Scenario 6: Productscape is a market research company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It helps organizations understand the needs and expectations of their customers and identify new business opportunities. Productscape’s teams have extensive experience in marketing and business strategy and work with some of the best-known organizations in Europe. The industry in which Productscape operates requires effective risk management. Considering that Productscape has access to clients’ confidential information, it is responsible for ensuring its security. As such, the company conducts regular risk assessments. The top management appointed Alex as the risk manager, who is responsible for monitoring the risk management process and treating information security risks.
The last risk assessment conducted was focused on information assets. The purpose of this risk assessment was to identify information security risks, understand their level, and take appropriate action to treat them in order to ensure the security of their systems. Alex established a team of three members to perform the risk assessment activities. Each team member was responsible for specific departments included in the risk assessment scope. The risk assessment provided valuable information to identify, understand, and mitigate the risks that Productscape faces.
Initially, the team identified potential risks based on the risk identification results. Prior to analyzing the identified risks, the risk acceptance criteria were established. The criteria for accepting the risks were determined based on Productscape’s objectives, operations, and technology. The team created various risk scenarios and determined the likelihood of occurrence as “low,” “medium,” or “high.” They decided that if the likelihood of occurrence for a risk scenario is determined as “low,” no further action would be taken. On the other hand, if the likelihood of occurrence for a risk scenario is determined as “high” or“medium,” additional controls will be implemented. Some information security risk scenarios defined by Productscape’s team were as follows:
1. A cyber attacker exploits a security misconfiguration vulnerability of Productscape’s website to launch an attack, which, in turn, could make the website unavailable to users.
2. A cyber attacker gains access to confidential information of clients and may threaten to make the information publicly available unless a ransom is paid.
3. An internal employee clicks on a link embedded in an email that redirects them to an unsecured website, installing a malware on the device.
The likelihood of occurrence for the first risk scenario was determined as “medium.” One of the main reasons that such a risk could occur was the usage of default accounts and password. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability and launch a brute-force attack. Therefore, Productscape decided to start using an automated “build and deploy” process which would test the software on deploy and minimize the likelihood of such an incident from happening. However, the team made it clear that the implementation of this process would not eliminate the risk completely and that there was still a low possibility for this risk to occur. Productscape documented the remaining risk and decided to monitor it for changes.
The likelihood of occurrence for the second risk scenario was determined as “medium.” Productscape decided to contract an IT company that would provide technical assistance and monitor the company’s systems and networks in order to prevent such incidents from happening.
The likelihood of occurrence for the third risk scenario was determined as “high.” Thus, Productscape decided to include phishing as a topic on their information security training sessions. In addition, Alex reviewed the controls of Annex A of ISO/IEC 27001 in order to determine the necessary controls for treating this risk. Alex decided to implement control A.8.23 Web filtering which would help the company to reduce the risk of accessing unsecure websites. Although security controls were implemented to treat the risk, the level of the residual risk still did not meet the risk acceptance criteria defined in the beginning of the risk assessment process. Since the cost of implementing additional controls was too high for the company, Productscape decided to accept the residual risk. Therefore, risk owners were assigned the responsibility of managing the residual risk.
Which risk treatment option was used for the second risk scenario? Refer to scenario 6.
Scenario 7: Adstry is a business growth agency that specializes in digital marketing strategies. Adstry helps organizations redefine the relationships with their customers through innovative solutions. Adstry is headquartered in San Francisco and recently opened two new offices in New York. The structure of the company is organized into teams which are led by project managers. The project manager has the full power in any decision related to projects. The team members, on the other hand, report the project’s progress to project managers.
Considering that data breaches and ad fraud are common threats in the current business environment, managing risks is essential for Adstry. When planning new projects, each project manager is responsible for ensuring that risks related to a particular project have been identified, assessed, and mitigated. This means that project managers have also the role of the risk manager in Adstry. Taking into account that Adstry heavily relies on technology to complete their projects, their risk assessment certainly involves identification of risks associated with the use of information technology. At the earliest stages of each project, the project manager communicates the risk assessment results to its team members.
Adstry uses a risk management software which helps the project team to detect new potential risks during each phase of the project. This way, team members are informed in a timely manner for the new potential risks and are able to respond to them accordingly. The project managers are responsible for ensuring that the information provided to the team members is communicated using an appropriate language so it can be understood by all of them.
In addition, the project manager may include external interested parties affected by the project in the risk communication. If the project manager decides to include interested parties, the risk communication is thoroughly prepared. The project manager firstly identifies the interested parties that should be informed and takes into account their concerns and possible conflicts that may arise due to risk communication. The risks are communicated to the identified interested parties while taking into consideration the confidentiality of Adstry’s information and determining the level of detail that should be included in the risk communication. The project managers use the same risk management software for risk communication with external interested parties since it provides a consistent view of risks. For each project, the project manager arranges regular meetings with relevant interested parties of the project, they discuss the detected risks, their prioritization, and determine appropriate treatment solutions. The information taken from the risk management software and the results of these meetings are documented and are used for decision-making processes. In addition, the company uses a computerized documented information management system for the acquisition, classification, storage, and archiving of its documents.
Based on scenario 7, project managers communicate risks to external interested parties, taking into account the information confidentiality. Which principle of efficient communication strategy do project managers follow?
According to ISO/IEC 27005, what is the input when selecting information security risk treatment options?
Which of the following risk assessment methods provides an information security risk assessment methodology and involves three phases build asset-based threat profiles, identify infrastructure vulnerabilities, and develop security strategy and plans?
TESTED 24 Nov 2024
