Governance and risk management
Cybersecurity roles, policies, decision authority, risk ownership, security planning, documentation, and leadership reporting.
Cybersecurity Assessments
Find the cyber weaknesses most likely to affect operations.
Systems Risk Advisory helps utilities, local governments, and critical infrastructure organizations assess cybersecurity risk, identify practical weaknesses, and prioritize improvements that support safe, reliable, and resilient operations.
Why it matters
Cybersecurity assessments should support operational decisions.
For utilities and infrastructure organizations, the real question is whether cyber weaknesses could disrupt service, limit visibility, delay recovery, expose sensitive data, or create operational consequences.
A useful assessment should help leaders understand where risk exists, which issues matter most, and what can be improved first with available time, staff, and budget.
Practical risk reduction
Systems Risk Advisory reviews the people, processes, technology, vendors, access paths, and recovery assumptions that determine whether an organization can prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents.
Questions this service helps answer
Know what to fix first.
The assessment is designed to produce clear answers, not just a long list of findings.
- Where are our most important cybersecurity risks?
- Which weaknesses could affect operations, billing, reporting, communications, or recovery?
- Who has access to important systems, and is that access controlled?
- Are remote access, vendor access, and administrator accounts protected?
- Can we detect suspicious activity quickly enough to respond?
- Are backups protected, recoverable, and aligned with operational priorities?
- What should we fix first if budget and staff time are limited?
- How should findings support AWIA updates, tabletop exercises, or leadership briefings?
Core assessment areas
What we review
Each assessment is scoped to the organization. Common review areas include the controls and practices most likely to reduce real operational risk.
Identity and access management
User accounts, administrator rights, shared accounts, former employee access, passwords, MFA, privileged access, and access reviews.
Remote and vendor access
VPNs, remote support tools, vendor accounts, contractor access, approval practices, logging, MFA coverage, and emergency access.
Network and system exposure
Internet-facing services, firewall rules, wireless exposure, public-facing systems, and pathways between business and operational environments.
Endpoint and server security
Workstations, servers, laptops, endpoint protection, patching practices, unsupported systems, configuration issues, and administrative practices.
Email, cloud, and collaboration
Email protections, cloud accounts, shared storage, file permissions, phishing exposure, retention concerns, and recovery options.
Backup and recovery readiness
Backup scope, offline or immutable backups, restoration testing, recovery priorities, access to backup systems, and ransomware assumptions.
Logging, monitoring, and detection
Account activity, remote access events, endpoint alerts, firewall events, cloud activity, and suspicious behavior that staff can detect and review.
Incident response readiness
Response procedures, escalation paths, contact lists, decision authority, outside support, communications, and evidence preservation.
OT-adjacent risk
Business cyber risk can become operational risk.
A ransomware event may begin in email but affect billing, work orders, public notification, file access, reporting, dispatch, or vendor support. A weak vendor account may create a path into important systems. A poorly protected administrator account may allow rapid damage. A missing backup may turn a contained incident into a prolonged outage.
The assessment identifies cyber weaknesses in business or support systems that may affect SCADA, field operations, plant support, telemetry, or operational continuity.
Common triggers
- Upcoming AWIA RRA or ERP update
- Recent ransomware incident or suspicious activity
- New remote access, vendor access, or cloud service use
- Cyber insurance renewal or questionnaire
- Board, council, audit, or regulator concern
- Need for a practical roadmap before buying tools or requesting budget
Engagement process
How the assessment works
Scope objectives
Identify the systems, facilities, departments, stakeholders, and business concerns that should shape the assessment.
Review documents and architecture
Review policies, diagrams, account lists, remote access methods, vendor support models, incident procedures, and backup practices.
Interview key staff
Speak with leadership, IT, utility staff, operators, vendors, and personnel who understand how systems are used and supported.
Assess practical risk
Evaluate weaknesses based on likelihood, exposure, operational impact, recovery difficulty, and available controls.
Prioritize recommendations
Organize findings into a sequence that reduces risk without overwhelming staff or disrupting operations.
Brief leadership
Explain findings in clear business and operational terms so leaders can make funding, staffing, policy, and risk decisions.
Deliverables
Clear outputs for technical teams and decision-makers.
- Cybersecurity assessment findings summary
- Prioritized risk register or findings table
- Improvement roadmap organized by risk, effort, and operational impact
- Quick-win recommendations for near-term risk reduction
- Remote access, vendor access, account, backup, and recovery observations
- Leadership briefing for executives, boards, councils, or department heads
Good fit for
Organizations that need a practical view of cyber risk.
- Water and wastewater utilities
- Electric utilities and public power organizations
- Local governments and public works departments
- Industrial and manufacturing organizations
- Organizations without dedicated cybersecurity staff
- Organizations concerned about ransomware, remote access, vendor access, account security, or recovery readiness
Why Systems Risk Advisory
Assessment findings should make sense to operations and leadership.
Many assessments are too technical for leadership and too generic for operations. Systems Risk Advisory bridges that gap by explaining cyber risk in terms that matter to infrastructure leaders: service continuity, operational visibility, recovery time, vendor dependence, staffing limits, public trust, and practical implementation.
The assessment does not assume every organization has a large security staff, unlimited budget, or modern technology stack. Recommendations are designed for real utilities, public works departments, local governments, and infrastructure organizations that need to improve security while keeping essential services running.
Need a practical place to start?
Volume 1 of the 15-Minute Cybersecurity Fixes series focuses on remote access, passwords, MFA, and account security. The free companion toolkit helps utilities track tasks, assign owners, and record progress.
Know where cyber risk could disrupt operations.
Systems Risk Advisory helps utilities and critical infrastructure organizations identify practical cybersecurity risks, prioritize improvements, and strengthen resilience across cyber, physical, and operational environments.