The bottom line: Why it pays to quantify your cyber risk

It’s the ultimate understatement to say that cyber risk is rising, and fast. Since the onset of the COVID crisis two years ago, businesses and organisations here in Australia and around the world are under siege, from an array of high-tech adversaries. These invisible enemies are opportunistic, sophisticated, determined, and relentless.

In just the past year alone, the collective efforts of bad actors generated an increase in malicious emails by 600 per cent during the pandemic, according to the UN. Meanwhile, Cisco predicts we’ll see more than 15 million Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks a year by 2023.

Director of enterprise at the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security Nigel Phair estimates cyber crime currently costs the Australian economy around $42 billion a year. That staggering sum forms a small part of the global bill, which is expected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

The threat is real, it’s pervasive, and it’s increasing all the time.

Attack surfaces have also expanded because of the widespread adoption of digital technologies – artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotic process automation, cloud apps and the like.

Getting bang for the buck

Organisations are struggling to not become a statistic and have quickly expanded their willingness to invest in preventative programs and processes.

And while the decision makers may now be more willing to allocate bigger budgets to cyber security, they are still not prepared to write blank cheques. That’s why they are looking for solutions that will bring them a positive ROI and allow them to not only manage, monitor and mitigate cyber risk but also quantify its impact and make more strategic decisions about where to invest in cyber risk mitigation efforts.

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To provide that kind of assurance to the board and C-suite, cyber leaders need to speak their language and provide data in easily understandable terms.

That’s where cyber risk quantification comes in. It enables measurement of IT and cyber risk exposure in monetary terms, helping to quickly determine which risks to focus on first and where limited cyber security resources will provide the best impact for the investment.

Here are five benefits of using a quantified cyber risk approach.

More informed decisions

Accustomed to relying on gut feel to determine which IT and cyber risks should be at the top of your priority list? Accurately quantified risk data removes the guess work and allows you to understand the true impact and probability of a risk. As a result, you’re less likely to overreact to potential risk events or allow significant threats to slide by unnoticed. Instead, you will be able to make calculated, data-driven decisions that will put your enterprise in a stronger, safer position.

More objective and accurate risk assessments

Analysing data in qualitative terms will bring in error and uncertainty. A platform that can quantify risks can help you prioritise and mitigate risks faster. The numbers tell the story, clearly and unambiguously, allowing you to concentrate your energies on mitigating the most urgent ones first, rather than debating about why they are ranked that way.

Demystified security for decision-makers

Decision-makers know cyber risk is important, but very often risks go unnoticed due to limited knowledge of the relevant teams. Fear, uncertainty and doubt abound and the impenetrable jargon for which the ICT sector is famous – Trojan horses, botnets, worms, DDoS, phishing, et cetera – does not help.

But what decision-makers do understand are numbers. Presenting them with a quantitative analysis of the threats faced by the organisation along with a unified view of the risk landscape is much more effective.

More insight into the effectiveness of your risk strategies

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you’re investing in security controls, it’s vital to understand how much risk reduction has been achieved by those controls. Quantification can deliver those insights, ensuring your risk mitigation efforts are as proactive and productive as possible.

Cyber sorted: Gaining a competitive advantage

Falling victim to a cyber attack or experiencing a major data breach is disruptive and expensive but that’s not the only detrimental consequence that can arise from an incident. If it becomes public knowledge, your credibility and brand image as a supplier may also come into question, with customers quite reasonably asking whether the cyber impacts will spill over into other areas.

By using quantification to put robust, data-driven cyber controls in place, you may enjoy improved credibility and a greater degree of customer trust as a result.

Towards a stronger future

When it comes to cyber protection, Australian businesses can no longer afford to wing it. Mitigating risk calls for an ongoing investment in programs and processes and understanding how best to allocate your security budget.

Against that backdrop, an investment in cyber risk quantification technology can help you analyse the threats you face, in a systematic, numerical way. It’s a smart move for businesses – one you can literally count on.

Michel Feijen is the managing director, APAC at MetricStream.