PlexTrac ConceptsRisk Prioritization

Risk prioritization is the process of analyzing and ranking identified threats to determine the order in which risks should be addressed. The reality of risk prioritization is that no matter the maturity of the security program, organizations deal with resource limitations — personnel, time, budget, etc. — which make it impossible to address every potential risk simultaneously. Risk prioritization helps security teams prioritize mitigation and remediation efforts effectively, focusing on the most significant threats and vulnerabilities.

Risk prioritization is important for vulnerability management, ensuring that high-risk vulnerabilities are addressed quickly to maintain a strong security posture. It also helps organizations focus their efforts and resources on the most significant threats, reducing overall business risk and enhancing resilience and productivity by protecting critical assets and preventing operational disruptions.

Risk prioritization typically has four main categories: critical, high, medium, and low.

1. Critical Risk: Serious likelihood of a severe impact that requires immediate attention and is a top priority to prevent loss of critical data, admin control breaches, complete network failure, or major operational disruptions.
2. High Risk: High likelihood of a significant impact that needs urgent remediation to prevent escalation of a potential system compromise, high-value asset attacks, or major operational disruptions.
3. Medium Risk: Moderate likelihood of impact, which requires ongoing monitoring and proactive mitigation for early malware detection, non-sensitive data exposure, or vulnerabilities that could be exploited if not mitigated.
4. Low Risk: Low likelihood with minimal impact, which should be addressed through routine security measures like patching, monitoring, and security training to mitigate software vulnerabilities or phishing attempts.

Some of the benefits of risk prioritization include:

• Improved risk mitigation: Reduces losses and disruptions with effective strategies
• Optimized resources: Ensures critical risks receive attention without wasting resources
• Informed decision-making: Assesses the impact of risks, leading to better decisions
• Enhanced operational efficiency: Increases workflow stability and reduces disruptions
• Bolstered regulatory compliance: Minimizes the risk of penalties or legal complications
• Strengthened competitive edge: Demonstrates a competitive market advantage

Some of the challenges of risk prioritization include:

• Changing threat landscape: Constantly evolving risks require changes in prioritization
• Increased complexity: Assessing and prioritizing risks can be challenging
• Subjectivity: Relies on the subjective judgments and interpretations of risks
• Resource limitations: Limited time, money, or skilled personnel may result in less effective prioritization

Risk prioritization should be an ongoing process within a comprehensive risk management strategy. It should be reviewed and updated regularly to reflect changes in regulatory requirements and emerging threats in conjunction with continuous threat exposure management (CTEM).

PlexTrac helps to prioritize the risk within your offensive security data by enabling you to

track thematic groupings of vulnerabilities and assets to align with business objectives. Configurable contextual scoring may be applied to these groupings to better understand the true cyber risk within your data. Powerful visuals can be quickly pulled to help communicate the cyber risk to the business to senior leadership in a non-technical, actionable way that aligns with company objectives.

Discover how you can prioritize risks according to business impact with PlexTrac’s contextual scoring engine in the Priorities module. Request a personalized demo today.

PlexTrac’s new risk-based prioritization capabilities will help us shift from point-in-time testing to more continual engagements – enabling us to provide deeper value to each client by customizing a contextual risk scoring equation that clearly communicates their highest impact risks on an ongoing basis. — Dahvid Schloss, Director of Offensive Security, Echelon Risk + Cyber

Facing the Reality of Risk Prioritization
Risk-Based Prioritization
PlexTrac Priorities
Manage and Measure Risk
What Is A Cyber Security Risk Assessment?
Why Risk Registers are Critical
What Is A Cyber Security Risk Assessment?
Demonstrating the Business Value of Your Security Program
An Introduction To Vendor Risk Management
Get Ready to Prioritize Risk With Our New Contextual Scoring Engine 
Reduce Risk Faster
Effects-Based Cybersecurity