Businesses in regulated industries know that staying compliant with cybersecurity requirements is crucial to protecting sensitive data and avoiding legal or financial penalties. However, there’s often confusion about the role of cybersecurity risk assessments in the compliance process. While a risk assessment is essential to meeting certain regulations, it doesn’t in itself make a business compliant.
In this blog, we’ll explore the important role that cybersecurity risk assessments play in evaluating risk but explain why they aren’t the same as compliance audits. We’ll also clarify the difference between a cybersecurity audit and a cybersecurity risk assessment and discuss how businesses can use both to stay secure and meet regulatory requirements.
Cybersecurity Risk Assessments: Essential, But Not a Compliance Guarantee
A cybersecurity risk assessment is designed to help businesses identify potential threats and vulnerabilities in their systems. It evaluates how well an organization’s existing security measures can withstand cyber threats and pinpoints weaknesses that need to be addressed. However, risk assessments don’t measure compliance—they measure risk.
Here’s what risk assessments do:
- Evaluate risks: A risk assessment identifies potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data.
- Prioritize action: Based on the identified risks, a risk assessment helps businesses decide which areas to address first by prioritizing vulnerabilities according to their potential impact.
- Provide recommendations: The assessment offers insights and recommendations for improving an organization’s security posture based on the risks discovered.
What they don’t do:
- Determine compliance: A cybersecurity risk assessment is not a checklist of regulatory requirements. It doesn’t tell you whether your business meets the compliance standards of regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, or GDPR.
- Offer a score: Unlike some audits or certification processes, risk assessments don’t provide a score or a pass/fail result. They are a snapshot of your current risks, not a final judgment on whether you’re compliant.
No Compliance Checkboxes in Risk Assessments
When conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment, the focus is on identifying risks rather than checking off specific compliance requirements. There is no score, no definitive pass/fail metric, and no compliance checkbox. Instead, a risk assessment uses a framework—often based on widely recognized standards like NIST 800-53 or ISO 27001—to identify security gaps.
For example, a risk assessment might reveal that a business is vulnerable to phishing attacks or lacks sufficient encryption for sensitive data. These findings are valuable for improving security, but they don’t automatically mean the business is compliant with specific regulations.
The Difference Between a Cybersecurity Audit and a Risk Assessment
Many businesses confuse cybersecurity audits with cybersecurity risk assessments, but they serve very different purposes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:
- Cybersecurity Audit:
- Purpose: An audit is a formal evaluation to determine if a business is compliant with specific standards or regulations (such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, or GDPR).
- Scope: It focuses on verifying that the organization has implemented all necessary controls and measures required by a particular regulatory framework.
- Outcome: An audit provides a clear result: either the business is compliant, or it isn’t. If there are gaps, the audit will specify what needs to be fixed for compliance.
- Frequency: Audits are typically conducted at regular intervals (annually or as required) to ensure continued compliance.
- Cybersecurity Risk Assessment:
- Purpose: The goal of a risk assessment is to identify and evaluate risks to an organization’s systems, data, and operations, without specifically checking for compliance.
- Scope: It covers all aspects of cybersecurity, from system vulnerabilities to external threats, and offers recommendations based on risk exposure rather than regulatory requirements.
- Outcome: A risk assessment doesn’t determine compliance; instead, it offers a risk-based evaluation and a roadmap for strengthening cybersecurity.
- Frequency: Risk assessments should be conducted regularly (or when significant changes occur) to continuously identify new threats and vulnerabilities.
Compliance Requires Action Beyond the Risk Assessment
While conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment is often a requirement for compliance, simply doing the assessment doesn’t make a business compliant. Regulatory bodies like the SEC, PCI DSS, and HIPAA require businesses to perform risk assessments as part of their broader cybersecurity efforts, but compliance is achieved only when:
- Corrective actions are taken based on the findings of the assessment.
- Specific controls and safeguards required by the regulatory framework are fully implemented.
- Documentation of security measures and processes is maintained, often to meet the audit and reporting requirements of regulators.
For example, PCI DSS requires businesses that process payment card data to conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment, but businesses must also meet specific technical requirements—such as encryption of payment data and regular vulnerability scans—in order to achieve compliance.
The Importance of Both: Risk Assessment and Audit
Both cybersecurity risk assessments and compliance audits are critical for protecting a business from cyber threats and meeting regulatory requirements. A risk assessment helps identify potential weaknesses and informs how a company can improve its defenses. An audit, on the other hand, confirms whether a business is adhering to the specific rules and regulations governing its industry.
Best practices include:
- Conducting regular cybersecurity risk assessments to stay aware of evolving risks and adjust defenses accordingly.
- Scheduling periodic audits to ensure your organization meets the compliance requirements set by regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, or GDPR.
- Using risk assessment findings to guide compliance actions—closing the gaps identified by the risk assessment can make audits smoother and compliance easier to achieve.
Conclusion
A cybersecurity risk assessment is a crucial tool for evaluating and mitigating cyber threats, but it does not determine whether your business is compliant with industry regulations. Compliance requires specific actions and controls that go beyond identifying risks.
To fully protect your business, you’ll need both a risk assessment and a cybersecurity audit. The assessment helps you understand and prioritize your risks, while the audit verifies that you’ve met the necessary compliance standards. Together, they ensure that your business not only manages cyber risks but also meets the legal and regulatory obligations that keep sensitive data safe.
