity risk assessment exercise. At the end of the assessment, you can use the results to develop training programs for your team. The assessors can also recommend measures your team can take to mitigate the risks of cyber threats. This can help significantly reduce your business’s threat vulnerability.
5. Helps You Understand Your Capability To Address Existing Cybersecurity Threats
Cybersecurity threats are an ever-present risk. Therefore, a risk assessment helps you understand the threats your business faces. It further gives a detailed analysis of your cybersecurity tools and their effectiveness in mitigating potential risks.
In so doing, cybersecurity risk assessment helps you understand if your business can adequately deter or minimize vulnerability to a cyberattack. Furthermore, it can help you change your cybersecurity tools or improve on them.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is always a concern for every business. Thus, conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment is vital to check the vulnerability of your business to cyber threats. As cyberattacks can happen at any moment, risk assessment can ensure you close loopholes in your system that cybercriminals might exploit.
Dan Stevens is a cybersecurity analyst. He consults and shares his expertise on cybersecurity and digital tech and has been doing this for over five years. During his free time, Dan enjoys a game of soccer, plays digital games, and follows motorsport.
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