November 22, 2023 at 07:12AM
Risk assessment can be subjective and biased due to human emotions, which can lead to an inaccurate representation of reality and a weaker security posture. To remove subjectivity, security professionals should follow seven steps: identify critical resources and data, understand potential financial impact, enumerate relevant threats, map risks to resources, measure risk exposure, translate risk into monetary terms, and aggregate risks into groupings for executives and boards. Objective risk assessment requires time, investment, and ongoing iteration to improve security posture and demonstrate the value of security investments.
As an executive assistant, you can generate clear takeaways from these meeting notes. The main points discussed in the meeting are as follows:
1. Subjectivity and bias can skew risk assessments. Security professionals have a duty to objectively assess, manage, and mitigate risks.
2. To remove subjectivity from risk assessment, security professionals can follow seven steps:
a. Identify critical resources and data that could lead to monetary loss for the business in case of a security incident.
b. Understand the potential financial impact of each critical resource and data.
c. Enumerate the relevant and applicable security threats to the business.
d. Map the identified risks and threats to the resources and data that may be affected.
e. Measure risk exposure, which is the probability of a risk materializing multiplied by its impact.
f. Translate the assessed risks and threats into monetary terms to communicate with executives and boards.
g. Aggregate risks and potential losses into meaningful groupings for easier understanding by executives and boards.
3. Implementing an objective risk assessment process requires significant time, money, and resources, but it is a worthwhile investment.
4. Risk assessment should be an iterative process to continuously maintain and improve the security posture of the business.
5. An objective risk assessment can help demonstrate the value of the security team and its investments to executives and boards.
These are the key points from the meeting notes that can be shared with relevant stakeholders.