Information Risk Response is the structured decision-making and implementation process through which an organization selects and executes one of four strategies — Accept, Avoid, Mitigate, or Transfer — to address identified and assessed information risks. It is the action phase of the risk management lifecycle: the point where analysis converts into deliberate organizational choices, resource commitments, and control deployments. Risk response does not eliminate risk; it reduces risk to a level within the organization's defined risk appetite while documenting residual risk with explicit governance approval.
Where it stops · what it isn't
- —IS: Selecting a response strategy (Accept/Avoid/Mitigate/Transfer) for a prioritized, assessed risk
- —IS: Implementing controls, documenting residual risk, and obtaining governance sign-off
- —IS: Defining and tracking metrics to confirm the response achieves its intended risk reduction
- —IS NOT: Risk identification or initial risk assessment — those are prerequisite steps
- —IS NOT: Security control design in isolation — controls are chosen in service of a response strategy, not chosen first
- —IS NOT: Risk monitoring or reporting — a downstream activity, though response feeds directly into it
- —IS NOT: Incident response — that is reactive execution after a risk event has materialized; risk response is proactive and pre-event
- —IS NOT: Accepting a risk without documentation — undocumented acceptance is a governance failure, not a valid response
Connected concepts in the graph
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REQUIRESRisk Assessment Evaluation and AnalysisVulnerability and Control Deficiency AnalysisOrganizational Risk Appetite and Tolerance Definition
ENABLESRisk Monitoring Reporting and Communication
CONSTRAINSIS Program Development and Resources
PART OFInformation Security Risk Management (CISM Domain 2)
RELATED TORisk and Threat Landscape