What Security Risk Reports Can Do For Your Cybersecurity

Cyber attacks are evolving by the day and most organizations are struggling to keep up with the changes. To stay ahead of cyber criminals, it’s important to understand both the cyber risk factors that your systems may pose along with the role social engineering plays in cyber attacks. 

A security risk report is a powerful tool in your holistic cybersecurity plan that helps to reduce cyber insurance costs as well as communicate your security posture effectively across your organization. 

Read on to learn more about the importance of communicating your security posture, what a security risk report is, and how it can be a part of your organization’s cybersecurity plan. 

Communicating Your Security Posture

The responsibility of cybersecurity is under the purview of IT operations, but a breach affects the whole organization. From a loss of mission-critical data to high ransom fees and long downtimes, cyber attacks can have a devastating effect that’s felt in every department and on every team.

While it may be the responsibility of the IT department to mitigate, respond to, and prevent these attacks, the responsibility of understanding the overall security posture falls on everyone. 

More and more organizations are understanding that taking a purely defensive risk management approach to cybersecurity isn’t sufficient to keep their organization safe. Many are shifting to a holistic and proactive risk intelligence approach.

A risk intelligence approach requires significant buy-in from stakeholders so that they take responsibility for the cybersecurity of the organization. Unfortunately, some organizations may still view cybersecurity as a cost instead of viewing it as an investment in the continued health of the organization. 

When communicating your security posture to stakeholders, money is one of the most important metrics that you can present. Quantifying the risk of not taking action is an easy way to compel everyone to take responsibility for cybersecurity.

Once stakeholders understand the cost of not being proactive about cyber risk, they will contribute to cyber risk intelligence efforts in order to avoid disastrous effects.

Most of all cybersecurity should be an ongoing priority that’s discussed on a regular basis, not just once a year at your annual meeting. Cyber risk reports offer a dynamic view of an organization’s cyber risk and can be a great communication tool in a proactive cyber risk intelligence plan. 

What’s a Security Risk Report? 

A security risk report is a comprehensive cybersecurity assessment of either your organization or any organization you’re planning to partner with. This diagnostic tool evaluates threat indicators including network security, DNS health, and endpoint security to provide a clear picture of your security posture. 

Security risk reports can also provide industry comparisons to help you evaluate how well you’re doing compared to other organizations in your industry. From high-level reporting to granular security analysis, cyber risk reports provide a holistic cyber risk assessment for your organization. 

While security risk reports include detailed information about threat indicators, the report culminates in both a numerical score from 1-100 and a letter grade. These simple but powerful scores make it easy to communicate security posture to stakeholders regardless of their knowledge of cybersecurity. 

How a Security Risk Report Fits into Your Overall Security Strategy

A security risk report can help you better understand your security posture so that you can make more informed decisions about your cyber risk intelligence plan.

Security risk reports can also serve as a great communication tool for the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of an organization to communicate cybersecurity shortcomings and obtain buy-in across the organization. The report presents essential information about cyber risk in an easy-to-understand format, it can help reduce the risk of social engineering attacks by educating everyone in the organization about cybersecurity. 

Plus, a security risk report is also an easy way to communicate your security posture to insurance companies and potentially lower cyber insurance costs. By acting on shortcomings that the risk report highlights, your organization can negotiate lower prices in the future as your overall security posture improves. 

Security risk reports are not only for your organization. You can request a report on any organization you do business with, making it a powerful risk assessment tool for potential

Carbon60 has recently teamed up with SecurityScorecard to offer an all-encompassing security risk report so that you have the tools to keep your organization safe from cyber attacks. This risk report helps identify risk mitigation strategies and communicate your security posture to insurers and stakeholders. Our security risk reports are just one part of our holistic cloud security managed services. For more information on security risk reports and Carbon60’s other cloud security managed services, click here to schedule a demo.