Risk owners in information security management. Why are they important?

When organizations think about information security management, the focus usually falls on firewalls, encryption, and compliance frameworks. While these technical and procedural safeguards are essential, they can never fully succeed without one critical ingredient: risk ownership.

Assigning clear risk owners ensures that security risks don’t just sit on paper, in a risk register, but are actively managed, monitored, and mitigated.

In this article, we’ll discuss why risk owners must be assigned, what their role looks like in practice, and what requirements they need to fulfill in terms of competence and authority. This is especially relevant for organizations implementing an Information Security Management System (ISMS) in line with ISO/IEC 27001 or other governance frameworks. 

Why assign risk owners?

In any organization, risks exist everywhere—whether it’s the possibility of a phishing attack, a misconfigured cloud service, a third-party supplier failing to secure customer data, or superficial screening of candidates for important positions.

Without ownership, risks become “everyone’s problem,” which in reality means no one’s problem.

Assigning risk owners in ISO/IEC 27001 and other security frameworks ensures:

• Accountability: each risk has someone directly responsible for monitoring and managing it.
• Clarity: risk owners know what they’re expected to oversee, reducing overlaps and blind spots.
• Action: instead of risks sitting idle in a report, risk owners are tasked with implementing mitigation strategies.

In short, without risk owners, risk management remains theoretical. 

The role of risk owners

A risk owner is not necessarily the person who discovered the risk or who works every day with the asset that the risk may relate to. They are typically persons with decision-making power over the area where the risk arises.

For example:

An HR manager may be the risk owner for risks related to insider threats, such as mishandling of employee data.

A procurement director could own risks linked to third-party vendors and supply chain security.

The CIO might be the owner of enterprise-wide risks related to system availability and business continuity.

The role of a risk owner involves:

Understanding the risk – knowing exactly what the risk refers to, its likelihood, potential impact, and context.

Making decisions on treatment – whether to mitigate, transfer, avoid, or accept it.

Coordinating implementation – putting in place controls to manage the risk.

Monitoring effectiveness – verifying that the controls actually work.

Reporting progress – providing updates to senior management or governance bodies

Competence and authority of risk owners

Assigning a risk owner is not a box-ticking exercise. The person must have both the required competence and authority.

Competence: Risk owners need the knowledge and skills to understand the nature of the risk and the controls required. For instance, a finance director managing the risk of financial fraud must understand both financial processes and the cybersecurity aspects that could enable fraud.

Authority: Risk owners must have the power to make decisions and allocate resources. If the person responsible cannot approve budgets, assign staff, or implement changes, their ability to manage risk will be severely limited.

In many organizations, risks are mistakenly assigned to technical staff who lack decision-making power. While these employees may understand the risk technically, without the authority to act, the risk remains unmanaged.

Below are a few common scenarios. 

Cloud misconfiguration. An IT administrator spots that sensitive customer data is stored in a public S3 bucket (a cloud storage folder accidentally exposed to the internet). The risk owner is not the administrator but the Head of IT Infrastructure, who has the authority to approve configuration changes and implement monitoring tools.

Third-party vendor risk. A vendor providing payroll services does not have strong data protection controls. The risk owner is the HR Director, since the risk relates to employee data processing. The HR Director can decide whether to enforce stricter contract clauses, monitor vendor compliance, or switch providers.

Ransomware. The organization faces potential disruption due to ransomware attacks. The risk owner is the CIO, who can authorize investment in backup solutions, endpoint detection, and employee training programs.

In each case, the technical team provides input and analysis, but the true risk owner is the person who can make the decisions and allocate resources.

In conclusion

Risk ownership is in many situations an overlooked aspect of information security management systems (ISMS). By assigning clear owners for the risks identified, organizations move from theory to practice, ensuring that risks are managed proactively rather than reactively.

The process is simple: assign risk owners who are both competent and empowered, ensure they understand their responsibilities, and hold them accountable for results.

In today’s environment—where cyber threats evolve daily—strong governance, accountability, and risk ownership are just as important as firewalls and encryption.

Looking to strengthen your organization’s approach to ISO/IEC 27001 risk management? Explore our Udemy courses on the ISO/IEC 27k series of standards, and take the first step toward building a risk-aware culture.

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certification programs for ISMS (ISO/IEC 27001) practitioners, auditors, and information security risk managers.