Spokane-based RiskLens Inc. has added a service to its platform that enables companies to analyze which cybersecurity and technology investments will provide the most bang for their buck.

Called a Risk Treatment Analysis, the new service compares different security options to provide a detailed analysis on what return on investment a company can expect to see compared to how effectively a system will manage risk. The service has made a timely entrance to the market as more companies are cutting their budgets but still need an effective cybersecurity system, says Steve Tabacek, cofounder and managing director customer experience for RiskLens.

RiskLens is a software company that offers a suite of software-as-a-service apps aimed at helping executives quantify and manage cyber risk.

“RiskLens has always done what’s called risk quantification to properly identify the risk of given scenarios within an organization,” says Tabacek. “So, we help people understand their loss exposure.”

The new service adds to the company’s services by generating a report for business leaders in nontechnical terms that compares risks with costs to provide multiple options and help companies determine which security option reduces the most risk for the cost.

Companies have been cutting budgets to temper the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the service, which was roughly 11 months in the making, hit the market at an optimum time, Tabacek claims.

“During budget cuts, you don’t want to cut out risk mitigation efforts that are protecting the organization against some of the greatest cyber threats out there,” he contends.

If a company does have to make cuts, it should be systems that are either ineffective or aren’t mitigating risk adequately for the money the company is channeling into the service or process, Tabacek adds.

Before RiskLens entered the market in 2011, companies were assessing risk in qualitative measures, through which a risk level would be described as high, medium, or low, or red, yellow, or green, contends Tabacek.

“That really is dated,” he says. “(We) quantify that into dollars and cents so that business executives can understand just how much risk they have.” 

Cyber and technological risk was behind the curve with its qualitative analysis, Tabacek asserts.

“That’s the paradigm shift that RiskLens introduced to the marketplace,” he claims.

RiskLens has about 100 employees and is headquartered at 601 W. Main, in downtown Spokane, where the company’s engineering talent is based, though the majority of its employees currently are working from home. The software company also has an office in Reston, Virginia.

Tabacek declines to disclose annual revenue, but says the company is still seeing sales growth. While he also declines to disclose customer names, he says RiskLens’ primary customer base is comprised of financial service, health care, retail, and manufacturing companies.

“We have some of the largest brands in the Fortune 100 as customers today,” he says. That includes a number of Fortune 10 companies, he adds.

RiskLens also has entered into a partnership with New York-based technology and consulting company IBM, to offer a risk assessment service to its clientele through IBM Security.