Cybersecurity risk management is a technical necessity and a strategic imperative. Cyber threats are continuously evolving and intensifying. Organizations must adopt the most robust strategies for protecting their assets, reputation, and bottom line. High-stakes industries like energy, healthcare and financial services face particularly crucial challenges, where a single breach can lead to far-reaching consequences.

The Rising Tide of Cyber Threats

Recent data paints a sobering picture of the cybersecurity landscape, especially in healthcare. In 2023, healthcare data breaches affected 133 million individuals—more than double the previous year’s count. The average breach now impacts over 200,000 people, with the number of breached healthcare records skyrocketing by 156% in a single year.

Ransomware attacks on hospital systems have also seen a sharp increase, with 46 systems falling prey in 2023, up from 25 in 2022. These statistics represent real risks to patient care, operational continuity, and financial stability. With the average healthcare data breach costing $10.93 million per incident, organizations face high stakes in their cybersecurity efforts.

Key Components of an Effective Risk Management Strategy

1. Comprehensive Asset Inventory
   Protecting your digital assets requires knowing what you have. A thorough inventory of all digital assets forms the foundation of any robust cyber risk management
2. Continuous Vulnerability Assessment
   Regular scanning and assessment of your critical assets and critical systems for vulnerabilities plays a crucial role. However, the volume of data generated can overwhelm teams without the right tools.
3. Risk Prioritization
   Vulnerabilities vary in their potential impact. Effective risk management requires the ability to prioritize risk exposures on their potential impact within your specific business context.
4. Streamlining Remediation Workflows
   Streamlined processes for remediation can significantly reduce your exposure time once risks are identified and prioritized.
5. Comprehensive Compliance Management
   Maintaining compliance with industry regulations like HIPAA for healthcare and PCI DSS for payment card data is crucial. Your risk management strategy must seamlessly incorporate these compliance requirements to protect sensitive data and avoid penalties.
6. Executive Reporting
   Communicating complex cybersecurity risks and compliance statuses to non-technical stakeholders proves crucial for gaining buy-in and resources.

How SAINT VRM Facilitates Risk Management

Addressing these components effectively requires more than just manpower. It demands intelligent, risk-focused solutions that focus priorities and resources on exposures of highest impact to the business. SAINT VRM offers a comprehensive solution to the challenges faced by today’s CISOs.

Tackling Data Overwhelm

The sheer volume of scan data presents one of the biggest pain points in vulnerability management. SAINT VRM cuts through the noise with advanced analytics and customizable dashboards, allowing you to focus on what truly matters to your organization.

Rapid Time-to-Value

SAINT VRM offers immediate insights from your very first scan, unlike traditional tools that require extensive setup and configuration. Its pre-configured risk rules and asset classification system enable you to start making informed decisions right away.

Intelligent Prioritization

SAINT VRM goes beyond simple severity ratings. By considering factors like asset criticality, threat intelligence, and your unique business context, it helps you focus your resources where they’ll have the most impact.

Streamline Compliance

SAINT VRM simplifies the complex task of maintaining regulatory compliance with pre-configured templates for major standards, particularly HIPAA and PCI DSS.

For healthcare organizations, SAINT VRM helps maintain HIPAA compliance by:

• Identifying the exposure of electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI)
• Identifies and aids classification of critical assets per HIPAA guidelines
• Facilitating risk analyses required by the HIPAA Security Rule

For organizations handling payment card data, SAINT VRM assists with PCI DSS compliance by:

• Identifying exposure of Cardholder Data
• Provides data management, assessment workflows and reporting templates to aid internal assessors, penetration testing, Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs) and compliance reporting.
• Facilitating alignment with both PCI DSS requirements and business risk requirements.

This dual focus is particularly crucial given the recent updates to PCI standards, which place an increased emphasis on a risk-based approach to protecting of the Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) and compliance reporting.

Executive-Friendly Reporting

SAINT VRM’s customizable reports and dashboards translate technical findings into business impact, facilitating better decision-making at all levels of the organization.

Industry-Specific Examples

Healthcare

Healthcare organizations face high stakes in cybersecurity, with dual pressures of protecting patient data (HIPAA) and securing payment information (PCI DSS). SAINT VRM’s ability to address both compliance needs can significantly impact uninterrupted patient care and breach prevention.

The recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare, which brought its systems to a standstill for over a week, underscores the critical need for proactive risk management in healthcare. With SAINT VRM, healthcare CISOs can:

• Quickly identify vulnerabilities in patient data systems
• Prioritize fixes based on potential impact to patient care and compliance
• Streamline both HIPAA and PCI DSS compliance efforts
• Provide clear, actionable insights to hospital leadership on compliance status

Financial Services

In the financial sector, robust cybersecurity and compliance with FFIEC and PCI DSS are non-negotiable. Additionally, many financial institutions also handle health-related data, requiring HIPAA compliance. SAINT VRM offers financial institutions:

• Continuous monitoring of critical financial systems for PCI DSS, FFIEC and HIPAA compliance
• Rapid identification of potential compliance violations across multiple standards
• Workflows to facilitate swift remediation of high-risk vulnerabilities
• Comprehensive reporting for regulatory audits, including PCI DSS, FFIEC and HIPAA requirements

As Daniel Ford, Ph.D., CISO at Jovia Credit Union, notes: “SAINT VRM provides a rules-based method for asset management that will save us a lot of time and money across our compliance efforts.”

Empowering Strategic Cybersecurity Leadership

Effective cybersecurity risk management, including robust compliance with standards like HIPAA, FFIEC and PCI DSS, represents both a technical challenge and a strategic imperative that can significantly impact an organization’s future.

SAINT VRM is a platform for strategic risk management that aligns with your organization’s broader goals, including risk-based management and maintaining compliance with critical standards like HIPAA, FFIEC and PCI DSS. By streamlining the process from vulnerability detection to remediation, and providing clear, business-focused insights on both security and compliance, these tools empower you to manage risks, ensure compliance, and drive value for your organization.

Ready to revolutionize your approach to cybersecurity risk management and compliance? Contact us here.

Take control of your cybersecurity risk management and compliance efforts today with SAINT VRM and avoid becoming another statistic in data breaches or compliance violations.