Three Ways To Improve Your Cyber Risk Monitoring Tools

Whether your organization is just beginning to develop your security performance management systems, or you already have a mature and established program in place, there is always room to innovate and improve the cyber risk monitoring tools you use.

Your cyber risk monitoring tools can range from the team members you have overseeing the program and managing threats when they arise, to the actual cyber scanning technology or platform integrated with your network. The most effective tools are the ones that blend easily with the processes you already have in place, and work efficiently to further reduce risk throughout your organization’s attack surface. 

We’ve highlighted three tools most organizations are currently using for cyber risk monitoring, and what an improved version could look like.

3 ways to improve your cyber risk monitoring tools

Instead of measuring risk with yearly assessments… continuously monitoring your program

Gone are the days where it’s enough to check in with your cybersecurity systems once a year. Malicious actors are maturing their breach techniques, targeting our networks and compromising our data faster than previously thought. In 2020, the US saw over 1000 data breaches affecting over 155.8 million individuals. 

A great tool to help improve your cyber risk monitoring process and protect your data against the increasing amount of threats is to utilize continuous monitoring technology that consistently scans your network and provides updated information about risks on your attack surface daily. By integrating a continuous cyber risk monitoring platform into your security management system, cybersecurity managers can feel more confident that they’re maintaining an accurate view of the risks targeting their network.  

Bitsight’s Attack Surface Analytics technology monitors an organization's expansive endpoints continuously to locate hidden risks and vulnerabilities. With a centralized dashboard including detailed information about risk present in your network, Bitsight can support proper cyber risk monitoring. 

Instead of measuring performance with non-cybersecurity KPIs… use a cybersecurity reporting program

It can be frustrating to spend time and energy properly managing your cyber risk monitoring program against threats to your network, only to have your efforts be miscommunicated through KPI’s not meant for cybersecurity program measurement. It’s not only defeating, but also can leave your program vulnerable to bad actors if resource allocation is being determined on faulty reports.

Instead, security managers can enable more efficient cyber risk monitoring with metrics and reports specifically meant for evaluating cybersecurity. By using a standard security rating, similar to a credit score calculated objectively without an organization or person’s influence, security ratings can summarize your organization's cyber risk and performance. Your rating can be compared over time to show how changes in investments and remediation techniques are truly working. 

Bitsight Security Ratings present a complete picture of your organization’s security performance, that is directly correlated with the likelihood of a data breach. With customers located around the world and across a multitude of industries, the Bitsight rating is relied on by cybersecurity teams because their executives and board members recognize and trust it.

Utilizing reporting tools that are specifically designed to demonstrate cyber risk monitoring can be a game-changer for securing budget, gaining buy-in across the organization, and representing program success. Bitsight’s reporting portal includes a variety of customizable reports for whatever level of detail you need. Utilizing cyber risk monitoring reports originally designed with cybersecurity teams in mind, and backed by trusted data, will improve program performance and enable your team to better manage risk.

Instead of guessing which vulnerabilities are the most costly… accurately quantify the financial risk of your program

As organizations expand their attack surface to work with more partners, outsource work to vendors, and have employees connecting from remote locations, it becomes harder to monitor all areas of potential risk without prioritizing resources. Security managers are often tasked with making their best guess to which areas of their network are the most risky or could result in the most damage. It’s a big risk to determine prioritization, but there are technology-based tools that can help.

Bitsight has launched a financial quantification offering, backed by Kovrr’s risk modeling technology. Instead of guessing at which risks could do the most financial damage to your organization, Bitsight can determine what the financial risks of a data breach are associated with specific parts of your enterprise. Gone are the days where cyber risk monitoring is a guessing game that relies heavily on the remediation team if things go wrong. Now, it is easier to gain visibility into the real risk behind pieces of your network

Start improving your cyber risk monitoring tools

Interested in trying one of the new cyber risk monitoring tools we’ve mentioned? Bitsight’s automated solutions provide data-backed tools to bring your risk monitoring approach to the next level.

Request a demo with us today to see how we can help improve your cyber risk monitoring tools.