Risk Management Policy
Policy Owner: Managing Director
Effective Date: 2023-05-01
Purpose:
To define actions to address CloudCard information security risks and opportunities. To define a plan for the achievement of information security and privacy objectives.
Scope:
All CloudCard IT systems that process, store or transmit confidential, private, or business-critical data.
All risks, whether risks to the medium to long-term goals of CloudCard, or risks that will be encountered in the day-to-day delivery of services.
Risks that are material - Risk management systems and processes will be targeted to achieve maximum benefit without increasing the bureaucratic burden and ultimately affecting core service delivery to the organization.
This Policy applies to all employees of CloudCard and to all external parties, including but not limited to CloudCard consultants and contractors, business partners, vendors, suppliers, outsource service providers, and other third party entities with access to CloudCard networks and system resources.
Risk Management Statement
Inadequate IT risk management exposes CloudCard to risks including compromise of CloudCard or customer network systems, services and information, cyber-attacks, contractual, or legal issues. CloudCard will ensure that risk management plays an integral part in the governance and management of the organization at a strategic and operational level.
Risk Management Strategy
CloudCard has developed processes to identify those risks that will hinder the achievement of its strategic and operational objectives. CloudCard will therefore ensure that it has in place the means to identify, analyze, control and monitor the strategic and operational risks it faces using this risk management policy based on best practices.
CloudCard will ensure the risk management strategy and policy are reviewed regularly and that internal audit functions are responsible for ensuring:
The risk management policy is applied to all applicable areas of CloudCard
The risk management policy and its operational application are regularly reviewed
Non-compliance is reported to appropriate company officers and authorities
Practical Application of Risk Management
CloudCard has adopted a standard format for use in the identification of risks, their classification, and evaluation.
The format is based on the following NIST and ISO standards and frameworks:
ISO 27005
NIST 800-30
NIST 800-37
Risks are assessed and ranked according to their impact and their likelihood of occurrence. A formal Risk Assessment will be performed at least annually and shall take into consideration the results of any technical vulnerability management activities and penetration tests performed in accordance with the Operations Security Policy.
Risk Categories
Some risks are within the control of CloudCard whilst others may be only to a lesser degree. CloudCard will therefore take an approach that will identify those risks and classify the risks according to the following categories:
Reputational
Contractual
Regulatory/Compliance
Economic/Financial
Fraud
Privacy
Environmental & Sustainability
Impact on People
Operational Capacity
Each risk will be assessed as to its likelihood and impact. Both impact and likelihood are assessed on a scale of 1-5. Impact can range from 1 (“Very low impact”) to 5 (“Very high impact”) and likelihood can range from 1 (“Very unlikely”) to 5 (“Very likely”).
Risk Criteria
The criteria for determining risk is the combined likelihood and impact of an event adversely affecting the confidentiality, availability, integrity, or privacy of organizational and customer information, personally identifiable information (PII), or business information systems.
For all risk inputs such as risk assessments, vulnerability scans, penetration test, bug bounty programs, etc., CloudCard management shall reserve the right to modify risk rankings based on its assessment of the nature and criticality of the system processing, as well as the nature, criticality and exploitability (or other relevant factors and considerations) of the identified vulnerability.
Risk Response, Treatment, and Tracking
Risk will be maintained in a risk register where they will be prioritized and mapped using the approach contained in this policy. The following responses to risk should be employed:
Modify: CloudCard may take actions or employ strategies to reduce the risk.
Accept: CloudCard may decide to accept and monitor the risk at the present time. This may be necessary for some risks that arise from external events.
Transfer: CloudCard may decide to pass the risk on to another party. For example contractual terms may be agreed to ensure that the risk is not borne by CloudCard or insurance may be appropriate for protection against financial loss.
Avoid: the risk may be such that CloudCard could decide to cease the activity or to change it in such a way as to end the risk.
Where CloudCard chooses a risk response other than “Accept” or “Avoid” it shall develop a Risk Treatment Plan
Risk Management Procedures
The procedure for managing risk will meet the following criteria:
CloudCard will maintain a Risk Register and Treatment Plan.
Risks are ranked by ‘likelihood’ and ‘severity/impact’ as critical, high, medium, low, and negligible.
Overall risk shall be determined through a combination of likelihood and impact.
Risks may be valued to estimate potential monetary loss where possible.
CloudCard will respond to risks in a prioritized fashion. Remediation priority will consider the risk likelihood and impact, cost, work effort, and availability of resources. Multiple remediations may be undertaken simultaneously
Regular reports will be made to the senior leadership of CloudCard to ensure risks are being mitigated appropriately, and in accordance with business priorities and objectives.
Risk Acceptance Roles
Role | Responsibility |
CEO | Oversight of the acceptance and/or treatment of any risks to the organization. |
CTO | Identify Information Technology and Information Security related Risks Develop treatment plans for risks identified above. Communicate risks to Managing Director. Adopt Risk Treatments in accordance with direction of the Managing Director. |
Risk Register
For current Risk Register, see https://app.vanta.com/risk-management/risk-register
Version | Date | Description | Author | Approved by |
1.0 | 2023-03-27 | Initial Implementation | Ryan Heathcote | Luke Rettstatt |
1.1 | 2024-07-26 | Annual Review | Ryan Heathcote | Luke Rettsatt |
APPENDIX A – Risk Assessment Process
The following is a high-level overview of the process used by CloudCard to assess and manage information security related risks.
The risk assessment process (based on NIST 800-30) is comprised of the following steps:
Prepare for the assessment
Conduct the assessment
Communicate the assessment
Maintain the assessment
Step 1: Prepare for the Assessment
The objective of preparation is to establish context for the risk assessment. This can be accomplished by performing the following:
Identify the purpose of the assessment
Determine the information that the assessment is intended to produce and the decisions the assessment is intended to support.
Identify the scope of the assessment
Determine the organizational function or process that is applicable, the associated time frame and any applicable architectural or technological considerations.
Identify any assumptions or constraints associated with the assessment
Determine assumptions in key areas relevant to the risk assessment including:
Organizational priorities
Business objectives
Resource availability
Skills and expertise of risk assessment team
Identify sources of information
Architectural / technological diagrams and system configurations
Legal and regulatory requirements
Threat Sources
Threat Events
Vulnerabilities and influencing conditions
Potential Impacts
Existing Controls
Step 2: Conduct the Assessment
The objective of the assessment itself is to produce a list of information security related risks that can be prioritized by risk level and used to inform risk response decisions. This can be accomplished by performing the following:
Identify Threat Sources
Determine and characterize threat sources relevant to and of concern to CloudCard , including but not limited to:
Human (Intentional or Unintentional / Internal or External)
Environmental
Natural
System or Equipment
Consider the following when identifying threat sources:
Capability
Motive / Intent
Intentionally targeted people, processes, and/or technologies
Unintentionally targeted people, processes, and/or technologies
Identify Threat Events
Determine what threat events could be produce by the identified threat sources that have potential to impact CloudCard
Consider the relevance of the events and the sources that could initiate the events.
Identify Vulnerabilities
Determine the vulnerabilities with the CloudCard such associated to people, process and/or technologies that could be exploited by the identified threat sources and threat events.
Consider any influencing conditions that could affect and aid in successful exploitation.
Determine Likelihood
Determine the likelihood that the identified threat sources would initiate the identified threat events and could successfully exploit any identified vulnerabilities.
Consider the following when determining the likelihood:
Characteristics of the threat sources that could initiate the events.
Capability
Motive/Intent
Opportunity
The vulnerabilities and/or influencing conditions identified
CloudCard ’s exposure based on any safeguards/countermeasures planned or implemented to prevent or mitigate such events.
Determine Impact
Determine the impact to CloudCard ’s business objectives, operations, assets, individuals, customers, and/or other organizations by considering the following:
Business / Operational Impacts
Financial Damage
Reputation Damage
Legal or Regulatory Issues
When determining impact, also take into consideration any safeguards/countermeasures planned or implemented by CloudCard that would mitigate or lessen the impact.
Determine Risk
Determine the overall information security related risks to CloudCard by combining the following:
The likelihood of the event occurring.
The impact that would result from the event.
The risk to CloudCard is proportional to the likelihood and impact of an event.
Higher Risk Event: Is more likely to occur and the resulting impact will be greater.
Lower Risk Event: Is less likely to occur and the resulting impact will be minimal if any.
Step 3: Communicate and Share the Risk Assessment Results
In this step, the objective is to ensure that decision makers across the CloudCard and executive leadership have the appropriate risk-related information needed to inform and guide risk decisions.
Communicate the Results
Communicate the risk assessment results to CloudCard decision makers and executive leadership to help drive risk based decisions and obtain the necessary support for the risk response.
Share the risk assessment and risk-related information with the appropriate personnel at CloudCard to help support the risk response efforts.
Step 4: Maintain the Assessment
In this step, the objective is to keep current, the specific knowledge related to the risks that CloudCard incurs. The results of the assessments inform, and drive risk based decisions and guide ongoing risk responses efforts.
Monitor Risk Factors
Conduct ongoing monitoring of the risk factors that contribute to changes in risk to CloudCard ’s business objectives, operations, assets, individuals, customers, and/or other organizations.
Maintain and Update the Assessment
Update existing risk assessments using the results from ongoing monitoring of risk factors and by conducting additional assessments, at minimum annually.
APPENDIX B - Risk Assessment Matrix and Description Key
RISK= LIKELIHOOD * IMPACT | LIKELIHOOD | ||||
IMPACT | Very Low: 1 (Very Unlikely) | Low: 2 (Unlikely) | Moderate: 3 (Possible) | High: 4 (Likely) | Very High: 5 (Frequent) |
Critical: 5 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
High: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
Moderate: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
Low: 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
Negligible: 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
RISK LEVEL | RISK DESCRIPTION |
Low (1-4) | A threat event could be expected to have a limited adverse effect on organizational operations, mission capabilities, assets, individuals, customers, or other organizations. |
Medium (5-12) | A threat event could be expected to have a serious adverse effect on organizational operations, mission capabilities, assets, individuals, customers, or other organizations |
High (15-25) | A threat event could be expected to have a severe adverse effect on organizational operations, mission capabilities, assets, individuals, customers, or other organizations. |
LIKELIHOOD LEVEL | LIKELIHOOD DESCRIPTION | RATING (NUMERICAL) |
Very Unlikely (1) | A threat event is so unlikely that it can be assumed that its occurrence may not be experienced. A threat source is not motivated or has no capability, or controls are in place to prevent or significantly impede the vulnerability from being exploited. Probability of Occurrence: < 5% in a 5-10 year period | 1 |
Unlikely (2) | A threat event is unlikely, but there is a slight possibility that its occurrence may be experienced. A threat source lacks sufficient motivation or capability, or controls are in place to prevent or impede the vulnerability from being exploited. Probability of Occurrence: 6% to 20% in a 2-5 year period | 2 |
Somewhat likely (3) | A threat event is likely, and it can be assumed that its occurrence may be experienced. A threat source is motivated or poses the capability, but controls are in place that may significantly reduce or impeded the successful exploitation of the vulnerability. Probability of Occurrence: 21% to 50% in a 1-2 year period | 3 |
Likely (4) | A threat event is likely, and it can be assumed that its occurrence will be experienced. A threat source is highly motivated or poses sufficient capability and resources, but some controls are in place that may reduce or impede the successful exploitation of the vulnerability. Probability of Occurrence: 51% to 80% in a 1 year period | 4 |
Very Likely (5) | A threat event is highly likely, and it can be assumed that its occurrence will be experienced. A threat source is highly motivated or poses sufficient capability or resources, but no controls are in place or controls that are in place are ineffective and do not prevent or impede the successful exploitation of the vulnerability. Probability of Occurrence: > 80% in a 1 year period or less | 5 |
IMPACT LEVEL | IMPACT DESCRIPTION | RATING (NUMERICAL) |
Very low impact (1) | A threat event could be expected to have almost no adverse effect on organizational operations, mission capabilities, assets, individuals, customers other or organizations | 1 |
Low impact (2) | A threat event could be expected to have a limited adverse effect, meaning: degradation of mission capability yet primary functions can still be performed; minor damage; minor financial loss; or range of effects is limited to some cyber resources but no critical resources. | 2 |
Medium impact (3) | A threat event could be expected to have a serious adverse effect, meaning: significant degradation of mission capability yet primary functions can still be performed at a reduced capacity; minor damage; minor financial loss; or range of effects is significant to some cyber resources and some critical resources. | 3 |
High impact (4) | A threat event could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect, meaning: severe degradation or loss of mission capability and one or more primary functions cannot be performed; major damage; major financial loss; or range of effects is extensive to most cyber resources and most critical resources. | 4 |
Very high impact (5) | A threat event could be expected to have multiple severe or catastrophic adverse effects on organizational operations, assets, individuals, other organizations, or the Nation. Range of effects is sweeping, involving almost all cyber resources. | 5 |