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3.3 Analysis Techniques


3.3 Analysis Techniques


  • Organizations need to evaluate various risk responses to determine appropriate responses for the given risk.


  • Organization should consider following factors for selecting a risk response:


  1. Risk priority

  2. Recommendation of risk assessment report

  3. Cost of risk response as against possible cost of risk event

  4. Legal and regulatory compliance

  5.  Alignment of the response as per the organization’s strategy

  6. Efforts for control implementation in terms of time, resources and expenditure

  7. Compatibility with existing controls


  • Organization should determine what the cost of implementing a specific risk response provides enough value to the organization.


  • Business case provides detailed analyses on various risk responses on which management may take a decision.


  • Business case is prepared with use of following two common methods of analysis:


  1. Cost benefit analysis

  2. Return on investment (ROI)


Cost-benefit Analysis



  • Cost benefit analysis is conducted during the risk response planning stage.


  • Objective of a cost benefit analysis is to determine cost of implementing controls and relevant benefit realization.


  • If the benefit realized from the control is less than the cost of implementation of control, then It does not justify the implementation of the control.


  • Cost and benefit is calculated either through qualitative or through quantitative methods.


  • While determining the cost, total cost of ownership (TCO) should be considered to cover total cost spread across the life cycle of control implementation.


  • The impact or benefit realization is considered on the basis of length of the outage, the frequency of the outage and other associated damage to the organization.


  • Selection of a risk response is primarily based on the cost benefit analysis.



Return on Investment


  • Return on investment is a method in which it is determined how long it will take to recover the cost of control through value added or other savings produced.


  • It is also known as return on security investment for expenditure made on security controls.


  • For investing in control, this is a tricky calculation as it depends on predicting the likelihood and impact of an attack.


  • Most important criteria for selection of risk response is cost benefit analysis. Investment in implementing a control should bring appropriate benefit to the organization.



Key aspects from CRISC exam perspective



CRISC Question
Possible Answer
On what basis, risk response is selected and prioritized?
Cost benefit analysis
What is the most relevant cost to be included in a cost benefit analysis?
Total cost of ownership (TCO)
(to cover total cost spread across the life cycle of control implementation)
At what stage of risk management, cost-benefit analysis is conducted?
Risk Response


Practice Questions - 3.3 Analysis Techniques 


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