What is Digital Risk Protection (DRP)?

Digital Risk Protection (DRP) is a cybersecurity discipline focused on proactively identifying and mitigating external threats originating from an organization’s digital footprint. DRP uncovers vulnerabilities and misconfigurations by monitoring public-facing assets like websites, domains, cloud environments, and social media, enabling preventative measures to protect brand reputation, customer trust, and financial stability.

External Risk Management ERM Solution Brief

Importance of Digital Risk Protection for Organizations

DRP shines a light on the cyber threats undiscovered by attackers or internal security teams. Failing to manage these risks could result in a breach that risks brand reputation, finances, and operations.

Impact on Brand Reputation: Data breaches that expose customer information can severely harm an organization’s reputation.
Financial Losses and Disruption: Incidents result in downtime and unwelcome costs for response and remediation. Data breaches can also lead to indirect losses like lost revenue, along with long-term consequences such as higher insurance premiums and reduced market value.
Compliance with Regulations: Failure to comply with data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA can result in substantial fines. Non-compliance can also lead to legal action and difficulty in entering new markets.

How Digital Risk Protection (DRP) Works

DRP is a process that combines automated technology and human expertise to identify, assess, and mitigate digital risks. Here’s how it works:

#1: Digital Footprinting

The initial step involves comprehensively mapping an organization’s online presence to uncover exposed assets and potential attack surfaces. DRP platforms use automation to crawl and index the internet, including the:

Clear web
Deep web
Dark web

Searches can identify exposed websites, vulnerable domains and subdomains, cloud environments with misconfigurations, and data leaks containing sensitive information.

Continuous Monitoring

DRP maintains a real-time view of an organization’s digital risk landscape by continuously scanning for changes and emerging threats.

Automated checks detect these things:

Newly exposed assets
Updated vulnerabilities
Changes in threat actors’ tactics or targets.

Human analysts also play a role in evaluating complex findings, determining the context of risks identified, and validating alert legitimacy and severity.

Risk Prioritization and Alerting

DRP systems utilize scoring procedures, such as the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), to rank vulnerabilities and potential threats based on potential impact and exploitability. Alert mechanisms then notify security teams of newly identified risks or significant changes in existing ones, enabling timely incident response.

The 3 Key Components of Digital Risk Protection

A robust DRP program requires several interconnected components to effectively address digital risks:

Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration: DRP insights are enhanced by incorporating real-time data on emerging digital threats, attackers, and their tactics. By integrating threat feeds from reputable sources to correlate identified risks with active cyber attacks, prioritized response is made possible. Correlation with internal security data, such as incident logs and asset inventories, provides deeper context for understanding the organization’s unique risk profile.

Attack Surface Management: Minimizes exposure by identifying and classifying all exposed assets. Continuous scanning discovers domains, IP addresses, cloud environments, and mobile apps. Monitoring detects shadow IT, alerting security teams to unsanctioned services for mitigation.

Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation: Identifies vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation steps. DRP platforms use scanning, penetration testing, and machine learning to uncover software flaws, outdated dependencies, and misconfigurations. Practical, actionable recommendations are provided, including patching, updating software, or reconfiguring systems to address vulnerabilities.

DRP equips organizations with the data, visibility, and guidance needed for proactive enterprise risk management, strengthening their security posture, and protecting valuable assets.

Implementing a Digital Risk Protection Strategy

Building a DRP program involves an approach centered around assessing the current risk posture and defining clear objectives for improvement.

Assess the Current Digital Risk Posture

Here’s how to do that:

Evaluate the effectiveness of existing DRP controls, such as asset discovery tools, vulnerability scanners, endpoint security, threat intelligence feeds, and incident response plans.
Identify gaps and weaknesses, like unprotected exposures, inadequate vulnerability management, insufficient threat awareness, and unsatisfactory incident response procedures.

Define Objectives and Priorities

Here’s how to do that:

Align DRP goals with business objectives and risk tolerance levels.
Determine critical assets and assess impact of digital risks on operations and reputation.

After that, It’s time to create an implementation roadmap:

Phase 1: Basic asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, basic threat intelligence integration, risk triage, and remediation processes.
Phase 2: Expanded perimeter security coverage, advanced threat detection, improved incident response plans, and performance metrics tracking.
Phase 3: Leverage AI/ML for predictive risk analysis, automate remediation and reporting workflows, and integrate DRP with other security systems like Identity and Access Management (IAM).
Phase 4: Review and update strategy based on changing risks and needs, stay updated on best practices, and refine controls and processes.

7 Best Practices for Implementing an Effective Digital Risk Protection Strategy

Beyond technical tools and processes, success hinges on user awareness, seamless integration with existing security infrastructure, and ongoing refinement.

Here’s how to maximize DRP effectiveness:

Extend Capabilities: DRP platforms are not intended to be standalone tools. Leverage integration options to link it into vulnerability scanners, prioritizing mitigation efforts based on DRP findings. Other integration options include security information and event management (SIEM) systems and threat intelligence platforms to correlate DRP alerts with broader data for proactive response.
Regular Training: Conduct frequent training sessions which focus on specific digital risks relevant to the organization. Cover how DRP protects the work of all employees. Practical best practices: strong passwords, MFA, safe browsing habits, recognizing social engineering attempts
Continuous Improvement Loop: DRP is most effective when it’s adopted as a continual process. Regularly review procedures, gather feedback, learn from incidents, and refine the approach to stay ahead of evolving threats.
Structured Risk Prioritization: Define clear criteria for classifying assets based on data sensitivity, regulatory compliance requirements, and business impact in the event of compromise. This allows more prioritized remediation efforts for highest-risk assets first.
Keep Asset Inventories Current: Regularly update the organization’s digital assets inventory, including domains, cloud instances, mobile apps, etc. Accuracy here is necessary for effective risk assessments and ensuring no exposures are missed.
Harness Automation & AI: Automate repetitive tasks like asset discovery and vulnerability scanning to improve efficiency and reduce human error. Predictive risk analysis systems identify potential vulnerabilities before they’re exploited, while anomaly detection flags unusual activity indicative of a threat.
Measure & Improve with Metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like time to detect a risk, time to remediate a vulnerability, and reduction in the overall number of identified risks over time. Use these data points to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Digital Risk Protection with Check Point

A digital risk protection strategy involves not only deploying relevant security tools and controls but also:

Fostering user awareness
Integrating DRP with existing security infrastructure
Continuously optimizing processes by analyzing feedback and data gathered

Check Point helps organizations mitigate severe cyber risks. Check Point External Risk Management is a comprehensive solution that offers continuous protection, including attack surface management, digital risk protection, and threat intelligence.

Schedule a demo to quantify risks to the organization and demonstrate tangible reduction over time.

Protecting the digital landscape requires tailored, flexible cybersecurity solutions. Check Point’s Infinity Global Services offers end-to-end resilience, from initial assessment to rapid response. Contact our experts today to discuss how we can fortify your organization’s defenses and create a customized security strategy that adapts as threats evolve.