Strategic Alignment- Selecting the Optimal Risk Management Framework for Your Organization’s Infrastructure

Strategic Alignment- Selecting the Optimal Risk Management Framework for Your Organization’s Infrastructure

Selected RMF: National Institute of Standards and Technology RMF

The NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) is a collection of processes that federal agencies must implement to detect, install, analyze, manage, and monitor cybersecurity activities and services to identify, remove, or control persistent dangers in new and inherited systems. NIST, IC, DOD, and CNSS representatives formed a Joint Task Force (JTF) to construct it (Kohnke et al., 2017). It replaced the DOD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process.

Rationale for Selecting the NIST as the Best RMF

The NIST RMF incorporates security, privacy, and cyber supply chain risk management into early system lifecycle cyber security deployments. Risk is also considered in the selection and design of controls, as well as their efficacy, efficiency, and constraints due to laws, directives, executive orders, policies, standards, and regulations (Kohnke et al., 2017). Identification, measurement and assessment, mitigation, reporting and monitoring, and governance comprise the NIST RMF. Accordingly, the NIST RMF starts by identifying the risks within an organization, including legal risks such as contracts or agreements with vendors. Risk landscapes change, so this should be done on a frequent basis.

Measuring and assessment then follow. This step explains how to create risk profiles for recognized risks. Further, under the NIST RMF, risk mitigation entails analyzing identified hazards to evaluate their severity. Some of these hazards may be tolerable, while others may necessitate additional mitigation or elimination. Next, the reporting and monitoring stage involves methods for sharing risk information as well as regular risk appraisal so that any changes requiring further actions may be discovered in advance. Finally, the governance component guarantees that this framework is implemented within enterprises and that risk-related policies are enforced.

Risk Mitigation Strategies

Risk Analysis

Prior to designing a risk mitigation strategy, the IT security team should undertake a cybersecurity risk assessment to identify any potential vulnerabilities in an organization’s security policies. A risk assessment can identify an organization’s assets as well as the security controls that are currently in place (Katsumata et al., 2010). A risk assessment can also assist the IT security team in identifying potential vulnerabilities that should be addressed for remedy first. Security ratings provide rapid insights into the company’s and third-party vendors’ cybersecurity postures.

Implementing Network Access Controls

After identifying high-priority problem areas and assessing assets, it is critical to establish network access controls to reduce insider assaults. To mitigate dangers and attacks caused by employee indifference or a lack of cybersecurity best practices, many companies are using security solutions like zero trust, which assesses trust and user access permissions based on job position. This decreases the threat and effect of employee negligence or cybersecurity ignorance-related security breaches. Endpoint security is becoming more important as network devices increase.

Maintaining a Constant Eye on Network Traffic

Proactive action can effectively reduce cybersecurity risk. Every day, roughly 2,200 cybercrime attacks take place, needing continuous monitoring of network traffic as well as an organization’s cybersecurity posture (Katsumata et al., 2010). Rather than attempting to detect and manage new threats manually, technologies that provide a holistic look into every component of the IT environment at any given time can provide a comprehensive perspective of the whole IT ecosystem. New risks can thus be discovered by security staff in a timely manner.

Developing an Incident Response Strategy

Incident response is crucial to a company’s cybersecurity strategy. The IT security team and non-tech workers must understand what to do in the event of a data breach or attack. With data breaches growing harder to avoid, companies need incident response plans. Notably, an organization can respond swiftly and efficiently to a breach with an incident response plan.

References

Katsumata, P., Hemenway, J., & Gavins, W. (2010, October). Cybersecurity risk management. In 2010-MILCOM 2010 Military Communications Conference (pp. 890-895). IEEE.

Kohnke, A., Sigler, K., & Shoemaker, D. (2016). Strategic risk management using the NIST risk management framework. EDPACS, 53(5), 1-6.

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Threat assessment and response is the use of operational tasks that help a network run smoothly and efficiently and according to certain requirements like design, installation, and maintenance of the network. An organization’s risk management program is chosen based on the potential risks of its chosen infrastructure. Choosing the best risk management framework requires understanding how each framework applies to the organization’s needs.

Create a 2- to 3-page MS Word paper detailing the following:

Select an RMF for an organization of your choosing.
Defend why this RMF is the best choice for your organization.
Outline 4 strategies the organization must implement to reduce risks as part of its risk management program.