RISK Manage.

Risk Management 

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• Any attempts to perform penetration testing or ethical hacking on systems or networks should be done with the explicit permission of the system/network owner. Unauthorized access is illegal and can result in serious legal consequences.
• It is important to fully understand the scope of the testing and to only test within that scope. Testing outside the agreed upon scope is considered unauthorized and may result in legal action.
• Any findings or vulnerabilities discovered during testing should be reported to the system/network owner immediately and kept confidential until a fix can be implemented.
• It is recommended to use a separate, dedicated testing environment rather than testing on a live production system to minimize the risk of accidentally causing damage or downtime.
• It is important to take steps to protect your own identity and prevent accidental data leaks or exposure of sensitive information during testing.
• It is also recommended to follow a standard code of ethics for ethical hacking and penetration testing.

References

• ISO standards 

Risk 

means foreseeing the outcomes and trying to see what possible failures or roadblocks can happen in preventing the desired result or action or outcome.  

Best Example:

• when you plan to reach to a destination by car, what are the risk you will foresee
• Traffic jams, break down, road closures. 
• Mitigation measures : preventive break down measures - fuel tank fill up, tyre air check, engine oil check. 
• Contingency measures :  break down service cover, contact numbers. 

Risk Management Cycle: 

• Appraising risks - Risk Identification (Infosec Risk assessment), 
• Addressing identified risks (Infosec Risk Treatment), and 
• keeping those risks under constant observation(Risk tracking). 

RISK REGISTER

Identifying all the possible scenarios that might constitute into a problem and identifying mitigation plans. 

• The risk register is a live, current database of recognised risks. 
• The database is categorised under the following headings: organizational; people; physical-access control, asset management, BYOD; and technological-restricted access privilege, controlled zone. 

TABLE 1: RISK REGISTER : SAMPLE

#S. NO	RISK DETAILS	OWNERSHIP	IMPACT	PROBABILITY	RISK LEVEL	MITIGATION PLAN	CONTINGENCY	STATUS
				SAMPLE

Information on the risk life cycle, 

• Including Risk ownership (Avoidance, Acceptance, Transfer), 
• Risk Treatment (Reducing or Minimizing the Impact of the Risk), is contained in the Risk Treatment Plan, which is a component of the Risk Register.

Risk Score

Risk score is based on the probability and impact of the event when it occurs, the rational is based on the previous know incidents and experiences. 

TABLE 2 : RISK SCORE

	IMPACT
PROBABILITY	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.9
< 30%	LOW	LOW	LOW	MEDIUM	MEDIUM
>= 30% to < 50%	LOW	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	HIGH	HIGH
>= 50% to < 70%	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH
>= 70% to <90%	MEDIUM	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH
>= 90%	MEDIUM	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH

The below table provides on example risks. 

TABLE 3: RISK REGISTER

Risk	Risk Description	Probability Score	Severity Impact	Mitigation
Documentation File loss/ corruption	Project word documents lost or unable to recover	0.1	High	NTU OneDrive Backup is used
Virtual Machine Configuration	VM can be corrupted during the progress of then testing attacks.	0.3	Medium	Reconfiguration of VM will be done
Restricted Network Access	NTU restricted network access	0.5	Medium	Alternative Connectivity will be used such mobile hotspot
Malware infection	Taking live sample Malware/ Ransomware for simulation in Virtual machines could infect the host machine and network connected	0.9	High	Simulation carried out in sandbox/  isolated network

Risk Treatment

Based on the Risk score the risk treatment plan can be applied as follows with examples:

• Avoidance: 
• Eliminating the risk altogether by changing the activity or process that creates it.
• Risk: Employees using personal devices for work, increasing the risk of data breaches and malware infections.
• Avoidance: Implementing a strict BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy that prohibits personal device use for work activities. This eliminates the risk at its source.

• Transfer:
• Sharing the risk with another party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Risk: Cyberattacks causing financial losses due to data breaches or ransomware.
• Transfer: Purchasing cyber insurance to offset potential financial damages. This shifts the risk burden to the insurance provider.

• Mitigation: 
• Reducing the likelihood or impact of the risk through controls, safeguards, or procedures.
• Risk: Weak passwords easily compromised by hackers.
• Mitigation: Implementing a strong password policy enforcing complexity requirements, regular changes, and two-factor authentication. This reduces the likelihood of password-related breaches.

• Acceptance:
• Deciding to live with the risk, considering its low probability or acceptable consequences.
• Risk: Occasional power outages disrupting operations.
• Acceptance: Determining that the cost of backup power systems outweighs the potential losses from brief outages. The organization accepts the risk and focuses on resilience measures like uninterruptible power supplies for critical systems.

RISK Score