NIST Risk Assessment Guidelines

Take a detailed look at the NIST 800-30 risk assessment guidelines, methodology, and process, and see how Planet 9 can help

‍Information security risk assessment is integral to all cybersecurity frameworks and data protection regulations. These include the ISO/IEC 27001 and HITRUST security frameworks and the HIPAA Security Rule, the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Cybersecurity Maturation Model Certification standard (CMMC), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), among others. Besides the legal requirements, the risk assessment helps strengthen technology and business teams’ knowledge of where the organization is most vulnerable and what data is involved in higher-risk environments.  

The widespread standard of modern information security risk assessment is NIST 800-30, “Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments,” first released in 2002 and revised and expanded in 2012. It offers structured risk assessment guidelines and helps identify, analyze, and prioritize potential risks, allowing efficient resource allocation and improved communication.  

In this article, we take a detailed look at the NIST 800-30 risk assessment guidelines, methodology, and process.

What is NIST 800-30?

NIST Special Publication 800-30 is considered one of the most widely used security risk assessment guidelines. It provides an all-encompassing framework for conducting risk assessments by federal and private organizations. Although the standard was written in 2012, it still remains one of the most reputable information security risk assessment frameworks. The NIST risk assessment guidelines assist businesses in improving their capacity to thwart, identify, and react to cyber-related threats, as well as reduce the organization’s overall risk exposure.  

Is NIST 800-30 Obligatory?

NIST 800-30 provides guidance for conducting risk assessments of federal information systems and organizations. As guided by the standard, the risk assessment is part of an overall risk management process that federal agencies must implement. Private companies aren’t mandated to follow the NIST 800-30 risk assessment methodology. However, any company dealing with sensitive data will only win from following the NIST 800-30 guidelines for its risk management process.

Why is Information Security Risk Assessment Important?

Information security risk assessments are not one-time activities that provide permanent and definitive information. Instead, organizations should employ risk assessments on an ongoing basis across all of the tiers in the risk management hierarchy. (p.5). In other words, risk assessments provide significant value to the organization. Key benefits include:

• Understanding the most valuable assets. Organizations must identify all their data assets that might be subject to those risks to manage them appropriately. These include customer personal information, sensitive partner documents, trade secrets, and more. Some assets are more critical than others, and their value can change over time. So, it is highly important to repeat the risk assessment process regularly.
• Understanding of risk. Regular information security risk assessments help understand and prioritize potential threats to the business. So, one can focus first on the risks that have the highest potential probability and impact.
• Vulnerability identification and remediation. Information security risk assessment can help organizations identify and close vulnerabilities such as unpatched software, overly permissive access policies, or unencrypted data.
• Regulatory compliance. Regular security risk assessments are crucial to complying with data security laws and regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR, thereby avoiding costly fines and other penalties.
         

What is the NIST Three-Tier Approach?

NIST recommends a three-tier approach to application of risk assessment and management process throughout the organization. It involves assessing risk on the organization’s level (Tier 1), mission/business process level (Tier 2), and information systems level (Tier 3). The three-tiered approach looks like a puzzle, where Tier 1 represents the outer border, providing structure and boundaries. Tier 2 forms the larger sections, organizing and grouping related pieces together. Tier 3 comprises the individual puzzle pieces, each contributing to the overall risk assessment and management picture. Assembling the puzzle, one can gain a clear understanding of risks that emerge, leading to effective mitigation strategies.  

More specifically, the three tiers of the NIST 800-30 entail:

Tier 1. Organization

This level looks at the whole organization, including business models, organizational design, and long-term goals. For example, a multinational technology company would evaluate how cybersecurity risks impact the company’s various business ventures, such as hardware manufacturing, software development, and cloud services.

Tier 2: Business Processes

This tier investigates HR, sales, marketing, and development areas. When assessing business processes, organizations need to evaluate cybersecurity risks specific to each process. Let’s take HR as an example. One may need to evaluate cybersecurity risks specific to HR activities, such as employee data management, recruitment processes, and training programs, and analyze how HR initiatives may expose the company to threats like data breaches, insider threats, or social engineering attacks.  

Tier 3: Information Systems

This level focuses on technical aspects such as information systems, applications, and data flows. For cloud systems, assess risks related to cloud security, such as cloud storage data encryption, access controls, and configuration management.

NIST Risk Assessment Guidelines

The NIST risk assessment process offers a structured approach to identifying, managing, and mitigating risks in the organization’s information systems. A simplified version of the process is given below:

Prepare for the NIST risk assessment

Initiating the risk assessment process starts with thorough preparation. The aim here is to establish a context for the risk assessment. Organizations use this risk management strategy to gather insights to prepare for the risk assessment. Preparing for a risk assessment includes the following tasks:  

‍Identify the purpose of the assessment by understanding the information it aims to generate and the decisions it helps make. The purpose may differ depending on whether it is an initial or subsequent assessment triggered by a specific event. The initial assessment can aim to establish a baseline assessment of risk or identify threats and vulnerabilities to organizational operations and assets. The purpose of the reassessment would be to provide a comparative analysis of alternative risk responses or answer a specific question.  

‍Determine the scope of the assessment by considering organizational relevance, supported time frames, and architectural/technology factors. Establishing the scope helps determine what tiers are addressed and what parts of organizations are affected by the assessment. The risk management team will consider the organization's strategic objectives, market positioning, and regulatory compliance requirements to identify the scope of the assessment  

‍Identify the assumptions and constraints associated with the assessment. Organizations need to establish clear assumptions, limitations, risk tolerance levels, and priorities to facilitate the information risk assessment process. These factors are integral to guiding investment and operational decisions within the organization.  

‍Identify the risk scoring model Each risk assessment must have a defined risk scoring model. To measure the impact on the organizations, either qualitative or quantitative methods (or a combination of those) are used. The qualitative method allows organizations to measure tangible and intangible impacts of threat occurrence by rating those impacts using a scale (high, medium, low). The quantitative method measures the tangible impact only by assigning numeric (or cost) values to the potential losses.

Conduct NIST risk assessment

The risk assessment step aims to produce a list of information security risks that can be prioritized by risk level and used to inform risk response decisions. To achieve this, organizations assess threats and vulnerabilities, as well as the potential impacts and likelihood of each risk. Some of the specific tasks involved when conducting risk assessments include the following:  

‍Identify threat events and threat sources. Identify possible threat events, their relevance, and the associated threat sources. Given the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape, organizations generally have a list of threat events that might affect their business operations, everything from unauthorized access to ransomware. Let’s take an example of a threat event: network compromise due to the lack of access controls. Due to the common practice of cloud migration and insufficient access controls, this example is highly demonstrative and suitable for many businesses.  

‍Identify the likelihood and impact values: Assess the potential impact of identified threat events, taking into consideration the attributes of the threat sources initiating the events and the identified vulnerability conditions. Depending on the existing controls and operation, the threat of network compromise may have different likelihoods and risk levels - from very low to very high.  

‍Identify vulnerabilities and predisposing conditions. Then, consider all the possible vulnerabilities this threat may exploit within the organization’s systems. Vulnerability assessments help understand how susceptible organizations, business processes, and information systems are to the identified threat sources. In case of a network compromise, the vulnerabilities may include but are not limited to, a lack of firewalls, a lack of the Network Intrusion Protection System, and insufficient Identity and Access Management (IAM) configuration.  

Read more about vulnerability, threat, and likelihood in risk assessment.  

‍Determine your organization’s risk: Evaluate the organizational risk posed by identified threat events, e.g the network compromise, by considering the potential impact resulting from the events and the likelihood of the events occurring. Assessing the risk levels of identified threats shows how vulnerable organizations are.  

Select the applicable security controls

The selection of applicable controls in information security risk assessment involves determining which security measures are appropriate for mitigating identified risks. To reduce risks that are related to the network compromise, one will likely need to include the following controls:  

• additional tools to monitor network access;
• stronger user access controls and authentication mechanisms, such as passwords, biometrics, or multi-factor authentication (MFA);
• Role-Based Access Controls to assign permissions and privileges based on users' roles and responsibilities, limiting access to only what is necessary for their job functions;
• network monitoring and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to detect unauthorized access attempts, suspicious activities, or anomalies that may indicate a network compromise.

The applicable security controls should be applied to all risks identified within the organization.  

Communicate and share risk assessment results

The final stage of the risk assessment process entails sharing the findings and distributing information regarding risks to authorized stakeholders. The objective is to give decision-makers relevant information crucial for making informed and efficient risk-related decisions. This information usually materializes in a comprehensive risk assessment report documenting all the assessment results and recommendations.  

Maintain the assessment

To ensure ongoing relevance, conduct risk assessments at least annually and in response to significant changes and trigger events in business processes, personnel, and/or technologies.  

Experience Risk Assessment with Planet 9

Risk assessment is a resource-intensive process that many organizations may fail to implement independently. Lack of expertise, resources, and access to comprehensive threat intelligence can hinder the accuracy and effectiveness of in-house assessments.  

With Planet 9 security risk assessment service, you can be sure your risk assessment will be conducted appropriately, timely, and in accordance with best practices and regulatory requirements.  

As a result of a risk assessment, you will get a comprehensive risk assessment report with all necessary information about potential threats and vulnerabilities that may lead to a security risk, along with the threats’ likelihood (probability) and impact. The report also includes controls that the organization has implemented to mitigate the risks.  

Finally, our experts provide recommendations and approaches for addressing identified risks and developing a remediation plan to mitigate them.  

‍Contact Planet 9 to learn more about the risk assessment.