How Much Does a Security Risk Assessment Cost?

Protecting your IT environment from the latest cyber threats can feel overwhelming. 

security risk assessment

  • Attackers are continually evolving their methods. 
  • Breaches are impacting more organizations. 
  • And, the cost of all of this is ever-increasing. 

Even with security solutions and policies in place, there are still many unknowns that can keep you awake at night wondering if an attacker has infiltrated your environment. 

One of the most effective ways to calm your uneasiness about cybersecurity is to hire an IT company to perform a comprehensive security assessment. 

During the security risk assessment, your security consultant uses software and manual investigation to discover your vulnerabilities. 

At this point, you’re probably thinking this all sounds great, yet wondering if it’s in your budget. 

The price of a security risk assessment correlates with the size of your business, but there are numerous other factors that can also affect the cost. These include: 

  1. The type of assessment you sign up for 
  2. How many sites your business has
  3. Customer cooperation

Keep in mind that this article is designed solely to help you estimate your security risk assessment cost. The numbers you come up with using the following numbers are meant to guide you, not be an actual quote.

Cost Factor #1: Type of Security Assessment

The most significant pricing factor is which type of assessment you choose. 

There are dozens of different security analyses and vulnerability scans on there, but for the purpose of this article, let’s focus on the following two types of comprehensive security risk assessments: 

  • Comprehensive Security Risk Assessment — This option includes an analysis of your defensive protection and penetration testing to see how you’d fare in a potential attack. At The KR Group, this is referred to as a Purple Team Hive Assessment.
  • Defensive Security Risk Assessment — This option only looks at the defensive side of your security posture The KR Group calls this our Blue Team Hive Assessment. 

security risk assessmentBoth assessments have a base price that encompasses all of the services your security consultant conducts through the course of the project. 

This is priced per user — meaning every employee who has access to your company’s technology. For this base price, it starts at the cost of 200 users even if you have fewer. 

Comprehensive security risk assessments start at $15,000 for up to 200 users, and defensive security risk assessments begin at $12,000 for 200 or fewer users. 

From there, the base price will vary based on the following factors:

  • The first 50 additional users cost $75 each for a comprehensive security risk assessment and $60 per user in a defensive security risk assessment.
  • Users 251 and beyond cost $20 each in both assessments. 

Cost Factor #2: Additional Sites

If your business operates out of one central location, the base price will cover your security assessment expenses — barring no surprises or unique circumstances.

Once you start adding sites, the security assessment price increases to reflect the additional work required from your IT consultant. For example, you’ll need the security advisers to come to each location to look at on-site security mechanisms.

For each site, you’ll add $700 to your total price for comprehensive IT assessments and defensive assessments. 

This fee and the base fee cover the charges related to security assessment services. Your security adviser should calculate the security assessment cost — the exact base fee plus applicable site fees — for your specific company and include it on the statement of work they’ll present to you.

Cost Factor #3: Customer Cooperation

Your cooperation is crucial to having the security assessment go smoothly. Here are a few examples of how lack of cooperation could increase the price:

A. You’re late turning in your environment information form (EIF).

To begin your security assessment, your security adviser needs to know some basic facts about your IT environment. You’ll need to fill out and return an environment information form. This tells your security adviser what hardware and software you have and provides the credentials to access your network. 

If you’re late turning in the EIF, it could increase your security assessment price since it delays the security assessment and prolongs the project.

B. Your network connectivity slows down the security adviser.

No one likes working with a slow internet connection. It makes you less productive and more frustrated. 

Your security adviser will be on site for portions of the security assessment. If they can’t access the internet or the connection is slow, they’ll spend more time on the assessment. 

As a result, the project will take more time and increase the projected cost.

C. You miss on-site appointments during the security assessment process. 

While much of the security assessment is completed remotely, your security adviser will need on-site access for portions of the assessment. security risk assessment

When your security adviser schedules their on-site time, they’ll coordinate with your schedule to ensure they can perform the checks they need on-site access.  

If you’re unavailable, closed, or can’t accommodate the security adviser when they need to be on-site, though, you’ll delay the security assessment process.

If you miss the appointment or have to reschedule it, you could increase the total project time and, as a result, the cost of your security assessment. 

How much each scenario will impact the project cost depends on the individual circumstances. Your security adviser should disclose these scenarios and that they can impact cost in their statement of work. 

And while these factors can increase the price of a security assessment, it’s uncommon for them to be an issue. These factors are also explained in the statement of work you’ll receive before services. 

What’s Not Included in the Price of Security Risk Assessment 

security risk assessmentNow that you understand how security risk assessments are priced, let’s review what the price doesn’t cover. 

During the analysis (comprehensive and defensive), your security adviser spends time investigating your security solutions, policies, procedures, etc. At the end of the assessment, they put their findings into a report

This report explains everything they did, ranks your existing risks, and provides remediation recommendations. A reputable security adviser won’t push their solutions or services on you to address the issues outlined in the report. 

Addressing your security vulnerabilities isn’t included in the scope or price of an assessment, but it is something you’ll want to keep in mind. 

What Can You Expect to Spend on a Security Assessment?

At a minimum, you can expect to pay $12,000 for a security assessment if you opt for a defensive security risk assessment. However, the price increases to start at $15,000 for a security assessment that incorporates an offensive approach.

Both of the above numbers account for up to 200 users, but as you add more users and sites, the price increases to account for the additional work required by your security advisers. 

Keep in mind, these figures only cover the actual security assessment, not the price of the solutions to the problems it identifies.

When thinking about the estimated cost of a security assessment, you should also think of the cost of doing nothing. Paying for a security assessment can prevent you from losing years of data if there were a security breach.  

The cost of losing or compromising your business’s data easily pales in comparison to the cost of a comprehensive or defensive security risk assessment. The peace of mind you won’t be at risk of losing your work and customer information. 

Looking for more information about what you’d be paying for with a security risk assessment? This free, downloadable timeline reviews the different stages and what happens during each one.

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