With the continual evolution of cyberattacks, defending your IT environment now requires more than installing a few security solutions.
One of the best ways to develop a plan for addressing your business’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities is through a security risk assessment.
If you’re looking for information and advice strengthening your IT environment, a defensive security risk assessment will do precisely that.
At The KR Group, we call these assessments our Blue Team Hive Assessment. Since we started offering these assessments a few years ago, we’ve helped organizations of various sizes find the most effective ways to address their IT defenses.
What is a defensive IT security risk assessment?
During a defensive IT security risk assessment, your security adviser acts as if they are your own internal cybersecurity expert and investigate your IT environment from an internal perspective.
The security team will need administrative login credentials to look at the different policies, procedures, and solutions you already have in place to prevent an attack. Additionally, they’re looking at your disaster recovery solution and incident response plan to see if you’re prepared if an attack were to occur.
There are many similarities to a comprehensive IT security risk assessment – what The KR Group calls our Purple Team Hive Assessment. However, the most significant difference is the defensive security risk assessment does not look at your IT security from an offensive perspective.
This means the risk analysis and reduction recommendations won’t include information from an offensive perspective.
Pros of a defensive security risk assessment
Why should you consider this security risk assessment?
As we stated earlier, a defensive IT security risk assessment takes a comprehensive look at your security defenses. This translates into the following pros:
Pro #1: It is more than an automated vulnerability scan.
A vulnerability scan is a crucial component of this security risk assessment. Still, it’s only one of the tools your security team uses to discover the risks and vulnerabilities within your network.
Even more important than the vulnerability assessment is the manual review the security team will perform on every component of your IT environment.
The combination of these tools is what makes the defensive IT security risk assessment so comprehensive.
Pro #2: You’ll know how to make your security posture stronger.
A defensive IT security risk assessment doesn’t just uncover your vulnerabilities.
Your security team will take their findings and put them into a list with risk ratings to inform you on which problems pose the most significant threat to your IT environment.
This will be in your security risk assessment report, along with a list of risk reduction recommendations, to help you plan for reducing the number of risks in your network.
Pro #3: Your security team is comprised of experts.
Regardless of who you hire for a defensive IT security risk assessment, the team should include cybersecurity experts.
At The KR Group, our internal Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) leads our team. As a customer, this means you can expect us to approach your IT environment with decades of experience looking for a variety of risks and providing effective solutions.
Cons of a defensive IT security risk assessment
While we’ve shown you how a defensive IT security risk assessment can benefit your organization, we also know you’re wondering what problems to expect with this service.
Some of the cons of a defensive IT security risk assessment include:
Con #1: It may not fit into your budget.
Since our security risk assessments are thorough and led by a team of experts, the cost can be prohibitive for some businesses.
Compared to a less extensive vulnerability risk assessment, which is an automated scan, the price tag of a defensive IT security risk assessment can appear steep.
We urge you to remember all this assessment encompasses. However, if the cost is still above your budget, talk with your IT security adviser about other options they have.
A defensive IT security risk assessment is only one of the types of security assessments available from IT consultants, including The KR Group.
Con #2: Remediation actions can be technical.
Providing risk remediation actions is essential to a security risk assessment. However, those actions aren’t always straightforward.
A good security adviser will recommend the most efficient ways to address gaps in your security, but at times, they’ll be technical.
You may need to hire an external IT expert to assist with the actions or anticipate your internal IT department will be extremely busy for several weeks.
Additionally, the risk reduction actions with or without external help aren’t always free.
Con #3: Reviewing your security findings is a lengthy process.
Your security team will compile information about what areas of your environment they analyzed, what they found, what your top risks are, and recommendations to address those risks. This makes for a comprehensive and lengthy report.
Along with a large document with the details of your security risk assessment, the security team also reviews this information during a presentation. To hit all the important points within the report, your security adviser will spend several hours discussing what they found.
This process can be daunting, but we encourage you to stick through it and understand it will ultimately benefit your business.
Pro Tip: Check out our article, “How to Read Your Security Risk Assessment Report,” for a guide on understanding this report.
Is a defensive IT security risk assessment right for you?
When you’re looking for a thorough review of your IT environment’s strengths and weaknesses, a defensive IT security risk assessment will provide you with all the information you need.
But how can you be sure this is the right assessment for your business?
If you answer yes to the following questions, then you will benefit from this type of assessment:
- Are you looking for a comprehensive security analysis that uses automated and manual processes to assess your IT environment’s defenses?
- Are you looking for a list of actions to strengthen your security posture?
- Do you want a team of experts lending their knowledge and experience to find vulnerabilities within your IT environment?
- Does a defensive IT security risk assessment fit into your budget?
- Are you prepared to begin implementing remediation actions with your internal IT department or through outsourcing projects?
- Do you understand the report and presentation will be informative yet lengthy?
If you’ve discovered this assessment is not what you’re looking for, check out the following articles on the different assessments we offer: