In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Clear Winds Technologies is featured as one of the Top Cybersecurity Agencies in the United States. Check out their profile!
Maintaining an organization’s data is critical in today’s technology-driven world. Malicious entities know this best and have set the stage for the new field of cybersecurity that is paramount to your success. According to TechTerms, “Data is processed and stored information… in the form of text documents, images, audio clips, software programs, or other types of data.”
This information in its basic form is comprised of “ones and zeros, known as binary data” that can be transferred using network connections. The importance of data is not represented in this definition. Data can be seen overall as a comprehensive and economic asset that is the lifeblood of most organizations.
Given how critical this information is to the day-to-day functions of organizations, it’s obvious why so many cyberattacks target this digital treasure trove of a company’s data. New vulnerabilities pop up daily that put an organization’s information systems at risk of data breaches and more. I’d like to talk a little more about this cyber risk and the need for a cybersecurity risk assessment process. Let’s first start by understanding that an organization’s network can be exposed to cybersecurity threats from internal and external sources and why a security risk assessment can help protect your business operations.
Internal Cybersecurity Risks
An organization’s network can be more vulnerable to potential threats from the inside than the outside. Although an organization may take measures to effectively screen and qualify its employees, no measure ensures 100% safety. Disgruntled or malicious employees can wreak havoc on an organization’s network. Additionally, some employees can unintentionally access and release confidential information or even release a virus into the organization’s network.
It is quite common to witness hackers taking advantage of weak internal security. A hacker can enter a corporate network because they performed some social engineering that provided an entry point for the hacker from an unassuming employee. Also, if a hacker does find a way through the external perimeter defense, the attacker can take advantage of a soft internal security posture to proliferate any attack that they desire. Employees have been known to accidentally access information that has been deemed confidential.
Security measures such as password policies and administrative rights will need to be studied carefully. Viruses in the past few years have caused tremendous failures of networks and systems while preventing access and destroying information. These issues can cripple an organization’s ability to function. The most common cyber threats today are malware (ransomware, spyware, spam, etc.) that is unknowingly downloaded by employees to the network, and then it proliferates making computers unusable and allowing access to information on the network that the company does not want to make available.
Email and access to email have also proven to be an easy entry point for hackers. Much care needs to be taken when providing email access internally and externally these days. It is easy to flood a network with malicious emails that cause a wide variety of problems.
External Cybersecurity Risks
Externally, hackers are constantly coming up with new tools, tactics, and techniques for invading an organization’s network. Even if an organization has not made major changes in its security management, hackers have effectively exploited some of the more sophisticated security schemes deployed at organizations. We live in a perfect storm where hackers have the time, easy access to resources, and expertise on their side.
Many times hackers may not be as obvious about their attacks on an organization’s network, such as a phishing attempt. Instead of infecting it with a virus or bringing it down; they may use it as a relay site, a place to store information that may be inappropriate, or simply gather proprietary company information through tools such as spyware and keystroke loggers.
Internal changes also open the door for external security risks. A simple configuration change may be necessary for the system to function properly but it may have left vulnerabilities in the network. On the other hand, something may have been improperly configured leaving vulnerabilities as well. Whatever the case, when an organization loses access or control of its data; operations come to a halt, airplanes stay grounded, payroll goes unpaid, client information is jeopardized, and storefronts are closed. The implications are limitless.
The amount of data being kept electronically and the need to both securely access and share that data have made cybersecurity paramount to the success of businesses today. It cannot be stated enough that protecting your data is critical. The first step in securing an organization’s data and eliminating known vulnerabilities is to perform a comprehensive cybersecurity risk assessment.
Hear From Industry Experts
Read the latest tips, research, best practices, and insights from our community of expert B2B service providers.
The Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
In preparation to assess a cybersecurity risk, a scope must be defined. Depending on the size of the organization’s network, it may be necessary to break up the assessment into sections such as; locations, departments, applications, subnets, and so on. All involved parties must clearly understand the terminology used in risk assessments. We like to start by reviewing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with our partners and focusing on two important risk management frameworks: the NIST SP 800-37 and the ISO/IEC27001.
To create a comprehensive network inventory, we begin by completing a thorough network discovery and asset identification review. Since hackers will exploit virtually anything, we must review the critical and noncritical hardware pieces. This is necessary to locate the innocuous assets and use them to gain access to the critical assets. At that point, you may then create an entire network diagram to provide a simple visualization and documentation of your entire network. The diagram below is a common layout of the IT environment of organizations today.
Identifying Threats
Once all identified risks have been discovered, the process of identifying threats can begin. The threats our forensic and cybersecurity experts identify are derived from understanding the common tactics and techniques that hackers use to take advantage of networks–and the potential impacts of them. After assets have been diagnosed with a vulnerability assessment, reports are created about the possible repercussions should that vulnerability be exploited. The following steps include analyzing the impact of discovered risk, determining the likelihood of exploitation, prioritizing mitigation recommendations by asset, and creating a detailed report that contains all findings and recommendations.
Performing a cybersecurity risk assessment can be a daunting endeavor to undertake. Taking these proactive security testing steps can provide peace of mind and shows both clients and internal staff that you are serious and conscious about keeping your sensitive information and customer data safe and secure from cyber-attacks. Many organizations inquire about the best time to begin a cybersecurity assessment; however, we always recommend it as soon as possible.