# Risk Management

Risk Management in WatchDog Security provides a centralized way to identify, assess, track, and remediate risks across your organization.

The platform enables teams to generate risks automatically through guided assessments or create and manage risks manually. Each risk can be evaluated using standardized scoring based on **impact** and **likelihood**, allowing organizations to understand both their **inherent risk** (before controls) and **residual risk** (after mitigation).

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  <div style="font-weight:700; margin-bottom:20px;">Who can use this feature?</div>

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    All <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">Account Owners</span> and <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">Security Admins</span>
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    Any <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">End Users</span> assigned as an owner to one or more risks
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    Available on the <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">Free</span>, <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">Core</span> and <span style="color:#d760f9; font-weight:600;">Business</span> plans
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## Key Features

<CardGroup cols={3}>

<Card title="Risk Assessments" href="/perform-a-risk-assessment-2032475m0" icon="material-outline-list_alt">
  Generate risks automatically using structured questionnaires across security domains
</Card>

<Card title="Risk Register" href="/view-and-manage-risks-in-risk-register-2032476m0" icon="lucide-database">
  View and manage all risks including inherited and residual risk values
</Card>

<Card title="Manual Risks" href="/create-manual-risk-2032477m0" icon="material-outline-add">
  Create and track custom risks specific to your organization
</Card>

<Card title="Risk Editing" href="/edit-and-manage-risk-2032480m0" icon="material-outline-edit">
  Update risk owners, descriptions, scoring, and treatment plans
</Card>

<Card title="Task Management" href="/manage-risk-tasks-2032482m0" icon="material-outline-task_alt">
  Break risks into actionable tasks with assignees and due dates
</Card>

<Card title="Risk Lifecycle" href="/manage-risk-lifecycle-2032485m0" icon="material-outline-sync">
  Archive and unarchive risks without losing historical context
</Card>

</CardGroup>

## Key Concepts

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Risk Scoring" defaultOpen>
    Each risk is evaluated using:

    - **Impact** → The severity of the outcome if the risk occurs  
    - **Likelihood** → The probability of the risk occurring  

    These values are scored on a scale of **1–5**, helping quantify and prioritize risks.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Inherent vs Residual Risk">
    - **Inherent Risk** → The level of risk before any controls or mitigation actions are applied  
    - **Residual Risk** → The remaining risk after mitigation efforts are completed  

    This allows teams to clearly measure the effectiveness of their security controls.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Risk Treatment Options">
    Each risk can be assigned a treatment strategy:

    - **Accept** → Acknowledge and tolerate the risk  
    - **Avoid** → Eliminate the risk entirely  
    - **Transfer** → Shift the risk to a third party (e.g., insurance)  
    - **Mitigate** → Reduce the risk through controls or remediation actions  
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>

<Accordion title="Risk Assessment Does Not Generate Risks" defaultOpen>
If risks are not created after completing an assessment:

- Ensure all required questions were answered  
- Confirm the assessment was successfully **submitted**  
- Verify a valid **checklist** was selected
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Cannot Create or Edit Risks">
If you are unable to create or modify risks:

- Verify your role is **Account Owner** or **Security Admin**  
- If assigned to a risk, confirm you have edit permissions  
- Ensure you have access to the **Risk Management** module
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Risk Details Not Updating">
If changes to a risk are not saved:

- Confirm you clicked **Save** after making updates  
- Check that required fields (e.g., impact, likelihood) are completed  
- Refresh the page and verify the update persisted
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Archived Risks Not Visible">
If you cannot find archived risks:

- Enable the **Show Archived Risks** option  
- Verify the risk was archived and not deleted  
- Use filters to locate the risk in the register
</Accordion>

</AccordionGroup>