# What is Cyber Risk?

> Cyber risk is the effect of uncertainty on organizational objectives arising from digital technology, information, or dependence on connected services.

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## Content

Harm may include operational disruption, financial loss, safety impact, legal exposure, fraud, loss of intellectual property, or damage to customers and partners.

A useful cyber-risk statement describes a scenario rather than naming a weakness in isolation: a threat could exploit a condition affecting particular assets or services and cause defined business consequences. Likelihood and impact help estimate risk, but both contain uncertainty and should be supported by assumptions and evidence.

### Key points

- **Primary purpose:** Connect technical conditions to decisions about business and mission objectives.
- **Assessment inputs:** Critical services, assets, threats, vulnerabilities, existing controls, dependencies, likely consequences, and uncertainty.
- **Response options:** For negative cyber risks, accept, avoid, mitigate, share, or transfer. Positive enterprise-risk opportunities use different responses, such as realize or enhance.
- **Important distinction:** Vulnerability severity is not the same as risk; exposure, exploitability, business context, and compensating controls can change priority.
- **Important limitation:** A single numeric score can hide uncertainty and should not replace a documented scenario and accountable decision.

### Related terms

[Cybersecurity](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cybersecurity/>) · [Vulnerability](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/vulnerability/>) · [Business impact analysis (BIA)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/business-impact-analysis/>) · [Risk assessment](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/risk-assessment/>)

### Sources

[NIST IR 8286r1: Integrating Cybersecurity and Enterprise Risk Management](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/ir/8286/r1/final) · [NIST glossary: Risk](https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/risk)

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