Towards the Definition of a Dynamic and Systemic Assessment for Cybersecurity Risks

Nowadays, our society is increasingly becoming economically and socially dependent on the cyberspace. However, the cyberspace is exposed to numerous risks, and there is a constant threat of exploitable vulnerabilities, which could cause significant reputational and economic damages. For addressing these threats, the Italian National Cyber Security Framework was developed to offer an approach to assessing cyber risks into organizations, as well as to help improve the related security through focused investments. Still, this evaluation is not a straightforward endeavour. Using the principles of the Systems Thinking paradigm, this work puts into causal relationships the self-assessment risk-categories by associating them to the various aspects of an organization structure used as a case study (composed of business areas and process). Finally, it presents a systemic causal-effect relationship map capable of evidencing how a change in one or more categories could impact other security-related elements of the company. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.