Risk Rating
Risk rating in cybersecurity assigns a qualitative or quantitative value to a risk, representing its potential severity and likelihood. This rating helps organizations prioritize risks and allocate resources effectively for mitigation efforts.
Here are some key aspects of risk rating:
Qualitative vs. Quantitative: Qualitative risk ratings use descriptive terms, such as "low," "medium," or "high," to categorize risks based on their potential impact and likelihood. Quantitative risk ratings use numerical values to represent a risk's financial or operational impact and probability of occurrence.
Risk Matrix: A risk matrix is often used to visualize and assess risks based on their likelihood and impact. The matrix typically has two axes, one representing the likelihood of the risk and the other representing its potential impact. Each cell in the matrix corresponds to a specific risk rating, such as "low," "medium," or "high."
Factors Considered: Risk ratings consider various factors, such as the value of the asset, the severity of the vulnerability, the potential impact of a successful attack, and the effectiveness of existing security controls.
Prioritization: Risk ratings help prioritize risks and allocate resources effectively for mitigation efforts. Higher-rated risks are typically addressed first, as they pose a more significant threat to the organization.
Risk rating is essential to cybersecurity risk management, enabling organizations to make informed decisions about security investments and mitigation strategies.
ThreatNG can be a valuable tool for calculating and assigning risk ratings in cybersecurity. Here's how ThreatNG's features can help with risk rating:
External Assessment
ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities generate a range of security ratings that can be used to inform risk ratings directly. These ratings provide a quantitative measure of an organization's susceptibility to various cyber threats, enabling a data-driven approach to risk assessment. For example:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This rating, ranging from 0 to 100, quantifies the risk of attackers hijacking a web application. A higher score indicates a higher risk, directly contributing to a higher risk rating for that specific asset.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: This rating assesses the likelihood of attackers taking over unused or improperly configured subdomains. A high susceptibility rating would increase the risk rating associated with the organization's domain management.
Data Leak Susceptibility: This rating evaluates the likelihood of sensitive data being exposed through various channels. A high susceptibility rating would significantly elevate the risk rating for data breach and require immediate attention.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This overall rating considers various factors, including exposed sensitive ports, known vulnerabilities, and code secret exposure, to determine the overall cyber risk exposure. This comprehensive score can be a key factor in determining the overall risk rating for the organization.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed insights into specific assets and potential vulnerabilities, which can be used to refine risk ratings. For example:
Domain Intelligence: This module provides detailed information about domain names, subdomains, and associated technologies, helping identify potential entry points for attackers and assess the risk associated with each domain and subdomain.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module scans public code repositories for sensitive information that attackers could exploit. Discovering exposed credentials or API keys would significantly increase the risk rating of the associated code repository and related systems.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: This module identifies the organization's cloud services and SaaS applications, helping assess the risk of attackers exploiting misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in these services. The findings from this module can contribute to the risk rating of the organization's cloud infrastructure.
Intelligence Repositories
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable context for assessing the likelihood and potential impact of various threats, which can influence risk ratings. This information includes data on:
Dark web activities: ThreatNG scans the dark web for mentions of the organization, its assets, or its employees, helping identify potential data leaks, compromised credentials, or planned attacks. Such threats on the dark web would increase the risk rating associated with the targeted assets.
Ransomware events and groups: ThreatNG tracks ransomware events and groups, providing insights into current attack trends and potential threats to the organization. This information can be used to adjust risk ratings based on the likelihood of ransomware attacks targeting specific industries or organizations.
Known vulnerabilities: ThreatNG maintains a database of known vulnerabilities, helping organizations assess the likelihood of attackers exploiting specific weaknesses in their assets. Critical unpatched vulnerabilities would increase the risk rating of the affected assets.
Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities clearly outline the organization's security posture, identified vulnerabilities, and risk exposure. This information can generate comprehensive risk reports, including risk ratings, for various stakeholders, enabling informed decision-making and prioritization of mitigation efforts.
Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring capabilities ensure that risk ratings remain up-to-date by scanning for new threats, vulnerabilities, and changes in the organization's external attack surface. This allows for dynamic adjustment of risk ratings based on the evolving threat landscape and the organization's security posture.
Working with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG can integrate with other security solutions to enhance risk rating calculations and management. For example, ThreatNG can complement:
Vulnerability Scanners: ThreatNG can provide external context and threat intelligence to help prioritize vulnerabilities identified by scanners and refine risk ratings based on the likelihood and potential impact of exploitation.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: ThreatNG can feed its findings into SIEM systems to provide a broader view of security events and enable more accurate risk rating calculations based on real-time threat activity.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Platforms: ThreatNG can integrate with GRC platforms to provide risk rating data and insights for overall risk management and compliance reporting.
Examples of ThreatNG Helping with Risk Rating
Assigning a High-Risk Rating to a Vulnerable Web Application: ThreatNG could identify a web application with a high Web Application Hijack Susceptibility rating and known critical vulnerabilities. This information, combined with the potential impact of a successful attack, would lead to a high-risk rating for that application, prompting immediate mitigation efforts.
Increasing the Risk Rating of a Domain Due to Subdomain Takeover Risk: ThreatNG could identify a domain with multiple subdomains vulnerable to takeover. This would increase the overall risk rating for the domain, highlighting the need for improved subdomain management and security practices.
Adjusting Risk Ratings Based on Dark Web Activity: ThreatNG could detect mentions of the organization or its employees on the dark web, indicating potential targeted attacks. This information would increase the risk rating for the relevant assets and prompt proactive security measures.
By combining its powerful external discovery, assessment, and monitoring capabilities with comprehensive threat intelligence and investigation modules, ThreatNG provides a valuable toolset for calculating and assigning risk ratings in cybersecurity. This enables organizations to quantify and prioritize risks, allocate resources efficiently, and make informed security decisions to protect their critical assets.
