RE: Risk Assessment/Management

["Keith Phillips" <kphillips () everdreamcorp com>]

Have you looked at Octave? http://www.cert.org/octave/

Regards

Keith 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Brunner [mailto:mark_brunner () hotmail com] 
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 3:02 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Risk Assessment/Management

I am looking for a tool, template or clear example of how to perform a
Risk
Assessment, and then manage the mitigation or acceptance of risk.  I've
read
a lot of the available information regarding the theory, methodologies
and
strategy, but am having a real hard time taking the concepts and
applying
them to real world items.  I've boiled my risk assessment effort to 5
key
questions to start with for ease of creating some kind of matrix
(spreadsheet for now).

For instance, I try to use the following:
1.      What are the resources - Information & Information Systems - I'm
actually
interested in protecting?
        Easy enough to figure out which are the critical items once an
inventory is
made and relationships are established.

2.      What is the value of those resources, monetary or otherwise?
        Easy enough to get the replacement costs of hardware, software,
config
time, etc. but how do you valuate the data?  Based on time and effort to
recreate?

3.      What are the all the possible threats that that those resources
face?
        Where can I get a compendium of risks to apply to each item for
Yes/No
response?

4.      What is the likelihood of those threats being realized?
        Am I supposed to GUESS at this?  How to quantify?

5.      What would be the impact of those threats on my business or
personal
life, if they were realized?
        Easy enough to figure out, based on criticality and function.

I would appreciate any assistance offered.  I'm floundering...

Thanks,
Mark