The Problem with Qualitative Risk
Traditional risk assessments often rely on subjective ratings like "High," "Medium," and "Low." While simple, these approaches have significant limitations:
- Different people interpret ratings differently
- Can't compare risks across different domains
- Hard to justify security investments to leadership
- Doesn't translate to business terms
What is Quantitative Risk?
Quantitative risk assessment assigns numerical values to risks, typically in financial terms:
- ALE (Annual Loss Expectancy): Expected yearly financial loss
- SLE (Single Loss Expectancy): Financial impact of a single incident
- ARO (Annual Rate of Occurrence): Probability of incident per year
FAIR Framework
Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) is a leading quantitative risk framework:
- Provides standardized taxonomy for risk
- Uses ranges to account for uncertainty
- Produces defensible financial estimates
- Enables comparison of different risks
Benefits of Quantification
- Speak the language of business (dollars and cents)
- Justify security budgets with ROI
- Prioritize based on potential financial impact
- Make data-driven decisions
Scapien's Risk Quantification
Scapien ties every security finding to its potential business impact, helping you prioritize remediation efforts where they'll have the greatest effect on reducing organizational risk.