Risk Management in 2025: How to Simplify and Mitigate Infosec Risks

Amshuman

Amshuman

Jan 02, 2025
Risk Management Feature Image

Companies get complex over time and are not simple. 2025 and the years previous have been among the most momentous for business, featuring not only global pandemics but also tense geopolitical events and disruptive technologies (Gen AI and high-performing ML models) with far-reaching consequences. 

The effect of these events and the continuously morphing risk landscape on how organizations keep up with risks has been, luckily, predictable. 

Nearly 83% of businesses say that complex, interconnected risks are emerging more rapidly, and 72% say that their risk management capabilities have not kept pace. 

Due to most businesses now operating in multiple sectors and forming adjacent partnerships, organizations are now seeing risks cut across sectors, with 81% of businesses saying that cross-sector risks now affect their business. 

The increasing complexity of risks also affects how organizations manage threats associated with well-established technology – 56% of risk professionals say that they aren’t confident about managing their cloud risks. 

The question of how to manage a rapidly changing, complex system like the risk environment has a deceptively simple answer: contextualize your risks, figure out how big these risks are, and be proactive about controlling them. 

Much like a deeply interconnected ecosystem can be modeled after simple predator-prey or parent-child relationships, risks can be effectively managed simply by understanding the source, assessing severity, quantifying impact, right-sizing liabilities, and monitoring risks continuously. The question of operationalizing risk management protocols hence becomes a question of assessment, quantification, and tracking.

Traditional risk management lacks context 

The classical way of managing risks – any risk, including cyber – involves organizations approaching the task as a point-in-time activity, armed with a list of risk scenarios and common mitigation strategies. 

But without a means to update risk registers and contextually assess emerging risks, you end up playing catchup, often reacting to risks hastily and a little too late instead of responding in a measured manner. 

The traditional method of how to manage risk management functions fails due to a number of additional reasons. 

1. Broad-brush approach 

Comprehensive risk management requires an equally comprehensive view of risks. However, squaring a seemingly endless barrage of risks with limited time, resources, and budgets is a major challenge. 

This often forces organizations to either assume all risks are equally important or overestimate the importance of a few, leading to over and under-hedged risks. 

The consequence: poor risk assessment, increased susceptibility to threats, and possible audit failure. 

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