How agencies can improve cyber risk management strategies through a risk operations center

Today’s rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape presents urgent and significant challenges to federal agencies. The emergence of AI-powered threats, state-sponsored adversaries, internal vulnerabilities and threat complexity create pervasive and multifaceted risks that demand immediate attention.

As a result, security operations are constantly in motion, prompting the need for holistic, adaptive security strategies and an emphasis on risk and cyber resilience.

This need begs a few questions for agencies: How can security teams quantify and manage today’s cyber risks more effectively? What is needed to evolve traditional vulnerability and exposure management programs into proactive, risk-based operations? How can risk operations support or supplement the Security Operations Center (SOC), which focuses on handling log data and filtering through alerts?

Enter a ROC

A risk operations center (ROC) offers an evolution to how traditional vulnerability management programs work today. It consolidates all risk data from federal cybersecurity, operations and finance departments to provide a complete threat perspective within an agency. A ROC is not meant to replace a SOC, but plays a different risk management function. It is a central hub for consolidating various security and IT teams, workflows and tools into a unified agency IT infrastructure. ROCs also build federal cyber resilience by providing federal agencies with a full overview of the cyber threats they face, such as ransomware and advanced persistent threats.

By integrating risk assessment, prioritization and remediation within a ROC, government cybersecurity teams can communicate more effectively with senior executives and other stakeholders about cyber risks, while building resilience in the IT infrastructures of agencies that support their missions. Focusing on mission-critical risks ensures that resources are allocated effectively, protecting vital assets and maintaining national security.

Moreover, a ROC provides the means to compile all agency assets, so teams can prioritize risk outcomes, focusing on critical vulnerabilities that affect agency operations and that put sensitive data at risk.

The impact of a ROC on federal agencies

Unified government action and integration through a ROC can eliminate silos that hinder cyber risk management in federal agencies.

Collaboration across all levels of government is paramount to quantifying cyber risk effectively. In some federal agencies, cyber risk management remains confined to domains and roles within each agency, such as security in the domain of the chief information security officer, financial risk under the chief financial officer and operational risk somewhere with senior management. These silos create gaps where critical information is either lost or misaligned. Key federal stakeholders, including the chief information officer, chief data officer, CISO and CFO, must communicate in a coordinated and unified manner.

Furthermore, a complete understanding of the cyber risk landscape affecting federal agencies will inform every department about the necessary actions to mitigate these risks and clarify the level of investment required. Therefore, any agency’s long-term resilience depends on establishing a ROC strategy for mitigating cyber risks.

A ROC creates a collaborative atmosphere and removes silos, a challenge faced by many government agencies. It also provides a central and operational approach to managing cyber threats against the federal government.

Furthermore, a ROC is essential for prioritizing risks, guiding decision-making to achieve government missions and mitigating threats. It allows agencies to focus on the most severe risks and weaknesses.

Government cyber risk monitoring and response

Any effective government cyber risk management strategy requires specific pivotal roles requiring precise and efficient execution. The ROC ensures that these critical responsibilities are completed accurately.

The ROC monitors and views the entire risk environment, providing uninterrupted surveillance of foreign and domestic cyber threats, as well as potential vulnerabilities that could provide entry points for attackers.

Federal data integration and analysis

The federal government’s extensive data sources make risk management challenging. Data from vulnerability assessments, configuration scans and threat intelligence must be efficiently consolidated, normalized and prioritized. A ROC is critical in converting this complicated government data into usable cybersecurity insights for strategic decisions and data management best practices.

ROCs can also provide agencies with data regarding the cyber dangers they are now facing and plan their budgets accordingly. As a result of reviewing this data, federal decision-makers can improve budgeting and ensure the appropriate investment in cyber risk mitigation measures that are in line with an agency’s overall risk management plan. This advantage ultimately leads to improved data and risk management best practices.

ROCs: Cybersecurity innovation for a more secure future in government

As cybercriminals innovate in their approaches, so, too, must the federal government. With this improved approach to risk operations, cyber teams in the public sector can be equipped to make more strategic decisions, break down work silos, and build cyber resilience against foreign and domestic cyber threats.

Jonathan Trull is chief information security officer and senior vice president for security solution architecture at Qualys.