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Introduction
Risk management begins with first identifying risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to then assess
them. Assessing risks means to evaluate risk in terms of two factors. First, evaluate each risk’s
likelihood of occurring. Second, evaluate the impact or consequences should the risk occur. Both
likelihood and impact are important for understanding how each risk measures up to other risks.
How the risks compare with one other is important when deciding which risk or risks take
priority. In short, assessing is a critical step toward the goal of mitigation.
Assessing risks can be done in one of two ways: quantitatively or qualitatively. Quantitatively
means to assign numerical values or some objective, empirical value. For example, “Less than
$1,000 to repair” or “Biweekly.” Qualitatively means to assign wording or some quasi-subjective
value. For example, a risk could be labeled critical, major, or minor.
In this lab, you will define the purpose of an IT risk assessment, you will align identified risks,
threats, and vulnerabilities to an IT risk assessment that encompasses the seven domains of a
typical IT infrastructure, you will classify the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, and you will
prioritize them. Finally, you will write an executive summary that addresses the risk assessment
findings, risk assessment impact, and recommendations to remediate areas of noncompliance.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this lab, you will be able to:
Define the purpose and objectives of an IT risk assessment.
Align identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to an IT risk assessment that encompasses
the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Classify identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to a qualitative risk assessment
template.
Prioritize classified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to the defined qualitative risk
assessment scale.
Craft an executive summary that addresses the risk assessment findings, risk assessment
impact, and recommendations to remediate areas of noncompliance.
Lab #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure
28 | LAB #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure
Deliverables
Upon completion of this lab, you are required to provide the following deliverables to your
instructor:
1. Lab Report file; 2. Lab Assessments file.
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Hands-On Steps
Note: This is a paper-based lab. To successfully complete the deliverables for this lab, you will need access to Microsoft® Word or another compatible word processor. For some labs, you may also need access to a graphics line drawing application, such as Visio or PowerPoint. Refer to the Preface of this manual for information on creating the lab deliverable files.
1. On your local computer, create the lab deliverable files.
2. Review the Lab Assessment Worksheet. You will find answers to these questions as you proceed through the lab steps.
3. On your local computer, open a new Internet browser window.
4. Using your favorite search engine, search for information on the purpose of IT risk assessment.
5. In your Lab Report file, describe the purpose of IT risk assessment.
6. Review the following table for the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities found in a health care IT infrastructure servicing patients with life-threatening conditions:
Risks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities Primary Domain Impacted
Risk Impact/ Factor
Unauthorized access from public Internet
User destroys data in application and deletes all files
Hacker penetrates your IT infrastructure and gains access to your internal network
Intraoffice employee romance gone bad
Fire destroys primary data center
Service provider service level agreement (SLA) is not achieved
Workstation operating system (OS) has a known software vulnerability
Unauthorized access to organization- owned workstations
Loss of production data
Denial of service attack on organization Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and e-mail server
Remote communications from home office
Local Area Network (LAN) server OS has a
30 | LAB #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure
known software vulnerability
User downloads and clicks on an unknown e-mail attachment
Workstation browser has a software vulnerability
Mobile employee needs secure browser access to sales-order entry system
Service provider has a major network outage
Weak ingress/egress traffic-filtering degrades performance
User inserts CDs and USB hard drives with personal photos, music, and videos on organization-owned computers
Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunneling between remote computer and ingress/egress router is needed
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access points are needed for LAN connectivity within a warehouse
Need to prevent eavesdropping on WLAN due to customer privacy data access
Denial of service (DoS)/distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack from the Wide Area Network (WAN)/Internet
7. Review the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure
8. In your Lab Report file, using the table from step 6, identify in the table’s Primary Domain Impacted column which of the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure will
be most impacted by each risk, threat, or vulnerability listed.
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Qualitative Versus Quantitative The next step requests that you assign a score to each of the risks in the table from step 6. The scoring is done qualitatively, by assigning one of several labels on a scale. In this case, the scale is provided for you, ranging from Critical to Minor.
Using qualitative scores to assess risks is comparatively easy and quick. The alternative is to assess quantitatively, using actual, numerical scores. Using qualitative words such as “critical” or “major” introduces subjective opinion, while citing numbers such as “Damage to be more than $3 million” or “Will cause an outage of under four hours” introduces quantitative objectivity.
Quantitative scoring is more objective, but calculating risk assessment this way can take much more time. This is because it requires you to dig up hard facts. For instance, you can conduct quantitative scoring by referring to your organization’s history or claims records by answering such questions as “How often has this happened to us, or others?” You can also assess risks numerically by researching the costs to recover from losses.
It is possible to assess risks both quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, you could quantitatively score the likelihood and consequences of each risk, for example, “under 10% chance” and “ ‘X’ number of staff lives harmed or lost.” But you could present the final score qualitatively, for example, “critical” or “needs to be addressed immediately.”
9. In your Lab Report file, using the table from step 6, perform a qualitative risk assessment by assigning a risk impact/risk factor to each of the identified risks, threats, and
vulnerabilities throughout the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure where the risk,
threat, or vulnerability resides. Assign each risk, threat, and vulnerability a priority number in the table’s Risk Impact/Factor column, where:
“1” is Critical: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that impacts compliance (that is, privacy law requirement for securing privacy data and implementing proper security controls,
and so on) and places the organization in a position of increased liability
“2” is Major: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C-I-A) of an organization’s intellectual property assets and IT
infrastructure
“3” is Minor: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that can impact user or employee productivity or availability of the IT infrastructure
Note: Keep the following in mind when working on the next step: When suggesting next steps to executive management, consider your recommendations from their point of view. Be prepared to explain costs, both in implementing the controls and then in maintaining the controls.
Remember that costs come in many forms, not least of which is labor. Be sure accountability is thought out in terms of roles and responsibilities. Other potential costs outside the data center include goodwill or reputation, market share, and lost opportunity. Executive management might have these costs topmost in mind.
32 | LAB #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure
10. In your Lab Report file, write a four-paragraph executive summary according to the following outline:
Paragraph #1: Summary of findings (risks, threats, and vulnerabilities found throughout the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure)
Paragraph #2: Approach and prioritization of critical, major, and minor risk assessment elements
Paragraph #3: Risk assessment and risk impact summary of the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure
Paragraph #4: Recommendations and next steps for executive management
Note: This completes the lab. Close the Web browser, if you have not already done so.
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Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
The following are the evaluation criteria for this lab that students must perform:
1. Define the purpose and objectives of an IT risk assessment. – [20%] 2. Align identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to an IT risk assessment that
encompasses the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure. – [20%]
3. Classify identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to a qualitative risk assessment template. – [20%]
4. Prioritize classified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to the defined qualitative risk assessment scale. – [20%]
5. Craft an executive summary that addresses the risk assessment findings, risk assessment impact, and recommendations to remediate areas of noncompliance. – [20%]