Risk Owner
Definition
The individual or role accountable for ensuring a risk is treated appropriately and that the treatment remains effective. Owners should control the asset or process where the risk originates, making them responsible for authorising and funding controls.
- Role
- Accountable for a risk being treated appropriately
- Typical profile
- Controls the asset or process where risk originates
- Responsibility
- Authorising and funding controls
- Sub-field
- Information security governance, ISO/IEC 27001
Common questions
Why must the risk owner control the asset rather than just be aware of the risk?+
Without authority over the asset or process, an owner cannot approve budget or operational changes needed to treat the risk, so ISO/IEC 27001 practice ties ownership to whoever can actually authorise and fund a fix.
What happens if a risk has no clearly assigned owner?+
Unowned risks tend to stay untreated because no one is accountable for tracking status or approving remediation, which is a common audit finding and a governance gap auditors specifically check for.
Is the risk owner the same person who performs the technical fix?+
Not necessarily, the risk owner is accountable for the outcome and for authorising treatment, while the actual remediation work is often carried out by technical staff reporting to that owner.
Related terms
- Statement of Applicability (SoA)
- A mandatory document listing every ISO/IEC 27001 Annex A control with a statement of whether it is included or excluded, the justification...
- Annex a
- The normative annex to ISO/IEC 27001 that lists 93 information security controls across four themes: organisational (37 controls), people (8), physical (14),...
- High-Level Structure (HLS)
- The common clause framework mandated by ISO for all management system standards. Clauses 4 through 10 of ISO 27001 follow the same...
- Information Security Management System (ISMS)
- The set of policies, processes, procedures, and controls that an organisation establishes to manage information security risk. ISO 27001 specifies the requirements...
- ISO/IEC 27002
- A guidance standard (not certifiable) that provides implementation advice for each of the 93 controls in ISO 27001 Annex A. Updated in...
- Residual Risk
- The risk that remains after controls are applied. If residual risk exceeds the organisation's risk appetite, further treatment is required or management...
- Risk Appetite
- The amount and type of risk an organisation is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives, as defined by its governing...
- Risk Register
- A structured record of all identified risks, each with its description, inherent risk score, owner, treatment decision, controls selected, residual risk score,...
- Risk Treatment
- The process of selecting and implementing options to modify risk. ISO/IEC 27005 defines four treatment options: accept, avoid, mitigate (reduce), and transfer...
Explained in these topics
- ISO/IEC 27001: Standard Structure and RequirementsIntroduced explicitly in ISO/IEC 27001:2022. The person or entity with the authority and accountability to manage a particular information security risk. Risk...
- Risk Treatment and the Risk Register