What's Inside

Today’s IT ecosystem is more integrated and complex than ever, with companies operating dozens to hundreds of systems to meet a variety of business needs. Given the interconnected chains of information nodes, an exposed system in one business unit can have a catastrophic impact on operations in another unit if proper segmentation and mitigation processes are not implemented. 

Managing this on an enterprise-wide scale is onerous and can often feel like an impossible task. However, that is where IT risk management comes in, and by extension, the modern evolution that has produced IT risk management software solutions.

History of IT Risk Management

IT risk management traces back to early computing days, when organizations began to realize the importance of managing risks associated with IT infrastructure. Initially, IT risk management was focused on identifying technical risks such as hardware failures, basic software vulnerabilities. In the 1980s and 1990s, as businesses increasingly relied on IT for their operations, the need for more formalized approaches to IT risk management became apparent. This shift led to frameworks like the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT), which offered guidelines for IT risk management.

As technology advanced and businesses became more reliant on IT systems, the scope of IT risk management expanded to include a broader array of risks including data breaches, regulatory compliance, and business continuity. Today, one of the most prevalent risks involves cyberattacks  targeting customer data and critical business information-both largely processed by these very IT systems. Trying to manage risk across so many systems and unique processes poses an insurmountable challenge for many organizations attempting this with a manual, ad-hoc approach. This necessity gave rise to what we now know as IT risk management software.

Evolution of IT Risk Management Software

IT risk management software has evolved in a way that closely mirrors the evolution of IT risk management practices. In the early days, IT risk management software was limited in functionality, focusing mainly on risk assessment and remediation. However, as the field of IT risk management matured, the demand for more sophisticated and integrated solutions grew as well.

Modern IT risk management software solutions are comprehensive platforms that integrate with other complementary tools. These integrations allow organizations to get a more holistic view of their security postures, providing a single pane of glass view that enables them to respond more effectively to emerging threats. This is an absolute necessity considering the extreme complexity of modern business network communications, with many systems communicating upstream and downstream with internal systems as well as across network boundaries, tenants, and multi-cloud environments to vendor and other third-party systems.

Eight Essential Features of IT Risk Management Software

We will now explore eight key features that organizations should look for in IT risk management software solutions. Each of these serves a continuous purpose in IT risk management and will help organizations effectively manage their environments’ risk lifecycles while helping demonstrate the organization’s diligence to customers, peers, and partners.

1. Security Tool Integration

One of the key features of effective IT risk management software solutions is the ability to integrate with other security tools. This integration allows organizations to import data such as vulnerability scanning reports, employee security training status, penetration test reports, policy management status, or other data to help better inform the organization's risk view. These data points can be tied directly to the organization's control framework and offer a comprehensive, single-pane view.

For example, integrating a policy management tool would enable the organization to measure its adherence to controls requiring policies for everything from data protection to disaster recovery.

Allowing all security data to inform your risk management process is a powerful tool in the fight against cyber adversaries and business disruption.

2. Common Control Frameworks

There are many risk and security frameworks and models out there. Each organization has differing needs and requirements, making it critical to have a software solution that supports many of the common control frameworks used across industries. NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, COBIT, and other frameworks are widely used and should be available “out of the box”. Having these available in the solution simplifies the process for organizations, allowing them to quickly measure and improve their security while updating existing assessments right in the platform itself. 

For example, an organization that previously assessed compliance against ISO 27001, either manually or through a traditional vendor, could use an IT risk management software with the ISO 27001 framework built into its catalog and map it directly to all assessments stored in a single solution. This feature is often expected by organizations and can save significant time and resources.

3. Customized Controls

Due to the nature of the industry, company culture, or other reasons, some organizations seek custom controls for their operating environments in addition to the common frameworks they use. This may be part of mitigation effort, compensating controls, unique industry or technology adaptations, or other needs. It’s important to use a flexible IT risk management software solution that allows the customizing of controls.

For example, a healthcare company may use NIST CSF but decide to add custom controls that align with healthcare requirements such as HIPAA as an add-on. Instead of having to maintain this in a spreadsheet or custom application internally, the company could leverage IT risk management software that has this capability, thereby saving time and resources.

4. Risk planning

Another key feature of a quality IT risk management software solution is the ability to plan initiatives and projects that will address identified risks. Having risk management and planning “under one roof” is transformative because it allows the organization to directly target deficiencies and risks with planned projects and risk mitigation plans. This also supports efforts to request funding or demonstrate to leadership how the budget provided will be used to reduce risk and support the business.

An organization may identify gaps in controls that cover vulnerability management, for example, and plan to address these with a new vulnerability management program at the organization that would include tool procurement, staff hiring, policy and procedure documentation, and other actions tied directly to these controls. Documenting these efforts against specific controls allows the involvement of stakeholders and enables an understanding of how the organization is utilizing resources to address potential risks.

5. Historical Trend Analysis

This feature allows organizations to identify emerging risks and to track the effectiveness of their risk mitigation efforts over time. By analyzing historical trends, organizations can identify patterns and take proactive measures to mitigate risks before they escalate. Additionally, justifying budget for projects, resources, or other initiatives is more easily explained and achievable when showing leadership and the board of directors how prior budgets have been spent and the corresponding risk reduction.

For example, an organization may have had quite a few gaps in a certain control family when it first started assessing. After several years and major initiatives, it is clear that a once-weak control family has significantly improved and is now one of the strongest areas in the organization's security. This demonstrates how risk has been reduced thanks to the projects that were funded to address the original weaknesses in that control family.

When applied across the organization’s assessment, this is a wonderful visibility feature that complements several others in this list.

6. Active Monitoring

IT risk management softwares should offer real-time or active monitoring capabilities to allow organizations to see the status of risks and controls across frameworks and compliance requirements. This includes the ability to detect a potential failing control that could affect the acceptable risk level or a system that is falling out of compliance. Actively monitoring the risk environment enables organizations to respond quickly, allowing them to prevent security incidents or noncompliance in advance.

Let’s take the example of a system that was recently shown to have a critical vulnerability—a situation that might jeopardize compliance requirements for processing personal health information (PHI), payment card information (PCI), or other sensitive data. The ability to see this in near real time saves the organization time and resources by reducing the likelihood of a non-compliance finding. It can also reduce risk to the organization through immediate patching, instead of waiting days, weeks, or even months to recognize the risk.

7. Artifact/Evidence Repository

The ability to document artifacts or evidence against a risk or control, demonstrating the organization’s diligence in addressing identified risks, makes audits and internal reviews easier by showing the intent and efforts to mitigate risks. This is especially helpful in documenting compliance requirements in one place that ties to each compliance framework the organization must satisfy. 

Additionally, having an evidence repository also makes the assessment results more defensible, both internally and externally, by showing why and how the controls are being met based on the provided evidence This allows the organization to tag evidence as sufficient or  identify if additional evidence is needed to fully meet controls.

8. Robust Reporting

Reporting is the feature that pulls everything else together. The ability to generate reports that can be customized and delivered to auditors, internal teams, and organizational leadership streamlines communication of the organization’s many reporting requirements and ensures that the relevant information is presented as needed, allowing users to keep the focus on the importance of the data being presented. Essentially, a reporting feature supports decision-making at all levels of the organization.

For example, a report specific to the context of controls and corresponding responses is directly relevant to the organization’s operations and is a needed guide for management and others. Another report akin to the dashboard view showing the organization’s overall posture would be more beneficial for senior leadership and even the board of directors.

IT risk management software is indispensable in today’s complex and interconnected IT ecosystems. With businesses operating numerous systems across various units, an unprotected or vulnerable system that is exploited can have a domino effect, impacting operations enterprise-wide if not properly segmented and mitigated. 

The evolution of IT risk management from manual processes to advanced software solutions has been driven by the increasing complexity and integration of IT environments matching increased regulations and stringent requirements to ensure that businesses are protecting critical data, such as customer information.

Modern IT risk management software offers a suite of features that are essential for managing the intricate web of IT risks, and it’s critical that organizations seek out software solutions that offer most, if not all, of these key features. By leveraging these features, IT risk management software helps organizations navigate the complex cyber landscape, ensuring the security and resilience of their IT infrastructure.