Implementing Cyber Security Risk Assessment Consulting Services

Many security-conscious companies utilize cyber security risk assessment consulting services to evaluate their organization’s security risk. Risk assessments are often seen as a first step towards improving an organization’s cybersecurity posture. Before purchasing security solutions, you should first conduct assessments to understand what gaps you need to fill in your IT environment. Once gaps are identified, then the consulting service provider that you are working with will provide recommendations. After the cyber security risk assessment consulting services process has been completed, your organization can begin to implement solutions in your environment to mitigate risks.

The Steps of Cyber Security Risk Assessments

To conduct a cyber security risk assessment, the consulting service provider must first identify the information assets that could potentially be affected by a cyber-attack. The risks of each of those assets will be evaluated. The scope of each process and function will be defined. Your organization will need to provide documentation, procedures, and configuration standards that need to be reviewed. This information is gathered so that the team can evaluate whether procedures need to be altered to better meet security compliance standards. 

Both internal and external vulnerability scans will be conducted in addition to penetration testing against your networking systems. These two tests both seek to remediate any vulnerabilities in your environment. They have different approaches and therefore can undercover different vulnerabilities. 

To understand all the weaknesses in your environment, staff members will be interviewed about how they document business functions. Staff members can often be the weakest link in an organization’s security. By training them on security protocol and making sure that protocol is updated and followed, the organization can better protect itself against attacks. 

When implementing cyber security risk assessment consulting services, your security practices will be compared to the industry's best practices. The team that you are working with will identify the gaps between your security posture and the standard for the industry and work to create a remediation plan. The team will give you a qualitative risk report and make recommendations. 

Why Conduct a Risk Assessment?

Implementing cyber security risk assessment consulting services is critical because organizations are required to meet certain security standards. By comparing your organization’s security posture to the best practices, a team of security consulting service providers can help guide you through the steps to get to the next level of security. Identifying the gaps between your organization’s posture and the best practices is valuable. 

Before conducting an assessment, there may be weaknesses within your policies and procedures. When an assessment is conducted, the weakness within access controls, configuration management, user provisioning, vulnerability management process, and incident handling processes will be addressed. Once these weaknesses are under-covered, remediation recommendations will be provided. Improving your security posture is vital to protecting your organization and your customers from cyber-attacks. 

Why it’s Important to Maintain Good Security Posture

Protecting your customer's data should be a priority for every organization. If targeted in a cybersecurity attack, both your organization data, customer data, and employee personal data can be put at risk. By adhering to best practices and maintaining a good security posture, these risks can be minimized. In many industries, following a certain security framework is required, and being in noncompliance with these standards can result in fines. If your organization suffers from a security breach it can be extremely harmful for your company's reputation and could result in a loss of customer trust. With employees working at home, a cybersecurity attack could put your employees' personal data at risk as well if they are logging in from their home network. The cost of cleaning up a security breach can be very expensive and often time, some data can never be fully recovered. Regular risk assessments are critical in protecting both your organization and your customers from a cyber-attack.