Security leaders struggle to subjectively manage security risk because there are simply too many assets, threats and demands on their time. As their organizations master foundational controls and address the most obvious security gaps, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the ROI of varying investments.
Also driving interest around cyber-risk quantification is the need to translate security metrics into meaningful business impacts for board members and C-level executives. In Gartner® 2022 Board of Directors Survey1, 88% of respondents view cybersecurity as a business risk. The survey indicated that organizations want to present risk and security in terms of money (is that a $5 million risk or a $50 million risk) and the likelihood of damage (what is the probability of getting hacked?) largely because cybersecurity continues to have a lot of board-level visibility.
The bottom line is that security leaders need metrics that decision-makers can trust. Providing quantification of data risks enables decision-makers to better understand the business context and make more informed trade-offs. They need actionable insights that concretely measure the impact of operational and privacy security efforts and support financial business cases for new initiatives.
Now there’s a better way
Spirion’s SDV3 Sensitive Data Risk Dashboard, now included with Spirion’s Sensitive Data Platform, provides a quantitative measure of data risk that is directly tied to the sensitivity of personal data stored across IT systems along with actionable visualizations. With SDV3, organizations can effectively manage the overall risk associated with the sensitive data they are entrusted with. It scores the overall risk value of sensitive data assets and accurately assesses the potential costs of data exfiltration based on the three primary characteristics of sensitive data risk: Value, Volume, and Vulnerability.
- Value: The relative value assigned to a data asset, based on a dollar amount (or 1-5 ranking). Many companies use the IBM Ponemon “Cost of Data Breach” report as a benchmark.
- Volume: The count of sensitive data records in the asset.
- Vulnerability: Based on location and overall data posture, how vulnerable is the data to being compromised or misused, either inadvertently or maliciously?
- e.g., sensitive data residing on a remote worker’s laptop would have a higher vulnerability score than an encrypted dataset behind the enterprise firewall.
Each factor can have an equal weighting, or admins can change the weightings as desired.
With SDV3 dashboard, busy security leaders can prioritize data risks and manage trade-offs. Total enterprise risk score provides a 12-month trendline that demonstrates either the impact of security initiatives or the need for additional resources.
Sharpens focus on highest impact data risks
Spirion’s SDV3 sharpens the focus to what matters most — spotlighting the riskiest data assets, so teams can objectively manage trade-offs and quantify success. SDV3 provides a quantitative measure of data risk that is directly tied to the sensitivity of personal data stored on IT systems. With it, teams can accurately assess potential costs of data exfiltration with an understanding of the value, volume, and vulnerabilities of sensitive data residing across the enterprise. With the actionable insights gleaned from SDV3, organizations can create and orchestrate proper policies and protections that will achieve the greatest impact.
Now available in Spirion’s Sensitive Data Platform
SDV3 is now included in Spirion’s Sensitive Data Platform. Spirion acts as the single source of truth for sensitive data and for any initiative focused on protecting that data. In order to limit an organization’s exposure to the risks associated with their data, they must understand it’s value, volume and overall vulnerability. Sensitive Data Platform’s accurate data discovery, automated classification and remediation—now enhanced with quantifiable risk scores and visual risk dashboards—help security teams better manage their sensitive data exposure and reduce the risks associated with it.
To learn more, Get in touch with a Spirion data security and compliance expert or watch our free demo today.
1 Gartner, “Cyber-Risk Appetite: How to Put the ‘Business’ in ‘Managing Cybersecurity as a Business Decision’”, by Srinath Sampath and Paul Proctor, published 20 April 2022 – ID G00749647. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved
