A security manager just finished the final copy of a risk assessment. This assessment contains a list of identified risks and she has to determine how to treat these risks. What is the best option for the treatment of risks?

Following a risk assessment, the next critical step in the risk management process is risk evaluation. This involves comparing the identified risks against pre-established risk criteria to determine their significance. These criteria define the organization's risk appetite and the threshold for what level of risk is acceptable. This evaluation is fundamental because it dictates the appropriate treatment strategy. Without clear acceptance criteria, decisions to mitigate, transfer, avoid, or accept risk would be arbitrary and inconsistent, undermining the entire risk management effort.

A. Immediate remediation is not always the correct or cost-effective action; risks must first be evaluated against acceptance criteria to prioritize them and determine the appropriate response.
C. Designing controls is a specific risk treatment option (mitigation). This step is premature without first evaluating the risk to decide if mitigation is the necessary treatment.
D. Risk treatment must be cost-effective. The principle of proportionality dictates that the cost of a control should not exceed the value of the asset it protects or the potential loss.

1. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Information security management systems — Requirements.

Section 6.1.2, Information security risk assessment process, item c) 2): States that the process must include "establishing and maintaining information security risk criteria" which includes "criteria for accepting risks".

Section 6.1.3, Information security risk treatment: This clause follows the risk assessment clause, indicating that treatment decisions are made based on the output of the assessment, which includes comparison against the established criteria.

2. ISO/IEC 27005:2022 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Guidance on managing information security risks.

Section 8.4, Risk evaluation: "The purpose of risk evaluation is to support decisions. Risk evaluation involves comparing the results of risk analysis with the risk criteria established in 7.3 in order to determine where additional action is needed." This explicitly places the comparison against criteria (evaluation) before deciding on treatment.

3. NIST Special Publication 800-39, Managing Information Security Risk: Organization, Mission, and Information System View.

Section 2.2, The Risk Management Process, Page 9: The framework outlines a multi-tiered approach where risk response (treatment) is determined based on the organization's defined risk tolerance. Establishing this tolerance is equivalent to setting criteria for risk acceptance. The "Respond" step explicitly involves evaluating alternatives based on this tolerance.