RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessment is a step in a risk management technique. Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized threat (also called as hazard). Quantitative risk assessment needs calculations of two components of risk: R, magnitude of potential loss L, and probability p that the loss will occur.

Risk assessment in information security

There are two techniques of risk assessment in information security field, quantitative and qualitative. Purely quantitative risk assessment is a mathematical calculation which is based on security metrics on the asset (system/application). Qualitative risk assessment is done when the organization requires a risk assessment be done in a relatively short time or to meet a small budget, a quantity of relevant data is not available, or persons performing the assessment do not have the sophisticated mathematical, and risk assessment expertise needed. Qualitative risk assessment can be performed in a shorter time period and with less data. Qualitative risk assessments are characteristically performed through interviews of a sample of personnel from all relevant groups within an organization charged with security of asset being assessed. The qualitative risk assessments are descriptive vs. measurable.

Risk is likelihood of occurrence of a vulnerability multiplied by value of the information asset minus the percentage of risk mitigated by present controls plus the uncertainty of present knowledge of the vulnerability. Risk assessment evaluates relative risk for every vulnerability and assigns a risk rating or score to each and every information asset.