What are cybersecurity assessment?

A comprehensive risk management programme must include regular cybersecurity assessments since the cyber threat landscape is constantly changing. Your business must constantly monitor the cyber hygiene of every member of its ecosystem, including third- and fourth-party providers. You can accomplish this by using a cybersecurity risk assessment to determine the cyber hazards that have an impact on your security posture. This helps you to make better-informed decisions about how to allocate cash to implement security controls and safeguard the network.

Let's examine some of the most common cybersecurity risk assessments as well as the actions your company can take to carry out a successful assessment.

What is a cybersecurity assessment?

A cybersecurity assessment, also known as a cybersecurity risk assessment, examines the cybersecurity controls in place at your organisation and their capacity to address problems. Instead of using a checklist like you would for a cybersecurity audit, these risk assessments should be carried out in the context of your organization's commercial objectives. This enables security teams to start applying security controls to reduce your network's weaknesses after performing a high-level study of them.

How to perform a cybersecurity assessment?

Given their business or the regional regulations that apply to them, an effective cybersecurity assessment may differ from one organisation to the next, but its fundamental components always remain the same. When doing a cybersecurity risk assessment, adhere to following steps:

STEP 1. Assessing the extent of the risk assessment

Determine the full scope of the cybersecurity evaluation by listing all the assets that will be examined. Instead of doing everything at once, it could be advantageous to start by focusing only on one kind of asset at a time. Determine any other networks, devices, or information that the asset type you've chosen affects. By doing this, you can be sure that you're obtaining a complete picture of your full digital footprint.

STEP 2: Ascertain the worth of each asset

You must ascertain the worth of each asset after deciding which ones will be evaluated for cybersecurity. It's crucial to keep in mind that an asset's genuine value could go beyond its purchase price. Your team must take into account qualitative hazards connected to each asset as well as intangible elements while conducting a risk assessment.

STEP 3. Determine cybersecurity concerns

Finding cybersecurity risks is the next phase in a cybersecurity assessment, which will allow you to estimate the possibility of various loss scenarios and use that information to make future decisions. Think about the potential uses for the asset, the likelihood of use, and the overall effect use could have on your organisation. This is a crucial step in making sure that your company is successfully adhering to any cybersecurity compliance standards demanded by your sector.

STEP 4. Compare asset value to preventative cost

When an asset's value has been established, it must be weighed against the expense of protecting it. Determine different loss scenarios to see if it would be worthwhile to pursue an alternative control or preventive approach that makes more financial sense if the expense of preventing such accidents would exceed the asset's value.

STEP 5. Install and monitor security measures

The next step is to build security solutions that can continuously monitor your organization's cybersecurity once you have discovered and analysed the crucial assets and vulnerabilities within your network. This will guarantee that the controls in place are continuously safeguarding sensitive information and meeting organisational needs.

Why conduct a cybersecurity evaluation?

Determining whether or not your organisation is adequately prepared to defend against a variety of threats requires a thorough cybersecurity assessment. A cybersecurity assessment's objectives are to locate vulnerabilities and reduce security holes. It also attempts to keep important stakeholders and board members updated about the company's cybersecurity posture, enabling them to make more educated judgements regarding how security initiatives might be integrated into regular business operations.

Cybersecurity risk assessments with DataguardNXT

With DataguardNXt, you can monitor and enhance your organization's and vendors' cybersecurity. Security Ratings' A-F ratings across ten risk factors give organisations complete and continuous visibility into their ecosystem's cyber hygiene. This allows data-driven threat mitigation decisions.

Remember that the threat landscape and asset risk are continuously changing. A regular cybersecurity evaluation can help your company stay up with new threats and protect its most valuable assets.