IT Risk Management: Frameworks, Strategies, and Best Practices

A general explanation of IT risk management, its impact on security, and the importance of establishing a clear strategy to reduce vulnerabilities. This section will also address the differences between various types of IT risks, including financial, operational, regulatory, and strategic risks.

Definition of Risk Management

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines Risk Management (or IT Risk Management) as the process of identifying risks, assessing them, and taking measures to reduce them to an acceptable level. Within this process, the first step is risk assessment, which involves identifying and determining the scope of potential threats, followed by analyzing vulnerabilities and the associated risks within an IT system.
Based on this analysis, actions are taken such as defining and prioritizing necessary controls and structuring a response plan (who, what, and how to respond and/or escalate incidents) to mitigate risks. Continuous monitoring, analysis, and evaluation are required, including constant updates and changes in security policies. Permanent controls are also implemented to optimize security.

Diagram of a Well-Structured Risk Management Process

There are different types of business risks, including:

• Financial Risks: Related to monetary losses, such as fraud or unauthorized transactions.
• Operational Risks: Linked to internal process failures, such as human errors or service interruptions due to natural disasters.
• Regulatory Risks: Associated with penalties and sanctions due to non-compliance with regulations or legal requirements.
• Strategic Risks: Related to business decisions and long-term planning, such as entering new markets, dealing with competitors, or undergoing organizational changes.
• IT Risks: Risks associated with potential threats and vulnerabilities within IT infrastructure and the business processes that rely on technology.

Methodologies for IT Risk Management

To identify, assess, and mitigate risks in IT environments, there are several methodologies, such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), which is the process of identifying, monitoring, logging, and analyzing security events or incidents within an IT environment in real time. SIEM provides a comprehensive and centralized view of an IT infrastructure’s security landscape. Additionally, ITSM (IT Service Management) plays a key role in overseeing all IT-related operations and resources within an organization to ensure their proper operation and manage necessary actions in case of any incident. Although SIEM and ITSM serve different purposes, they complement each other in risk management and security strategies.

Differences Between SIEM and ITSM

	SIEM	ITSM
Main Purpose	Its goal is security, focusing on security event data collection, analysis, and correlation to identify and respond to threats and attacks in real time.	Its objective is the structured management of incidents and the optimization of automated responses to ensure the efficient delivery of IT services and meet the needs of the business and the end user.
Features	· Security event monitoring and analysis. · Threat and intrusion detection. · Security incident management. · Security regulation compliance.	· Incident management. · Change and configuration management. · Service level management (SLA, SLI, SLO). · Asset and request management.
Approach	Visibility and control over IT infrastructure security through the integration and correlation of data from multiple sources (firewalls, intrusion detection systems, antivirus, and other security devices).	The development of a structured framework for managing IT services throughout their lifecycle, ensuring efficiency and alignment with business objectives.
Advantages	The analysis and contextualization of information enhance threat detection, reduce incident response time, and help ensure compliance with security regulations and standards.	The improvement in the quality and efficiency of IT services reduces operational costs, increases user satisfaction, and facilitates the management of changes and updates.

As you may see, SIEM is applied to real-time monitoring and security event correlation, while ITSM is essential for incident management, ensuring that detected risks are handled efficiently and automatically. By combining SIEM and ITSM, a comprehensive IT security management approach is achieved.

Frameworks and Models for Risk Management

Currently, there are widely used practices and methodologies in the IT industry for risk management, which we briefly describe here:

• ISO 31000: A global risk management standard that provides principles and guidelines for risk management and the process implemented at both strategic and operational levels. It is applicable to public or private companies, communities, associations, groups, or individuals. It is considered a reference framework for integrating, designing, implementing, evaluating, and improving risk management throughout the organization.
• NIST Risk Management Framework: It provides a process that integrates security risk management, privacy, and cybersecurity activities in the supply chain throughout the system development lifecycle. The selection and specification of security controls consider effectiveness, efficiency, and constraints due to applicable laws, directives, executive orders, policies, standards, or regulations.
• COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies): A framework for IT governance and management that helps develop, implement, and monitor IT policies and procedures. It includes processes (structured activities for a specific goal), organizational structures (roles and responsibilities within the organization), policies and procedures that govern behavior and actions, information flows for managing and distributing data, corporate culture (organizational values), and the skills and infrastructure necessary to carry out activities.
• FAIR Model: A standard methodology for understanding, analyzing, and quantifying cyber and operational risks in financial terms. It complements existing risk frameworks and provides a common language and a scalable risk model for organizations.

We recommend for you and your team to become familiar with these reference frameworks and methodologies to evaluate which ones you may implement in your cybersecurity strategy according to the needs and structure of your company.

IT Risk Mitigation Strategies

To address and reduce IT risks, we recommend the following strategies:

• Risk Avoidance: Strategies to prevent threats before they take place, meaning eliminating exposure to risks. If an activity or investment poses a potential risk, the best approach is to avoid engaging in it. While this is a conservative method, it can be crucial in preventing the organization from being put at risk.
• Threat Reduction: Implementation of controls to minimize risk impact. This refers to a risk management plan and executing actions aimed at reducing the likelihood of threats or their potential impact.
• Risk Transfer: Outsourcing risks through insurance or agreements with third parties. This is a key risk management approach where responsibility or potential impact is delegated to a third party through a contract that specifies which party assumes specific responsibilities.
• Acceptance of Residual Risks: Evaluating acceptable risks and planning for their control. This is essential because it not only acknowledges that risks exist at any time but also defines the actions to address them. In other words, it involves creating a conscious and well-structured contingency plan in case a risk materializes.

Another recommended strategy is risk diversification, such as distributing investments, using multiple geographic locations, or engaging in different activities to reduce overall risk exposure.

Automation and the Role of Pandora ITSM in Risk Management

Pandora ITSM is a comprehensive and centralized platform for IT Service and Support Management, enabling organizations to efficiently measure service levels both internally and externally for each organization and client. It offers key advantages for risk management, such as:

• Incident Management Automation, optimizing event resolution and minimizing response times.
• Integration with SIEM and other security management tools, enhancing event correlation and improving risk analysis.
• Regulatory Compliance, with capabilities for scheduled audits and automatic, periodic generation of custom reports.
• Centralized Asset Management and Configuration, mapping relationships and dependencies while maintaining a history record of incidents for each asset. This enables the automation of update and optimization processes, mitigating risks and vulnerabilities through continuous infrastructure control and monitoring.

Seamless Integration of Pandora IT Monitoring, ITSM, and SIEM

Business Use Cases

Here are some examples of how risk management is applied in business environments:

• Implementing Risk Management Strategies in Critical Infrastructure: A company successfully prevented security breaches by implementing proactive security controls. From a Security Operations Center (SOC), the organization conducted continuous IT monitoring of its infrastructure, detecting threats and anomalies. Based on the analysis, proactive measures were implemented, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and constant vulnerability scanning, among others.
• Applying SIEM for Cyberattack Prevention: A telecommunications company deployed a SIEM system to collect security event data from various sources, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems (e.g., Endpoint Detection and Response – EDR), servers, applications, and network devices. The SIEM solution analyzed and correlated these collected data to identify abnormal patterns and behaviors. Upon detecting an anomaly, the SIEM triggered real-time alerts following a predefined ITSM strategy, enabling the IT security team to take appropriate action, such as blocking suspicious IP addresses.
• Using Pandora ITSM to Optimize Incident Response: The company achieved faster resolution times and minimized operational risk impact. With a centralized platform, the IT security team had all critical information at their fingertips, following predefined processes aligned with ITIL standards. This facilitated efficient and timely security incident resolution. Additionally, automation was leveraged to execute routine risk mitigation actions, such as isolating compromised devices for analysis and remediation.

Conclusion

However, one thing remains inevitable: risks. The digital transformation of businesses has made IT risk management essential for identifying risks, assessing them, and implementing the necessary measures to prevent or reduce them to an acceptable level. This is not only crucial for ensuring business continuity but also for maintaining the digital trust that customers and suppliers place in your organization. We recommend understanding the risk management process and the methodologies required to implement it, leveraging IT service management (ITSM) platforms and SIEM solutions that can work together—regardless of which framework or risk management model your organization has adopted.
Remember that Pandora SIEM uses data collected right away from Pandora FMS monitoring, integrating, analyzing, and consolidating log data into a single platform, compatible with network devices and various operating systems.
You may contact our team of experts to learn how to implement risk management from a unified platform. Simply click [here] to explore how to integrate your ITSM solution with Pandora SIEM.