Reducing cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies using a cybersecurity risk multiplier

• US 10,671,957 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2019
• Issued: 06/02/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SecurityScorecard, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SecurityScorecard, Inc.
• Inventors: Mo, Jue, Vargas, Luis, Sohval, A. Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Getachew, Abiy
• Application Number:
  US16/537,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20190378067A1
• Time in Patent Office: 298 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis

Abstract

A multiplier is utilized to quantify a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of entities (e.g., companies) and enable actions to mitigate that quantified risk. In doing so, features or attributes of one or more companies in a portfolio are compared to features or attributes of one or more companies that experienced an adverse cybersecurity event (e.g. a data breach). Further, a degree of dependency, such as a matrix of a number of shared vendors and the proximity of those vendors to the companies, can be measured between (1) portfolio companies and one or more companies that experienced a cybersecurity event, and/or (2) the portfolio companies themselves to better quantify the risk. That is, to more meaningfully analyze a cybersecurity event that occurred at one or more companies and better predict the likelihood of an occurrence at portfolio companies, embodiments can determine an n-degree interdependency between companies.

Claims

1. An interactive tool for improving a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies, the interactive tool comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the memory, where the one or more processors are configured to;

identify;

at least one company that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certain time period;

at least one attribute common to the at least one identified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event and at least one company in the portfolio of companies,

a degree of mutuality of the at least one attribute;

determine a probability that another cybersecurity risk event will occur with respect to the portfolio of companies, where the probability depends on;

the number of identified common attributes, and

degrees of mutuality of the number of identified attributes;

generate, from the determined probability, a cybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio of companies; and

generate a refined cybersecurity risk level that is a function of the initial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.

2. The interactive tool of claim 1, where the one or more processors are further configured to execute at least one action to improve the refined cybersecurity risk level in response to a user selection, where the action comprises:

an action to remove a company from the portfolio of companies; and

an action to replace the removed company with a new company, where the new company was not previously included in the portfolio of companies.

3. The interactive tool of claim 1 where the refined cybersecurity risk level is expressed as a product of the initial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.

4. A method for improving a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies, the method comprising:

identifying at least one company that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certain time period;

identifying;

at least one attribute common to the at least one identified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event and at least one company in the portfolio of companies, and

a degree of mutuality of the at least one attributes;

determining a probability that another cybersecurity risk event will occur with respect to the portfolio of companies, where the probability depends on;

the number of identified common attributes, and

degrees of mutuality of the number of identified attributes;

generating, from the determined probability, a cybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio of companies; and

generating a refined cybersecurity risk level that is a function of the initial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

executing at least one action s to improve the refined cybersecurity risk level in response to a user selection, where the one or more actions comprise;

removing a company from the portfolio of companies;

replacing the removed company with a new company, where the new company was not previously included in the portfolio of companies; and

identifying a critical cybersecurity attribute and remove the identified critical cybersecurity attribute from the portfolio of companies.

6. The method of claim 4, where the refined cybersecurity risk level is expressed as a product of the initial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.

7. The method of claim 4, where the at least one identified company that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during the certain time period is in the portfolio of companies.

8. The method of claim 7, where the certain time period is historical.

9. The method of claim 4, where the at least one identified company that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during the certain time period is not in the portfolio of companies.

10. The method of claim 9, where the certain time period is historical.

11. The method of claim 4, where the initial cybersecurity risk level is generated, at least in part, from cybersecurity data relating to at least one company in the portfolio of companies during the certain time period.

12. The method of claim 4, where the initial cybersecurity risk level is generated, at least in part, by comparing attributes indicative of cybersecurity risk level of companies in the portfolio of companies to the attributes indicative of cybersecurity risk level of companies in another portfolio of companies comprising randomly selected companies.

13. The method of claim 4, where the identified common attributes are weighted according to their correlation with an incidence of a cybersecurity risk event, and the determined probability further depends on the weights of the identified common attributes.

14. The method of claim 4, where the identified common attributes comprise an internal attribute that is shared by companies in the portfolio of companies.

15. The method of claim 14, where the internal attribute comprises one or more of:

vulnerable host, obsolete user agent, number of new malware events, open ports, slow patching cadence, and inadequate use of firewalls and inadequate use of intrusion detection system.

16. The method of claim 4, where the identified common attributes comprise an external attribute that is shared by companies in the portfolio of companies and one or more companies not in the portfolio of companies.

17. The method of claim 16, where the external attribute comprises one or more of:

inadequate use of social media accounts, lost or stolen passwords, and inadequate social network sentiment.

18. The method of claim 4, where the identified common attributes comprises a first-degree common attribute, and where the first-degree common attribute comprises at least one vendor that is common to two or more companies in the portfolio of companies.

19. The method of claim 4, where the identified common attributes comprises a second-degree common attribute, and where the second-degree common attribute comprises at least one vendor that is common to two or more vendors, where the two or more vendors are common to two or more companies in the portfolio of companies.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations to improve a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies, the operations comprising:

identifying at least one company that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certain time period;

identifying;

at least one attribute common to the at least one identified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event and at least one company in the portfolio of companies, and

a degree of mutuality of the at least one attributes;

determining a probability that another cybersecurity risk event will occur with respect to the portfolio of companies, where the probability depends on;

the number of identified common attributes, and

degrees of mutuality of the number of identified attributes;

generating, from the determined probability, a cybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio of companies; and

generating a refined cybersecurity risk level that is a function of the initial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.