Digital Risk Pathway
A Digital Risk Pathway represents a sequence of events or factors in the digital realm that can negatively affect an organization's security, reputation, or operations.
Here's a breakdown of the concept:
Sequence of Events/Factors: A Digital Risk Pathway isn't a single event but a chain or series of interconnected elements. These elements can include vulnerabilities, exposures, threats, and contextual information.
Digital Realm: This emphasizes that the pathway exists within the digital landscape, encompassing online assets, data, systems, and interactions.
Negative Consequences: The endpoint of a Digital Risk Pathway is some form of harm, which could manifest as:
Security breaches: Unauthorized access, data theft, system compromise.
Reputational damage: Negative publicity, loss of customer trust.
Operational disruptions: Service outages, business interruptions.
Financial losses: Fines, recovery costs, lost revenue.
Key Aspects of Digital Risk Pathways
Interconnectedness: Digital Risk Pathways highlight how seemingly disparate elements can combine to create significant risk. For example, a social media vulnerability combined with negative sentiment could amplify reputational damage.
Contextual Information: These pathways consider the broader context, including:
External factors: Public sentiment, news events.
Business factors: Financial health, industry trends.
Organizational factors: Security posture, policies.
Beyond Technical Vulnerabilities: While technical vulnerabilities are often a component, Digital Risk Pathways extend to non-technical risks like:
Brand reputation: Online mentions, social media sentiment.
Data exposure: Unintentional disclosure of sensitive data.
Compliance violations: Failure to adhere to regulations.
Digital Risk Pathways provide a more holistic view of risk in the digital age, acknowledging the complex interplay of technical, reputational, and operational factors.
Here’s how ThreatNG helps in identifying and managing Digital Risk Pathways:
ThreatNG's external discovery is the foundation for understanding the starting points of Digital Risk Pathways. Discovering an organization's external-facing assets reveals where potential risks originate. For example:
It identifies all subdomains, which can be a source of vulnerabilities or brand inconsistencies.
It finds cloud services and SaaS applications with data exposure or misconfiguration risks.
ThreatNG's external assessments provide the crucial details that flesh out Digital Risk Pathways, connecting vulnerabilities and exposures to potential consequences:
Brand Damage Susceptibility: This is a core component of Digital Risk Pathways. ThreatNG derives this from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG violations, sentiment and financials (lawsuits, SEC filings, negative news), and domain intelligence (domain name permutations and Web3 domains). This assessment directly addresses how external factors can converge to harm an organization's reputation.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses this by analyzing cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (compromised credentials), domain intelligence, and sentiment and financials (lawsuits and SEC Form 8-Ks). These factors illustrate pathways where sensitive data can be exposed, leading to financial and reputational damage.
ESG Exposure: ThreatNG rates organizations based on discovered environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations. These violations represent Digital Risk Pathways that can lead to reputational harm, legal penalties, and financial losses.
Sentiment and Financials: ThreatNG's analysis of lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings, and negative news provides critical context for understanding the potential impact of other risks. For example, negative sentiment combined with a data breach can amplify reputational damage.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities are essential for communicating and managing Digital Risk Pathways. Reports can highlight:
Areas of high brand damage susceptibility show pathways that pose the greatest threat to reputation.
Data leak susceptibility trends, illustrating how these pathways are evolving.
Summaries of ESG violations, providing a clear view of risks related to ethical and responsible business practices.
Digital Risk Pathways are dynamic. New vulnerabilities emerge, social media sentiment shifts, and business conditions change. ThreatNG's continuous monitoring helps organizations stay aware of how these pathways evolve and identify new ones.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide in-depth information for analyzing Digital Risk Pathways:
Domain Intelligence: Provides context on domain reputation, DNS security, and related factors that can contribute to phishing, brand impersonation, and other digital risks.
Social Media: Monitors social media for mentions, sentiment, and trends related to the organization. This is crucial for understanding Digital Risk Pathways related to brand reputation.
Sentiment and Financials: Provides detailed information on lawsuits, SEC filings, and other financial and business events that can intersect with different risks.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable context for understanding the likelihood and impact of Digital Risk Pathways:
Dark Web Presence: Information on compromised credentials and discussions of potential attacks provide insights into the threat landscape.
ESG Violations: This repository helps organizations understand the specific types of violations that can lead to reputational and financial risks.
7. Working with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's digital risk insights can be integrated with other security and business intelligence tools:
Business Intelligence (BI) Platforms: ThreatNG's data on brand sentiment and financial risks can be fed into BI platforms to provide a holistic view of organizational risk.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Systems: ThreatNG's data on ESG violations and compliance-related risks can be integrated with GRC systems to improve risk management and reporting.
ThreatNG provides a comprehensive approach to identifying, assessing, monitoring, and managing Digital Risk Pathways. Combining external attack surface intelligence with digital risk insights enables organizations to proactively address the evolving threats in the digital landscape.
