Effective IT Risk Management

In today's technology-driven world, IT departments must have a clear understanding of their risks to protect critical assets and ensure business continuity. A structured approach to IT Risk Management involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential threats that could impact an organisation’s IT infrastructure. A key component of this process is to ensure risks are aligned with organisational Enterprise Risk Management and adhere to one of the standard risk frameworks (e.g. Spartans Security NIST Assessment ).

Effective Cybersecurity Risk Management Process

Building an effective cybersecurity Risk Management requires multiple elements to ensure that IT/Technical risks are managed effectively

1. Establish an Information Security Risk Management Committee (ISRMC).

2. Create or update Roles and Responsibilities for cybersecurity within the business that should also include any external partner ecosystems such as Managed Security Service Providers, Security Operations Centre, etc.

3. Align IT risk index to organisation’s Enterprise Risk Management Framework

4. Build an IT Risk Register

5. Conduct monthly ISRMC meetings to progress existing risk activities and discuss new risks added the IT risk register.

6. Ensure that any risks exceeding the committee approval are escalated to organisational risk management.

7. Monitor and report on current open and outstanding risks.

This is a key deliverable from our Virtual CISO Services

Building an Effective IT Risk Register

Creating a comprehensive IT risk register typically involves the following steps:

• Consult the IT Team – Gather insights from internal teams to identify existing risks.

• Conduct Penetration Testing – Identify vulnerabilities, grouping related issues into broader risk categories.

• Perform a NIST Assessment – Evaluate security gaps and translate them into actionable risks.

• Utilise the Organisational Risk Matrix – Assign impact and likelihood ratings to prioritise risks effectively.

The following hierarchy is a good representation of the alignment of IT Risks with Organisation’s risk management framework

Typical Approaches to the IT Risk Register

Organisations typically fall into one of the following categories in their approach to the IT risk register:

• No organisational/ enterprise risk register, and no IT risk register, indicating an immature risk management strategy.
• The organisational risk register exists but does not include high-level IT risks, and there is no IT risk register.
• The organisational risk register includes high-level IT risks, but there is no IT risk register; This is the most common scenario, where IT risk has been recognised but there is disconnect between the reality of IT risk and the activity required to close the gaps.
• IT risk register exists, but the organisational risk register does not reflect IT risks at a high level.
• Both an organisational risk register, and an IT risk register exist, aligning IT risks with broader organisational risk management.

For effective risk management, the organisational risk register should contain aggregated high-level IT risks, and the IT risk register should map specific risks to them. This helps in measuring residual risk, garnering executive support to address IT risks and associating appropriate mitigation strategies with these risks.

Common Organisational IT Risk Categories

• Data Management – e.g., Breach response and notification, data classification and retention, data loss prevention, and encryption.
• Governance – e.g., Supply chain risk management, business continuity planning, regulatory compliance, and security policies.
• Infrastructure and Operations – e.g., Asset management, backups, privilege management, disaster recovery, redundancy, and capacity planning.
• Cybersecurity – e.g., Identity and access management, multi-factor authentication (MFA), cyber awareness training, event detection, and response.

Defining IT Risks Clearly

Many IT risk registers are too high-level and fail to reflect the desired security posture and necessary remediation activities.

There is an abundance of Frameworks to assist in that regards, NIST define a nice process to articulate the risks in the IT Risk register

For example, consider two approaches to this multi-factor authentication (MFA) risk:

General Approach: e.g. "MFA should be deployed on all services."

Specific and Actionable Approach: e.g. one of the following

• Entra ID MFA must be enforced for all access to organisational services and resources, with conditional access configured for risk-based challenges.
• Entra ID MFA should be implemented for all SaaS services capable of single sign-on (SSO) integration, with exceptions documented.
• SaaS services using third-party logins should support MFA and have it configured, with exceptions documented.

The latter approach breaks the risk into clearly defined categories, ensuring that the desired security posture is achieved through actionable remediation steps.

Conclusion

IT Risk Management is a critical component of an organisation’s overall security posture. By implementing a structured approach to risk identification, assessment, and mitigation, businesses can safeguard their digital assets and ensure operational resilience. A well-maintained IT Risk Register not only enhances security but also aligns IT risk management with broader business objectives, enabling organisations to navigate the complexities of the digital age with confidence.

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