Checks We Perform

Risk Assessments are mandated by several frameworks, including SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FISMA, and more. Many of these frameworks require that your assessment is based on an industry standard methodology, such as NIST 800-30, ISO 27005, OCTAVE, etc.

Risk Assessments are mandated by several frameworks, including SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FISMA, and more. Many of these frameworks require that your assessment is based on an industry standard methodology, such as NIST 800-30, ISO 27005, OCTAVE, etc.

The first step in conducting a risk assessment is to identify and inventory your organization’s assets, which include your organization’s hardware, software, system interfaces, data, physical locations, personnel, cloud technologies, business processes, etc.

The impact of a threat can be described in terms of loss or degradation of one, or a combination, of the following three security goals: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This review will evaluate how you quantify or qualify the impact.

Organizations should document and rank risk within an official risk register. This register should consider the vulnerability and impact to each asset for each threat realized. The resulting ranking provides management with a prioritized approach for budget and resources.

Internal Control best practices require the organization to assess the risk of fraud. This could include the risk of incentives, pressures, attitudes, and rationalizations that could influence someone to commit fraud. When a service organization undergoes a SOC 1 or SOC 2 audit, auditors will be inspecting the risk assessment to determine if it incorporates the COSO Internal Framework requirement, which states, “the entity considers the potential for fraud in assessing risks to the achievement of objectives.”

The risk assessment must address the potential for risks in all areas of the organization in order to be truly effective. A comprehensive risk assessment should address operational, financial, regulatory, and technical risk.

After risks have been identified and assessed for importance and likelihood, a risk management action plan should be created. This formal, documented plan serves as the guide your organization will follow to mitigate any identified risks to achieve acceptable risk levels. You should develop security control recommendations to either mitigate, transfer, accept, or avoid the risk. These controls must be tested regularly to ensure they are suitably designed for your organization’s risks and that they are operating effectively. Your risk treatment plan can be utilized to track remediation efforts and adjust the controls when necessary.

A formal, documented Statement of Applicability (SoA) should be written to identify the specific framework controls that do or do not apply to the environment. Justification should be documented when risk evaluation determines that a control does not apply.

Organizations need to establish requirements for vendor and business partner engagements that ensure the risks associated with these partners are addressed and planned. If your third-party partner experiences a threat or breach, it may be an impact you. Your organization should include the risk posed by third parties in the formal risk assessment.

Risk Assessments are mandated by several frameworks, including SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FISMA, and more. Many of these frameworks require that your assessment is based on an industry standard methodology, such as NIST 800-30, ISO 27005, OCTAVE, etc.

The risk assessment must address the potential for risks in all areas of the organization in order to be truly effective. A comprehensive risk assessment should address operational, financial, regulatory, and technical risk.

Risk Assessments are mandated by several frameworks, including SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FISMA, and more. Many of these frameworks require that your assessment is based on an industry standard methodology, such as NIST 800-30, ISO 27005, OCTAVE, etc.

Internal Control best practices require the organization to assess the risk of fraud. This could include the risk of incentives, pressures, attitudes, and rationalizations that could influence someone to commit fraud. When a service organization undergoes a SOC 1 or SOC 2 audit, auditors will be inspecting the risk assessment to determine if it incorporates the COSO Internal Framework requirement, which states, “the entity considers the potential for fraud in assessing risks to the achievement of objectives.”

The first step in conducting a risk assessment is to identify and inventory your organization’s assets, which include your organization’s hardware, software, system interfaces, data, physical locations, personnel, cloud technologies, business processes, etc.

The impact of a threat can be described in terms of loss or degradation of one, or a combination, of the following three security goals: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This review will evaluate how you quantify or qualify the impact.

Organizations should document and rank risk within an official risk register. This register should consider the vulnerability and impact to each asset for each threat realized. The resulting ranking provides management with a prioritized approach for budget and resources.

Organizations need to establish requirements for vendor and business partner engagements that ensure the risks associated with these partners are addressed and planned. If your third-party partner experiences a threat or breach, it may be an impact you. Your organization should include the risk posed by third parties in the formal risk assessment.

After risks have been identified and assessed for importance and likelihood, a risk management action plan should be created. This formal, documented plan serves as the guide your organization will follow to mitigate any identified risks to achieve acceptable risk levels. You should develop security control recommendations to either mitigate, transfer, accept, or avoid the risk. These controls must be tested regularly to ensure they are suitably designed for your organization’s risks and that they are operating effectively. Your risk treatment plan can be utilized to track remediation efforts and adjust the controls when necessary.

A formal, documented Statement of Applicability (SoA) should be written to identify the specific framework controls that do or do not apply to the environment. Justification should be documented when risk evaluation determines that a control does not apply.