Can you explain the difference between a vulnerability, a threat, and a risk?

Your Answer

How To Answer This Question?

This question is designed to evaluate your grasp of key cybersecurity terminology. Here's how to break it down:

1. Vulnerability: A weakness in a system that can be exploited by a threat. For example, outdated software with known security flaws.

2. Threat: Any circumstance or event with the potential to cause harm to a system. This could be a hacker attempting to breach a network.

3. Risk: The potential for loss or damage when a threat exploits a vulnerability. This is often quantified as the likelihood of the threat occurring and the impact it would have.

Example Answer

"A vulnerability is like a flaw in a system that can be exploited, such as an unpatched software bug. A threat is any potential cause of an unwanted incident, like a cyber attacker. Risk is the potential damage that could occur if the threat exploits the vulnerability, often measured in terms of likelihood and impact. For instance, if there's a known vulnerability in our firewall (vulnerability), and we know that cyber attackers are targeting this vulnerability (threat), the risk would be the potential data breach and its consequences."