What is a cybersecurity risk assessment?
A cybersecurity risk assessment is a systematic process aimed at identifying vulnerabilities and threats within an organization's IT environment, assessing the likelihood of a security event, and determining the potential impact of such occurrences.
In most cases, a risk assessment will also provide recommendations for additional security controls to address the organization's specific challenges and mitigate the risk of breaches or other disruptive incidents.

Importance of a cybersecurity risk assessment

Almost every modern business maintains an online presence and utilizes connected devices in its operations. This makes them vulnerable to cyberattacks, as any endpoint or online activity on any system can provide a gateway to threat actors looking to access systems, applications, data, and other assets.

Unfortunately, as companies conduct more and more activity digitally, their likelihood of being targeted by cyberattacks also increases. In recent years, the frequency and complexity of these attacks have steadily increased, making it more important than ever for organizations to proactively engage in a variety of cybersecurity measures to mitigate risks.

Benefits of a cybersecurity risk assessment

A cybersecurity risk assessment's most obvious benefit is enhancing the organization’s security posture across the entire IT environment. This is achieved through:

• Improved visibility into IT assets and applications
• A complete inventory of user privileges, activity within Active Directory, and identities
• Identification of weaknesses across devices, applications, and user identities
• Identification of specific vulnerabilities that a threat actor could exploit

In addition to strengthening the organization’s security posture, a risk assessment is also likely to deliver several important secondary benefits, including:

• Reducing costs through earlier mitigation of vulnerabilities and attack prevention
• Optimizing limited resources by identifying high-priority activities relative to risk and impact
• Reducing regulatory risk by ensuring compliance with relevant data requirements
• Enhancing the availability of applications and services through avoided downtime
•  

Considerations before performing a cybersecurity risk assessment

Before conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment, organizations should take several preliminary steps to ensure they are prepared for success.

1. Set clear objectives for the assessment. For most organizations, the goal of a cyber risk assessment is to reduce risk by identifying specific vulnerabilities and threats within the IT environment and the security measures that can help mitigate them. Beyond that, each organization may have specific objectives with respect to cost savings, resource optimization, or other criteria.
2. Define the scope of the assessment. Many organizations have a large and complex IT environment. Since most organizations also have limited budgets and resources, it may be necessary to limit the scope of the assessment to cover specific assets and systems or define the type of vulnerabilities and threats the team will consider.
3. Identify the assessment team. Conducting a successful risk assessment requires specific cybersecurity expertise. For organizations that do not have an in-house cybersecurity team with deep domain knowledge and experience, it may be necessary to engage a trusted and reputable third-party cybersecurity partner to help plan and conduct the assessment.
4. Develop an assessment framework. To be effective, the cyber risk assessment process must evaluate and analyze risk based on clearly defined criteria that are applied consistently. Establishing a framework to assess risk is critical for ensuring the team is thorough and consistent in their evaluation.