The Cyber-Risk Playbook: Gartner-Backed Strategies for Modern Security Leaders​

Cyber risk has firmly shifted into the boardroom. According to Gartner, while 84% of board members now see cybersecurity as a business risk, only 17% report seeing real outcomes from their security investments. This disconnect reveals a critical issue: awareness is growing, but execution is falling short.

Many organizations still lack a clear, strategic approach to cyber-risk management—resulting in poor alignment, undefined risk appetite, and weak monitoring. To close this gap, Gartner offers a structured framework that helps leaders embed cyber risk into their business DNA.

In this blog, we’ll explore Gartner’s Cyber-Risk Management “Cookbook” and break down 4 essential steps to help you build a mature, business-aligned cyber-risk program.

What Is Cyber-Risk Management?​

Cyber-risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling risks that arise from the use of digital technologies. These risks can affect an organization’s operations, financial performance, reputation, and compliance posture.

Unlike traditional IT risk, cyber risk extends across the business—impacting supply chains, customer trust, and strategic decisions. Effective cyber-risk management ensures that cybersecurity efforts are aligned with business goals, enabling informed decision-making and proactive threat mitigation.

To explore how collaboration across teams enhances risk visibility and control, check out our article on Collaborative Cyber Risk Management.

Why It’s a Business Priority​

Cyber risk has become a core business concern, not just a technical issue. Security leaders are under pressure from stakeholders and regulators to prove their cyber-risk posture is effective and aligned with business goals.

Despite growing awareness, most organizations struggle to deliver results. Gaps like undefined risk appetite, limited risk assessments, and poor integration with business processes hinder impact.

This is especially evident with emerging technologies. While 66% of organizations expect AI to have the greatest impact on cybersecurity, only 37% have processes to assess the security of AI tools before deployment, revealing a disconnect between risk recognition and readiness (WEF Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025).

To meet rising expectations, businesses need a clear, structured approach to cyber-risk—one that drives action, accountability, and measurable outcomes.

For deeper insights into how security behavior and culture contribute to long-term cyber resilience, explore our guide on What Is the Security Culture Maturity Model?

Key Challenges Organizations Face​

Even as cybersecurity becomes more important, many organizations still face major challenges in managing cyber risks effectively:

• Not enough risk checks: Many systems go live without being properly assessed for risks.
• No clear risk limits: Teams often don’t know what level of risk is acceptable, making it hard to take the right actions.
• Lack of connection to daily work: Cyber-risk processes are often separate from everyday operations, which slows response and weakens impact.
• Slow to react: Without ongoing monitoring, threats are spotted too late.
• People-based risks ignored: Without Security Awareness Training, employees remain vulnerable to phishing and other attacks.
• Poor support from leadership: If cyber-risk efforts aren’t linked to business goals, it’s harder to get buy-in from executives.

To fix these issues, organizations need a simple, connected cyber-risk strategy that works across people, processes, and technology.

Let’s explore the 4 key steps from Gartner’s Cyber-Risk Management Cookbook for Security Leaders—a structured approach designed to build stronger, more aligned risk programs.

Step 1: Build the Cyber-Risk Program Structure​

A solid cyber-risk program begins with clear roles, responsibilities, and governance. It should be integrated into daily business operations—not treated as a separate IT task.

Start by defining ownership: who manages cyber risk, how decisions are made, and which policies support those decisions. Align your structure with frameworks like ISO/IEC 27005 or NIST SP 800-37 R2.

Create a dedicated cyber-risk committee with a clear charter to review risks, drive actions, and ensure alignment with your risk appetite.

This foundation ensures accountability, improves coordination, and supports smarter risk decisions across the organization.

Define Roles, Policies, and Governance​

Start by clearly assigning roles across departments—security, IT, compliance, and business units. Everyone should understand their responsibilities in identifying, reporting, and managing cyber risks.

Develop policies that outline how risks are assessed, mitigated, and monitored. These should be practical, easy to follow, and aligned with existing business processes.

Governance is key. Ensure that cyber-risk decisions follow a structured process, supported by documented standards and reviewed regularly by leadership. This keeps risk efforts transparent, consistent, and aligned with business goals.

Form Committees with Clear Charters​

Establish a dedicated cyber-risk committee to oversee risk management efforts and ensure alignment with the organization’s strategy.

This committee should include key stakeholders from security, risk, compliance, IT, and business leadership. Its charter should clearly define its purpose, member roles, decision-making process, meeting frequency, and how actions are tracked.

A well-structured committee ensures accountability, faster decision-making, and consistent oversight of your cyber-risk posture.

Step 2: Assess Maturity and Controls​

Understanding where your organization stands is essential to improving cyber-risk management. This step involves evaluating both your process maturity and the effectiveness of current security controls.

Start by using a structured framework—like the IT Score for Security and Risk Management—to measure how well your organization defines, manages, and monitors cyber risks. This provides a baseline to track progress over time.

Next, conduct a Cybersecurity Controls Assessment to review how well existing controls are implemented and how they compare to industry benchmarks. This helps identify gaps, prioritize improvements, and justify investments.

These assessments give you a clear picture of your risk posture and provide actionable insights to strengthen your defenses.

Evaluate Process Maturity and Risk Posture​

Start by measuring how well your organization defines, manages, and monitors cyber risks across departments. Use structured tools like Gartner’s IT Score for Security and Risk Management to assess performance across key areas—such as risk assessments, control development, third-party risk, and monitoring.

This evaluation helps identify gaps, track your maturity level over time, and ensure that cyber-risk efforts are evolving with your organization’s needs.

A clear view of your current posture sets the foundation for smarter planning, resource allocation, and executive reporting.

Close Security and Control Gaps​

After assessing your controls, focus on identifying and fixing the most critical weaknesses. Use the Cybersecurity Controls Assessment to pinpoint gaps that expose the organization to high risk.

Prioritize improvements based on business impact and compliance needs. Develop a clear action plan with quick wins and longer-term fixes, aligned with your resources and risk appetite.

Benchmark your controls against industry peers to guide improvements and strengthen your case for funding. Closing these gaps helps reduce exposure and build a more resilient security foundation.

Step 3: Set Risk Appetite and Use a Risk Register​

Knowing how much risk your organization is willing to take isn't just a governance box to check—it’s a strategic decision that shapes every security move you make.

A clearly defined cyber-risk appetite helps prioritize which risks to address, which to tolerate, and where to allocate resources. Collaborate across teams—from IT and compliance to executive leadership—to align this threshold with your business objectives.

Once defined, capture all identified risks in a structured risk register. This living document should track each risk’s severity, likelihood, owner, and treatment plan. It becomes the single source of truth for reporting, prioritizing, and aligning risks with broader enterprise goals.

Together, your risk appetite and register ensure every cyber-risk decision is focused, consistent, and business-aligned.

Step 4: Monitor and Report Cyber Risks​

To manage cyber risk effectively, you need more than just controls—you need to continuously track performance and clearly communicate risks to decision-makers. Monitoring and reporting ensure that threats are addressed promptly and aligned with business priorities.

Use KPIs and Real-Time Metrics​

Implement Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Key Risk Indicators (KRIs), and Key Control Indicators (KCIs) to continuously track your cyber-risk posture. These metrics provide real-time visibility into the effectiveness of controls and emerging threats, helping teams respond quickly and adjust strategies before risks escalate.

Build Clear Dashboards for Executives​

Develop dashboards tailored to different audiences, especially senior leadership. Focus on presenting key cyber risks in business terms—highlighting impact, urgency, and alignment with strategic goals. Effective dashboards enable data-driven discussions, helping executives prioritize risk mitigation and make informed decisions.

To see how executive reporting can help identify and communicate risk levels across your organization, check out our article on Executive Reports: Companies with the Highest Risk Scores.

Together, real-time monitoring and executive-level reporting ensure your cyber-risk program remains responsive, measurable, and fully aligned with the business.

The 5-D Rule for Smarter Risk Management​

Gartner’s 5-D Rule outlines key elements for building a cyber-risk program that not only protects the organization but also supports business growth and decision-making:

• Dynamic: Keeps your risk strategy flexible and responsive to new threats, ensuring the business stays protected as conditions change.
• Distributed: Engages teams across the organization, creating a shared responsibility model that reduces blind spots and accelerates response.
• Defensible: Ensures all decisions are evidence-based and well-documented, helping defend actions to auditors, regulators, and stakeholders.
• Data-Driven: Uses real-time metrics and analytics to prioritize the most important risks, making resource allocation more effective.
• Decision-Enabling: Translates technical risk into business impact, helping leadership make faster, more informed choices.

By applying the 5-D Rule, companies can create a cyber-risk strategy that drives accountability, improves resilience, and delivers clear business value.

To see how cyber-risk management can drive strategic value, explore our article on Security as a Business Enabler—a practical guide for CISOs to align security with business goals and secure the support they need.

How Keepnet Supports End-to-End Cyber-Risk Management​

Keepnet enables organizations to build a proactive, people-focused cyber-risk strategy by addressing the human element of security.

With Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management Platform, you can strengthen your defenses through:

• AI-powered phishing simulations: Choose from over 6,000 realistic phishing templates to simulate real attack scenarios, helping employees recognize and respond to threats more effectively.
• Behavior-based Security Awareness Training: Access 2,100+ training materials from 15+ providers in 36+ languages. Content is adaptable to user roles, languages, and risk levels—ideal for global teams.
• Automated phishing response with Incident Responder: Keepnet’s Incident Responder detects and removes phishing emails in real time—reducing manual investigation workload and accelerating threat containment.

By combining simulation, education, and automated response, Keepnet gives security teams the tools they need to reduce human risk, improve visibility, and manage threats at scale.