Risk Assessment
The process of locating, assessing, and analyzing potential threats, vulnerabilities, and the dangers they pose to an organization's data assets, information technology systems, and overall security posture is known as risk assessment in the context of security and cybersecurity. The primary goals of risk assessment are to:
Risk Identification: Determine and list every potential security risk, including external and internal attacks, holes in systems or procedures, and other flaws that can jeopardize data availability, confidentiality, or integrity.
Risk Analysis: Assess each identified risk's potential impact and likelihood. This analysis involves evaluating the consequences of a security breach and the probability or likelihood of such an event occurring.
Risk Evaluation: Determine the significance of each risk by considering its potential impact and likelihood. This step helps prioritize risks based on their severity and potential harm.
Risk Mitigation: Create plans and suggestions to deal with or lessen the hazards that have been identified. Implementing security controls, rules, and procedures may be one of several measures to reduce threats' probability and effect.
Risk Monitoring: Continuously monitor the evolving threat landscape and assess the effectiveness of risk mitigation measures, making adjustments as needed.
Risk assessment is a fundamental component of cybersecurity and security planning, enabling organizations to make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, security investments, and incident response strategies. It helps organizations balance security measures and operational efficiency while minimizing the potential impact of security incidents.
ThreatNG's Role in Facilitating External Risk Assessments
ThreatNG's comprehensive capabilities enable it to play a crucial role in facilitating external risk assessments across an organization's digital ecosystem, including its third-party vendors and supply chain:
External Attack Surface Management (EASM): ThreatNG continuously monitors an organization's external digital footprint for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, identifying potential entry points for attackers and assessing their risk.
Digital Risk Protection (DRP): ThreatNG scans the internet and dark web for mentions of the organization, its executives, and its brands, alerting security teams to potential threats like phishing scams, data leaks, or social engineering attacks.
Security Ratings: ThreatNG provides an objective security rating based on the organization's external security posture, allowing it to benchmark against industry peers and identify areas for improvement.
By combining these capabilities, ThreatNG provides a comprehensive view of an organization's external risk landscape, enabling security teams to:
Identify and prioritize risks: ThreatNG's data can be used to identify the most critical risks facing the organization, its third-party vendors, and its supply chain. It lets security teams focus their resources on mitigating the most significant threats first.
Develop mitigation strategies: ThreatNG's findings can inform the development of effective risk mitigation strategies, such as implementing security controls, updating policies and procedures, or terminating relationships with high-risk vendors.
Monitor risk over time: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring allows organizations to track their risk posture and identify emerging threats, ensuring their risk assessments remain relevant and current.
Integration with Complementary Security Solutions
ThreatNG can integrate with various complementary security solutions to enhance its risk assessment capabilities and streamline security operations:
Vulnerability Scanners: ThreatNG can feed its findings into vulnerability scanners to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities in the organization's external attack surface.
Threat Intelligence Platforms: ThreatNG can correlate its findings with threat intelligence data to assess specific threats' likelihood and potential impact.
Risk Management Platforms: ThreatNG can integrate with risk management platforms to automate risk assessments, track remediation progress, and report on the organization's overall risk posture.
Handoff Scenarios
ThreatNG would typically hand off to other solutions in the following scenarios:
Vulnerability Remediation: Once ThreatNG identifies vulnerabilities, it can hand off this information to patch management or vulnerability management tools to prioritize and remediate them.
Threat Mitigation: If ThreatNG detects an active threat, it can hand off relevant information to security incident and event management (SIEM) systems or security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms to investigate and mitigate the threat.
Risk Management: ThreatNG can provide its findings to risk management platforms to facilitate risk prioritization, mitigation planning, and reporting.
By integrating these complementary solutions, ThreatNG can provide a comprehensive and proactive approach to risk assessment, empowering organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate risks across their entire digital ecosystem. This integrated approach helps organizations strengthen their security posture and protect themselves from cyber threats.
