Risk Reduction Efficacy
Risk Reduction Efficacy in cybersecurity measures how effective a security control or set of controls is at decreasing the level of risk to an organization's assets and operations. It quantifies how much a control achieves its intended outcome of mitigating a specific risk.
Here's a breakdown of what that means:
Risk Mitigation: Risk reduction efficacy directly relates to how well a control lessens the likelihood of a threat exploiting a vulnerability and the potential impact of that exploitation.
Quantifiable Measurement: Ideally, risk reduction efficacy is expressed in measurable terms, such as a percentage reduction in risk or a decrease in the probability of a security incident.
Context-Specific: The efficacy of a control is not absolute and can vary significantly depending on the threat, vulnerability, asset, and environment in question.
Factors Influencing Efficacy: Several factors influence risk reduction efficacy:
Control Design: How well the control is designed to address the specific risk.
Implementation: How correctly the control is implemented and configured.
Operation: How consistently and effectively the control is operated.
Environment: How the surrounding environment affects the control's performance.
Evaluation: Evaluating risk reduction efficacy involves assessing the control's performance against predefined objectives and metrics.
ThreatNG provides data and assessments that enable organizations to evaluate and improve their Risk Reduction Efficacy. It does this by identifying vulnerabilities, assessing their potential impact, and validating the presence of security controls.
External Discovery and Assessment: Identifying and Prioritizing Risks
ThreatNG's external discovery maps the organization's attack surface, identifying exposed assets that attackers could target.
Its external assessment capabilities then analyze these assets for vulnerabilities, providing a view of the organization's risks. For example, the "Web Application Hijack Susceptibility" assessment identifies vulnerabilities in web applications that could lead to a compromise.
By identifying these vulnerabilities, ThreatNG helps organizations understand the risks they must address and prioritize their risk reduction efforts.
Assessing Impact and Likelihood
ThreatNG provides information that helps assess both the likelihood and potential impact of risks:
Likelihood: Assessments like "Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility" and "BEC & Phishing Susceptibility" provide insights into the possibility of specific attack types. For instance, detecting vulnerable subdomains increases the likelihood of a subdomain takeover.
Impact: Assessments like "Data Leak Susceptibility" and "Brand Damage Susceptibility" help evaluate the potential impact of a successful attack. For example, the discovery of exposed cloud storage highlights the potential for a significant data breach.
Evaluating the Efficacy of Existing Controls
ThreatNG helps evaluate the efficacy of existing security controls:
By identifying vulnerabilities, ThreatNG reveals where current controls are ineffective. For example, if a "Web Application Hijack Susceptibility" assessment finds cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, it indicates that input validation controls are not effectively reducing the risk of that attack.
Conversely, ThreatNG's "Positive Security Indicators" feature identifies the presence of security controls like WAFs and MFA, providing evidence of risk reduction measures.
Measuring Improvements in Risk Reduction
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and reporting capabilities help measure improvements in risk reduction efficacy over time:
Continuous monitoring detects changes in the organization's attack surface and vulnerability posture. This allows organizations to see if their risk reduction efforts have a positive effect.
Reporting provides a snapshot of the organization's security posture, which can be compared over time to track progress in risk reduction.
Examples of ThreatNG and Risk Reduction Efficacy
If ThreatNG initially detects numerous high-risk vulnerabilities in web applications and then a subsequent scan shows a significant reduction after implementing a WAF, this demonstrates the WAF's high-risk reduction efficacy.
If ThreatNG's "Code Secret Exposure" module identifies exposed API keys, and after remediation, a rescan shows no exposed keys, this indicates the efficacy of the code security improvements.
ThreatNG and Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's data on risk and control effectiveness can be combined with other security solutions to enhance risk reduction efficacy further:
Vulnerability Management: ThreatNG's external vulnerability assessments can be integrated with internal vulnerability scanning to provide a more comprehensive view of risk reduction efficacy.
SIEM: ThreatNG's findings can be fed into a SIEM to correlate external vulnerabilities with internal security events, providing a more accurate picture of overall risk reduction.
ThreatNG provides valuable tools and information for measuring and improving risk reduction efficacy. By identifying vulnerabilities, assessing their potential impact, and validating security controls, ThreatNG empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions to reduce their cybersecurity risk.
