There is no question that the web has changed the way we do business and conduct personal affairs. The power of high speed calculations and instant communication have enabled incredible developments. The technical landscape has also furnished the conditions for advanced means of sabotaging, stealing or otherwise exploiting others’ work. Information assurance is the goal of anyone whose created an organization that holds any kind of data.

There is a liability associated with owning a web domain or PC network, particularly if your users, employees or other stakeholders entrust you with their personal data. Even if you’re a small business, given that on average, SMES go under within 6 months of a cyber-attack, being hacked can threaten the livelihood of your employees.

Enormous volumes of threat intelligence data have been collected, stored and made useful. There are different ways to categorize cyber-security threats, by their timing, by threat actor, or by their place along the cyber kill chain. The arguably most useful way to prioritize security threats is by their capacity for disaster. Different scoring and evaluation systems have been authored to quantify and address security status and risks.

Research organizations, industry members, and government bodies have been collaborating for years to develop a universal threat metric. Several different criteria and measurement rubrics have been created as result of these collaborations. These respective models generally focus on some universal aspects of online security:

Specific threats

Identifying weaknesses

Security best practices

Testing applications for resilience against attacks

Study of education, training, and security practices in “real life”

Quantifying economic value of information assurance

Privacy concerns

Risk assessment

The appropriate measurement tool can depend on your objective. It is possible for your own team to develop individualized cybersecurity risk measurement tools. You can measure and rank incidents and then prioritize specific vulnerabilities to address. Rank threats by the amount of regular labor in the IT department it would take to resolve the hack, creating new accounts and the like.

You can measure the number of stakeholders whose data was compromised. Many businesses will, regardless of other steps, need to quantify risks in terms of the bottom line. The monetary value of losses is a figure comprised of several major costs.

There could be criminal liability charges brought against you if your company is determined to be dangerously negligent. Not only can victims sue for damages, but governments in both the USA and Europe are stepping in and mandating network security measures in the name of personal data privacy and for the benefit of national security.

Measuring cybersecurity risks only helps you prepare for specific risks. These activities in self-reflection will make your organization stronger. You can also determine the ROI of your threat intelligence program. By comparing your recent history with scenarios and projections, your efforts are validated. View Now!