What is Cyber Risk Remediation?
Cyber risk remediation is a process of identifying, addressing, and minimizing cyber vulnerabilities and risks that can potentially harm IT systems and security.
Cyber risk remediation can be described as an active approach to cybersecurity. It refers to the process by which risk is assessed, warning signals are identified, and vulnerabilities are flagged, prioritized, and resolved in a recurrent cycle. Remediation can be as straightforward as downloading a software patch or as complex as purchasing and configuring new network servers. Effective threat remediation is one component of an overall cybersecurity program that includes more traditional measures like anti-virus software and employee awareness training.
Malicious actors in cyberspace dive in quickly and deeply to unpatched or outdated systems. Recent reports gauge that the time between the discovery of a vulnerability and its exploitation, also known as ‘time to exploit’, is rapidly speeding up. Once they’ve gained entry into information systems and networks, cyber adversaries can cause significant harm.
As organizations expand their internet presence through increased migration to cloud environments, it is only becoming more crucial to remediate vulnerabilities. Failure to do so could allow malicious actors to compromise networks through exploitable security gaps.
Remediation vs. Mitigation
Remediation is carried out when the eradication of a potential threat is possible. Mitigation, in this case, is more comparable to damage control; if you can’t fix it, mitigate it. Of course, where remediation is feasible, mitigation is not an ideal solution. In the long term, fixing and remediating a faulty configuration is far better than blocking or limiting access to the vulnerable asset. Usually, mitigation isn’t the final step in vulnerability management. It’s a form of buying time for the enterprise to wait for updated software to be released or to find an opportune time to schedule system downtime to remediate the problem.
4 Steps to Accelerate Cyber Risk Remediation
An effective cyber risk remediation strategy requires continuous visibility into an organization’s cyber vulnerabilities to significantly minimize the likelihood of being impacted by a cyber risk scenario. To quickly identify new threats and mitigate them before they are exploited, companies need a comprehensive cyber risk detection strategy that incorporates the following actions.
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Recommended Actions for Risk Remediation
Monitor & Scan
The first step is to identify potential vulnerabilities and exploits in the IT network. Scanning and continuously monitoring the network is an ongoing process that tracks network traffic and data logs using behavior analysis and advanced AI-powered anomaly recognition.
Prioritize Vulnerabilities
The sheer amount of vulnerability alerts can be overwhelming. Since not all vulnerabilities pose the same risk, it is important to prioritize, quantify the impact risk, and focus remediation efforts only on the most pressing tasks.
Create a Remediation Process
A risk remediation approach can include a range of countermeasures. At this point, you’re deciding on your remediation or mitigation plans and implementing strategies.
- Select risks to mitigate
- Identify plausible countermeasures
- Assess countermeasure efficiency
- Remediate risks
- Monitor and maintain
Automate the Process
Enforcing a manual, systematic threat remediation framework can be challenging, if not impossible. Automation not only speeds up the process but also enables a data-driven approach to threat remediation that a manual operation would not come close to. Automated platforms can experiment with various countermeasures and extract insights to help optimize remediation efforts on an ongoing basis.
Monitor Continuously
The threat landscape is constantly evolving. No single threat remediation strategy can guarantee optimal results over the long haul. It’s important to constantly monitor the systems, identify threats, and proof both the threat remediation systems as well as the overall cybersecurity strategy. When remediation activities are completed, it’s best to always run another vulnerability scan to confirm that the vulnerability has been fully resolved.
Centraleyes Risk Management
Centraleyes can help you to take a proactive approach to threat management. Our risk register and heat mapping features allow you to continuously monitor and assess the most important cybersecurity risks for your extended enterprise. And with our fantastic Boardview feature, you can smoothly communicate your cybersecurity risk management plan at board meetings. With Centraleyes, you gain overall confidence to perform business operations without being swamped by the grueling process of legacy risk management and regulatory compliance.
Start Getting Value With
Centraleyes for Free
See for yourself how the Centraleyes platform exceeds anything an old GRC
system does and eliminates the need for manual processes and spreadsheets
to give you immediate value and run a full risk assessment in less than 30 days
