Tuesday 18th July 2023

BLOG: Assessing an Organisation’s Cybersecurity Posture – The Importance of Cyber Risk Ratings

Robust cybersecurity measures are crucial in today’s business landscape where technology plays a significant role in various operations.

As technology advances, cyber threats are becoming more frequent and sophisticated. Organisations must take proactive steps to protect their valuable assets and sensitive information from potential breaches.

Assessing an organisation’s cybersecurity posture is a crucial first step in identifying vulnerabilities and developing effective risk management strategies.

We will delve into the importance of cyber risk ratings and how they can assist organisations in enhancing their cybersecurity defences.

Cyber risk ratings assess an organisation’s comprehensive cybersecurity posture, considering various elements such as technical vulnerabilities, historical breaches, and security controls. Additionally, these ratings offer a standardised measure, enabling organisations to compare their security stance with industry peers and benchmark against established best practises.

Importance of Cyber risk ratings:

Identifying vulnerabilities

Cyber risk ratings provide organisations with valuable insights into their existing vulnerabilities and potential weaknesses. By analysing their ratings, companies can prioritise their cybersecurity efforts and allocate resources to address critical areas of concern. This proactive approach helps mitigate the risk of potential cyber incidents and ensures that security measures are aligned with the most pressing threats.

Benchmarking and comparison

Cyber risk ratings enable organisations to benchmark their cybersecurity posture against industry standards and their peers. This comparative analysis allows companies to identify gaps in their security measures and learn from best practises implemented by top-performing organisations. By understanding where they stand with others, companies can set realistic goals for improvement and track progress over time.

Investor and stakeholder confidence

Investors and stakeholders place significant emphasis on a company’s cybersecurity posture. A favourable cyber risk rating demonstrates a commitment to robust security practises, which can instil confidence among stakeholders and potential partners. Furthermore, cyber risk ratings can be used as a transparent and objective indicator of an organisation’s cybersecurity posture during due diligence processes, mergers, or acquisitions.

Risk management and insurance

Cyber risk ratings can play a vital role in risk management and insurance considerations. Insurers often rely on cyber risk ratings as a key factor in determining premiums and coverage. By maintaining a strong cyber risk rating, companies can demonstrate their commitment to risk reduction and potentially negotiate favourable insurance terms. Furthermore, cyber risk ratings can help organisations identify areas where additional coverage or risk transfer strategies may be necessary to protect against potential financial losses associated with cyber incidents.

As the threat of cyber attacks becomes more complex and severe, it is crucial to evaluate and comprehend a business’s level of cybersecurity. Cyber risk ratings provide organisations with a valuable tool to measure their security readiness, identify vulnerabilities, and prioritise risk mitigation efforts.

By leveraging these ratings, companies can benchmark their performance, enhance stakeholder confidence, and make informed decisions regarding risk management and insurance.

Embracing cyber risk ratings as part of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy empowers organisations to stay ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape and fortify their defences against malicious actors.

How can Orpheus Cyber help?

We understand the significance of threat-intelligence enriched cyber risk ratings in providing a more accurate assessment of an organisation’s cybersecurity posture. Our approach goes beyond traditional risk rating methodologies by incorporating insights on threats, vulnerabilities, and the likelihood of exploitation specific to your organisation. By leveraging our expertise in threat intelligence, we can offer a comprehensive view of your overall cyber risk and effectively communicate your security posture both internally and externally.

Our cyber risk ratings indicate the level of risk associated with your organisation, with higher scores suggesting an increased vulnerability to successful cyber attacks. We employ a methodology that mirrors the processes and tools utilised by threat actors themselves. By understanding their motivations and methods, we can accurately predict and anticipate future threats. Our machine learning algorithms have been peer-reviewed and demonstrated an impressive accuracy rate of at least 94% in predicting future threats.

To ensure the utmost accuracy, we utilise a manual process to eliminate false positives that may artificially inflate your risk score. This ensures that you receive a precise evaluation of your cybersecurity posture and can take targeted actions to address any identified vulnerabilities.

Here are some specific ways in which Orpheus Cyber can help your organisation:

  • Cyber insurance costs: By monitoring and remediating relevant unresolved issues, we can help you lower your insurance premiums. Our risk ratings provide insurers with a comprehensive understanding of your security posture, enabling them to offer more favourable terms based on your proactive risk management efforts.
  • Third-party management: We actively and independently manage your supply chain risk scores, providing you with valuable insights into the cybersecurity posture of your vendors. This allows you to make informed decisions regarding vendor selection and ongoing monitoring of their security practises.
  • Procurement: Leverage our risk scores to measure and compare potential vendors’ cybersecurity capabilities. This helps you make well-informed decisions when procuring products or services and ensures that your supply chain remains secure.
  • Tracking and reporting: Our risk reports serve as an effective measure of broad cyber maturity within your organisation. By tracking and analysing your risk scores over time, you can demonstrate continuous improvement in your cybersecurity defences and communicate progress to stakeholders.
  • M&A and subsidiaries: Actively monitor the risk scores of subsidiaries to ensure a comprehensive understanding of their cybersecurity posture. Our preventive reports help identify potential risks during mergers and acquisitions, allowing you to make informed decisions based on the cyber posture of the target organisation.
  • Competitive advantage: Leverage your risk score as a competitive differentiator in your industry. A favourable cyber risk rating showcases your commitment to robust security practises, giving you an edge over competitors in terms of stakeholder confidence and trust.

At Orpheus Cyber, we calculate risk scores by applying machine learning algorithms to our processed intelligence, gathered from a wide range of data points. These include sector-specific and country-specific threat intelligence, mentions of your organisation and technology stack on the deep and dark web, live vulnerabilities, attack surface vulnerabilities such as open ports and weak email security, breached credentials, and mentions of phishing emails. By considering these comprehensive data sources, we provide a holistic evaluation of your cybersecurity posture.

Orpheus Cyber offers advanced threat-intelligence enriched cyber risk ratings that provide organisations with accurate and actionable insights into their cybersecurity posture. With our expertise in threat intelligence and machine learning, we help organisations proactively manage their cyber risks, lower insurance costs, manage third-party relationships, make informed procurement decisions, track and report progress, and gain a competitive advantage. Our comprehensive approach ensures that you can effectively protect your organisation against evolving cyber threats and maintain a robust cybersecurity posture. To see the Orpheus platform in action, click here.

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