In cybersecurity, understanding the differences between risk, vulnerability, and threats is crucial for effective risk management and mitigation.
Risk
This is the potential loss, damage or destruction of an asset due to a threat exploiting a vulnerability, representing the likelihood of a threat causing harm and the impact that would result. E.g. The potential for the hacker to exploit the outdated CMS, that may lead to a data breach, compromising the customer information.
Vulnerability
A vulnerability is a weakness or a flaw in a system, network, application or process that can be exploited by a threat to gain unauthorized access or cause harm. E.g. The website uses an outdated version of a CMS with known security flaws.
Threat
This is any circumstance or event with the potential to cause harm to an asset through the exploitation of vulnerabilities. Threats can be natural, like floods, or human-made, like hackers or malware. E.g An hacker targeting a company’s website.
