Risk Acceptance Rules

Accepting risks from vulnerability findings means making a conscious decision to recognize and tolerate certain vulnerabilities without addressing them right away. 

Common Challenges

Many cyber security teams face a common challenge:

• A growing backlog of unresolved vulnerabilities, some of which have remained unaddressed for years
• A steady influx of new threats, including CVEs, misconfigurations, and other security gaps
• Limited resources and operational constraints make it difficult to remediate issues, such as applying patches, performing system upgrades, or retiring outdated software.

Reasons for Risk Acceptance

This approach is usually taken when the cost of mitigation is greater than the potential impact of a vulnerability or when the risk is within the organization’s acceptable risk tolerance level. 

After consulting with internal stakeholders, you may categorize certain vulnerabilities as false positives or conclude that specific findings cannot be addressed.

Typical reasons for accepting risks posed by vulnerabilities:

• Patch Availability

  Organizations often need to test a patch in a controlled environment before deploying it to ensure it doesn’t introduce new issues or break existing functionality. 

  Rolling out a patch across a large or complex environment takes planning. While rollout is in progress, the associated risk may be accepted as part of the process.

• Temporarily Accepting Risks Within SLA Guidelines

  If the vulnerability is still within the organization’s agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA) for remediation, the risk can be accepted temporarily until the deadline for fixing it is reached.

• Managing Vulnerabilities During Scheduled Maintenance Windows

  Some vulnerabilities can only be addressed during scheduled maintenance windows. If immediate remediation would impact business operations, the risk may be accepted until the next available downtime.

• False Positive

  In some cases, a vulnerability may be incorrectly flagged. If validated as a false positive, the risk is accepted since no real threat exists.

Documenting accepted risks and assigning responsibility for regular monitoring and reassessment is crucial.

The following are the benefits of having Risk Acceptance rules: 

• Resource Optimization: Focus resources on higher-priority vulnerabilities.
• Strategic Alignment: Align risk acceptance with business goals and risk appetite.
• Temporary Relief with Control: Risk acceptance offers a temporary and controlled way to defer remediation while ensuring the risk is tracked, justified, and monitored. business goals and risk appetite.