DIKW Level 3: Understanding Through Knowledge
Knowledge emerges when you understand patterns, relationships, and connections in your organized information. You're answering "HOW" by analyzing dependencies, evaluating multi-dimensional risks, and understanding the interconnected nature of your namespace.
From Organized Information...
- Asset:
pay.example.com
- Type: Payment API
- Owner: Finance Team
- Hosts: PII + Financial Data
- Status: Active, customer-facing
...To Strategic Knowledge
- How it fits: Critical path in checkout flow
- Dependencies: Single CDN provider (SPOF risk)
- Exploitability: High - publicly exposed API
- Business Impact: Critical - revenue-generating
- Regulatory: PCI-DSS, GDPR jurisdiction
Next Step: Phase 4 (Govern) applies this knowledge with judgment to make strategic security decisions and implement controls.
From Information to Knowledge: Understanding "How"
Knowledge emerges when you understand the relationships, patterns, and interdependencies in your namespace. The analysis phase transforms organized information into strategic understanding by evaluating multi-dimensional risk profiles and mapping critical dependencies.
Multi-Dimensional Risk Analysis
Effective namespace security requires evaluating risks across multiple dimensions:
- Technical severity (CVSS scores, exploitability metrics)
- Business criticality (revenue impact, customer-facing assets)
- Threat intelligence (active exploitation, attacker motivation)
- Regulatory exposure (compliance requirements, audit findings)
- Remediation complexity (effort required, dependencies)
Core Analysis Concepts (Free Preview)
- Risk Scoring Frameworks: Systematic methods for evaluating and ranking vulnerabilities based on multiple criteria.
- Business Impact Assessment: Analyzing how namespace vulnerabilities could affect revenue, operations, and brand reputation.
- Threat Modeling: Understanding attacker capabilities, motivations, and likely attack paths.
- Root Cause Analysis: Identifying systemic issues that create multiple vulnerabilities (process gaps, architectural flaws).
- Remediation Prioritization: Balancing risk reduction with resource constraints and business priorities.
Analysis Methodologies
- Quantitative Risk Assessment: Assign numerical values to likelihood and impact for objective comparison.
- Asset Criticality Mapping: Classify assets by their importance to business operations and revenue.
- Threat Intelligence Integration: Correlate vulnerabilities with active threat campaigns and attacker TTPs.
- Dependency Analysis: Map how vulnerabilities in one system can cascade to others.
- Cost-Benefit Analysis: Evaluate remediation costs against potential loss from exploitation.
Academy Members Get Full Access
Learn advanced risk analysis techniques with real-world scoring frameworks, business impact calculators, and threat modeling tools.
Advanced Training
- Multi-dimensional risk scoring frameworks
- Business impact assessment methodologies
- Threat modeling workshops
Analysis Tools
- Risk scoring calculators and templates
- Business impact assessment worksheets
- Prioritization matrix generators