How to Create a Sound Cybersecurity Risk Management Plan

Learn how to develop and implement a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management plan that safeguards your organization against evolving threats. We share key components, best practices, and common pitfalls to avoid in building a robust strategy that protects your assets and ensures business continuity.

There’s a lot of weight on the CISO’s shoulders. In addition to managing a web of unpredictable twists and turns across IT, a CISO has to safeguard the organization by designing and implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management plan. Given the complexities of the evolving threat landscape, this is often easier said than done.

This guide provides actionable insights to help CISOs strengthen their cybersecurity risk management strategy. Using the tips below, you can effectively adapt to whatever challenges arise.

Why Proactive Cybersecurity Risk Management Matters

Using a reactive cybersecurity risk management strategy may have been somewhat effective in the early days of the internet when new attack techniques appeared relatively gradually — at least compared to today. Now, cyber threats are more sophisticated, and attackers constantly innovate new methods. By taking a proactive stance, you can set up protections that keep you a few steps ahead of hackers.

What is cybersecurity risk management in the context of safeguarding your business? A well-designed risk management strategy gives you an advantage over attackers because it prepares your specific digital assets for the kinds of assaults they may face. As part of your cybersecurity risk management program, you’d tailor the types of protections you employ according to the industry in which you work.

For instance, a retailer may pay special attention to protecting its payment processing system. On the other hand, a consulting company may focus more on safeguarding its customer relationship management (CRM) data. You can preempt their efforts by closing these doors to attackers ahead of time.

At the same time, a plan should address both internal and external risks. In addition to keeping malicious attackers outside your network, for instance, you need to implement systems to minimize the effects of employee mistakes and internal bad actors.

Components of a Proactive Cybersecurity Risk Management Plan

Whether you design and deploy your strategy internally or use third-party cybersecurity risk management, the basic components of your system remain the same:

• Risk identification. Identifying your risks involves pinpointing the threats your organization will most likely face. Some, like phishing attacks, often make the list. Others are only likely if you have certain assets or infrastructural elements. For example, if you don’t have any important web apps or business-critical websites, you may be less likely to face a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault.
• Risk assessment. Once you’ve identified the most likely risks, you then figure out which ones you stand the highest chance of encountering. For instance, a small insurance company is very likely to face an attack aimed at stealing the names and data of its clients. Still, it might be slightly less susceptible to a web spoofing attack, especially because it may not be well-known.
• Mitigation strategies. Your risk mitigation should include:
  • • Encrypting sensitive data
    • Implementing multifactor authentication
    • Using firewalls to prevent malicious external threats and employees from going to harmful websites
    • Using a monitoring system that reports on the health of your network
    • Establishing an incident management solution that provides alerts of suspicious behavior and prioritizes the most dangerous incidents

Building a Tailored Plan for Your Organization

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach because each organization has different assets and network environments. However, you or your cybersecurity risk management services provider can narrow down the protections best for your company based on the following:

• Industry. Your regulatory environment and assets vary depending on your industry. For example, the regulations a finance company and a healthcare provider have to navigate are unique, as are their on-premise and cloud ecosystems and the kinds of data they store.
• Size and complexity. Smaller organizations with relatively straightforward environments may have fewer key areas to focus on. A larger organization not only has more assets to protect but may have to implement a layered approach, using multiple tools to protect the same assets.
• Data sensitivity. You should tailor your plan according to how sensitive your customer, organizational, and employee data is. An architectural firm needs to protect its plans for public works structures, for instance, to prevent state-sponsored hackers from stealing and giving them to saboteurs or other attackers.

Once you have a plan in place, you also should establish a system for regularly updating your strategy and tools. This ensures any software or hardware you use isn’t susceptible to vulnerabilities the manufacturer has already addressed.

In addition, flexibility is key because hackers often use a variety of attack methods. For example, having a regular ransomware mitigation plan may not be enough. Some attackers use ransomware strategies in conjunction with denial-of-service attacks instead of preempting their encryption with data theft. So, you want to be ready for a range of attack variants.

Tools and Resources to Strengthen Your Program

Fortunately, risk management in cybersecurity is easier thanks to a wealth of effective technologies — all of which can enhance your protection:

• Firewalls. These monitor traffic coming into and exiting your network, preventing malware infections and visits to malicious sites.
• Antivirus software. Antivirus software can protect your organization from thousands of threats the manufacturer already learned how to detect and eradicate.
• Intrusion detection systems (IDSs). An intrusion detection system can both detect threats and be a primary component of an automated mitigation system. For instance, you can use your IDS data to automatically shut down network segments when it detects certain types of threats.

Some organizations and cybersecurity third-party risk management companies also use advanced threat intelligence platforms. These provide real-time updates, enabling your IT department to take corrective action as soon as the system detects an attack.

However, even the best tools and platforms will fail if you don’t have a well-defined and tested process in place to support them. Your security process is a proactive set of rules, steps and procedures that are baked into your everyday operations — not just a plan that kicks in after an attack. It should include the components mentioned above, as well as procedures that help people work safely, protect your data, and restrict your physical assets, like office buildings and offsite data-storage facilities.

In addition, keep in mind that, regardless of how robust your processes and protections are, you need a data backup and recovery solution. For instance, you can have a backup database in which your system automatically populates your most crucial data every hour. If you were to get attacked after you’ve contained the breach, you could spin up your backup database, making it available to your business apps and employees within minutes.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Here’s a list of common mistakes organizations make — so you know what to look out for and can avoid a preventable incident:

• Underestimating insider threats. A disgruntled employee can easily upload malware, or an opportunistic one may install a keylogger to feed passwords to a hacker. Not all threats come from outside your network.
• Neglecting regular updates. Your system, no matter how powerful, is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Thanks to patches released by manufacturers, regular updates minimize your vulnerabilities.
• Ignoring employee training. Human error may be one of the most insipid vulnerabilities. A good phishing attack, for example, can reveal account login credentials and banking details, and there’s little you can do to prevent it. But your employees can learn what to look out for and how to handle suspicious situations.

You can avoid these pitfalls by proactively designing protections to stop insider threats, regularly updating your systems, and training employees several times a year how to spot and prevent attacks.

The Importance of Partnering and Staying Agile

A robust and adaptable risk management plan prioritizes the risks of your organization and industry. It ensures you have a well-trained staff and the most recent versions of threat mitigation tools. This makes it an essential element of your company infrastructure because it creates a series of effective bulwarks between attackers and their bounty.

Busy CISOs and IT teams often benefit from using external partners with dedicated cybersecurity expertise. They can handle more complex or technical facets of your strategy and identify blind spots you may have overlooked.

In a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, the best defense is a proactive plan — don’t wait until you’ve been breached to build yours.

Data breaches and ransomware attacks threaten financial stability and customer trust that could impact your organization for years to come. Our Cybersecurity experts can help you address your most pressing cybersecurity issues and keep compliance a continuous commitment at your organization. Let’s Talk