FINAL WORD
1 . Establish your risk appetite
In today ’ s world , one thing is clear – it ’ s impossible to eliminate or avoid risk altogether . With this realisation , it ’ s vital to establish your risk appetite – the amount of risk your organisation is willing to accept to achieve long-term strategic security objectives . Your risk appetite acts as an anchor point for prioritising cybersecurity investments . As such , an effective risk appetite should be :
• Strategic
• Risk-focused
• Tailored
• Actionable
• Measurable
Your risk appetite should help provide clear-cut objectives to help your organisation reduce its risk profile . This will require a comprehensive review of your cyber posture to understand your vulnerabilities , areas for improvement and best practices to implement . This process should be continuous .
You also need to consider operational risks . This allows you to plan for both manageable and unforeseen risks . The security landscape is continuously evolving , with new actors and threats constantly joining the scene . You need to be agile and flexible to fight unknown risks and the right level of risk appetite can help you do just that .
2 . Spend in the right areas
For most organisations , the cybersecurity budget is a percentage of the IT budget , often varying from 5 % to 20 %. While this helps to account for spending , it can be limiting , especially when tackling unprecedented threats . Instead , organisations should adopt a targeted spending approach for an effective cybersecurity strategy .
Identify the key areas your budget should cover , including critical training , infrastructure , data and awareness . You should also consider investing in offensive security to bolster your response mechanisms and secure your operational technologies .
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