Unlocking Budget With Quantitative Risk Assessments

Year after year, the responsibilities of security leaders seem to grow. They must develop and implement security policies, train their organization on cybersecurity hygiene, ensure compliance with regulations, vet vendors during onboarding, implement vulnerability management, and more—all while protecting their organization against rampant and potentially devastating cyber attacks.

With such a heavy workload, the last thing they want to deal with is justifying their security budget and expenditures to an organization that doesn't grasp the depth of the situation.

If you're a security leader who finds yourself at an organization that:

• works alongside a predominantly non-technical team (CEO, CMO, CFO, etc)
• doesn't prioritize or have a security-focused culture
• has a hard time increasing yearly IT budget

then you should consider incorporating quantitative risk assessments as a method to drive urgency and importance when justifying your security agenda. Why? Because money talks and dollars ($) is a language that everyone understands.

What is Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)?

Just as Google Translate can be used to translate French to German, QRAs can be used to translate threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to money-talk. We use QRAs to estimate risk in financial terms.

An advantage of a QRA is its ability to compare and prioritize risks to the company. A quantitative risk assessment spits out monetary values for each risk. This makes comparing two risks (even from different departments or different threat areas) much easier. Even comparing security risks with other business decisions is possible if we speak in money-talk.

Another way data security risks can be compared is by creating hypothetical situations to see where money should be spent in order to maximize the Return on Investment (ROI). The hypothetical situations are basically a way to estimate the amount of money required to make a certain change, and then how much the risk would decrease by implementing that change. For example, a QRA might show us that making a $100,000 investment only reduces the Annualized Loss Expectancy (ALE) by $5,000 per year. In this case, spending the money to implement the security control will most likely not be worth the money.

quantitative risk assessment methodology

Unlike qualitative risk assessments, conducting a quantitative risk assessment can be quite complex, requiring detailed calculations, analyzing data, and creating models.

In our methodology, we use the powerful Monte Carlo statistical analysis along with real-world breach data to accurately measure your risk in financial values. This method allows us to simulate various scenarios and outcomes, taking into account the complex factors affecting your risk landscape. Then by tacking on real-world breach data, we provide a nuanced understanding of the potential financial impacts associated with different risk scenarios —the process typically only takes around 30 minutes per information system.

How quantitative Risk Assessments can effectively prioritize your security program

Quantitative risk assessments are effective in prioritizing and justifying security programs for several key reasons:

Firstly, they provide financial values that help stakeholders grasp the potential impact of security measures. When talking to non-technical folks, using these dollar figures provides a common language, making it easier for people in business to understand.

Secondly, quantitative risk assessments clarify and highlight which areas require a significant allocation of resources based on the severity and likelihood of potential events.

Thirdly, they provide a cost-benefit analysis of security initiatives. This analysis helps in the decision-making process by identifying options that offer the best return on investment.

If you find yourself needing additional support in presenting your security agenda to the board, CEO, or any other stakeholders, quantitative risk assessment is certainly the way to go. To get started, or, want to simply learn more, feel free to schedule a call with one of our consultants.