Why CISOs need cyber risk quantification?

Why CISOs Need Cyber Risk Quantification

Due to the expanding complexity and frequency of cyber-attacks, risk conversations are taking place in every boardroom — the challenge is that technology and security leaders struggle to connect the dots between threat risks and how much exposure they represent in dollars. Those responsible for cybersecurity – from the CEO on down – are urgently looking for better ways to measure risk and enable well-informed decision-making, regarding questions such as “What are our top cyber risks and how much exposure do they represent in dollars?” or “Which cyber security investments matter most? And are we investing enough?” 

Simplifying the Language of Risk

CISOs have often struggled to explain cyber risk in a way that enables business decision making because risk has never been measured in financial terms. Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) translates cyber risk scenarios into financial terms and compares the potential financial impact of a cyber threat with the probability of the occurrence — it bridges the gap between technical and business-speak, informing decision-makers on what kind of impact various risk scenarios could have — helping them weigh different courses of action. 

Introducing RiskNest

Alfahive’s RiskNest^TM security performance automation platform is designed to calculate the financial impact of cyber risk using your unique operational and business model context. RiskNest enables a holistic assessment of your business operations and controls for each modeled event with precise financial repercussions and reporting that executives can quickly understand. 

RiskNest can help you accurately evaluate the impact of your cyber risk so that you can confidently engage the Board and executives with defensible data, such as:

• Understanding the likelihood and financial impact of risk for Ransomware, Data breach, Bot fraud, PII theft and more…as it relates to various business operations (Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Corporate, HR, Finance & Legal)
• Use visual dashboards to show stakeholders comparative financial analysis of cyber risk for individual business functions or overall enterprise risk

How does RiskNest work?

The platform is pre-populated with industry and business domain context from Alfahive’s RiskSquad research team. Customers select their industry (Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare, etc.) and applicable risk scenarios. CISOs and Risk Managers can quickly onboard to the RiskNest platform by answering a handful of business-specific questions such as total revenue and routes to market – then use our pre-researched use cases to quickly and accurately calculate which parts of the business have the highest risk, the potential cost of an event, and the likelihood of that event happening in the next 12 months.

Communicate with the Board in Business Language

CISOs need to communicate to the board and non-technical leaders about what cyber investments will ensure the business’s success and continuity. Quantifying risk in financial terms can help CEO’s, CISO’s and IT Risk Managers make better investment decisions.

CRQ provides CISOs and Risk Managers actionable financial metrics so that they can confidently speak to the C-Suite and Board of Directors about expected losses or the worst-case scenarios in the event of a security breach. 

Quantifying cyber risk empowers business leaders to make risk-intelligent decisions. By understanding your organization’s highest risk, it is easy for a CISO to gain consensus on which controls are most relevant, which gaps must be closed, and which investments are critical.

In our next blog we’ll discuss the heavy investment of time and money for traditional security controls assessments and how Alfahive’s industry-specific approach to cyber risk quantification can help you complete an assessment 10X faster and with more accurate results.