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Take control of your cyber security risks with a practical, fully editable Cyber Security Risk Register Template. Built in Excel and designed to be easy to customise, it helps organisations identify, assess and prioritise risks using a consistent approach.
🔎 What is a Cyber Security Risk Register?
Cyber risks are constantly evolving. From phishing attacks and ransomware to supplier compromise and human error, organisations face a growing number of threats, each bringing potential to disrupt operations, threaten sensitive information and damage reputation.
A Cyber Security Risk Register provides a structured way to identify, assess and monitor these risks, helping organisations to:
- Identify and document cyber risks consistently
- Assign clear ownership and accountability for each risk
- Assess both inherent and residual risk using a structured scoring approach
- Record treatment actions and monitor progress over time
- Prioritise resources towards the highest-risk areas
- Support governance, reporting and informed risk-based decision making
To help establish a centralised, consistent approach to risk management, we have created a free Cyber Security Risk Register Template.
Designed for small and medium-sized businesses, it includes automated calculation of risk scores and ratings, a risk matrix, dashboard reporting and a prioritisation summary to help manage cyber security risks with confidence.
🏔️ The Challenge of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Risks to businesses rarely arrive as a singularity. You may be onboarding a new supplier with access to sensitive information when a critical vulnerability arises requiring urgent remediation. Organisations are constantly having to make decisions about which risks need attention first.
Without a dedicated Cyber Security Risk Register, it’s easy for risks to be identified but never formally tracked. This can lead to issues such as:
- Scattered information – risks are recorded across spreadsheets, emails, meeting notes etc. This makes it difficult to maintain a single source of truth.
- Inconsistent prioritisation – different people assess likelihood and impact differently, resulting in inconsistent risk ratings.
- Lack of ownership – risks without an assigned owner are less likely to be reviewed or treated effectively.
- Limited visibility – leadership teams struggle to understand the organisation’s overall cyber risk exposure and where to focus resources.
- Reactive decision-making – without regular reviews and prioritisation, businesses can often respond to incidents after the fact rather than proactively reducing risk.
For smaller organisations, with limited time and resources, these considerations can often fall behind. A structured information security risk register provides a consistent framework for assessing and monitoring cyber risks, helping organisations prioritise their efforts and demonstrate effective governance. Despite this UK GOV’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that only 15% of businesses formally review the cyber security risks posed by suppliers, highlighting that many organisations still lack structured processes for managing cyber risk.
❓What’s in the Cyber Security Risk Register Template?
The resource includes everything needed to establish and maintain a structured cyber risk management process:
✅ Cyber Risk Register – record cyber security risks, assign ownership, assess inherent and residual risk, document treatment actions, and track review dates and progress.
✅ Dashboard Summary – provides an instant overview of your cyber risk profile, including key metrics and summary reporting.
✅ 5×5 Risk Matrix – automatically plots risks based on their likelihood and impact, making it easy to visualise overall risk exposure.
✅ Scoring Guide – provides clear likelihood, impact and risk rating definitions to ensure risks are assessed consistently across the organisation.
✅ Built-in risk calculations – automatically calculates inherent and residual risk scores and ratings based on the likelihood and impact values entered.
Fully editable and designed in Excel, the template can be tailored to suit your organisation’s risk appetite, governance framework and reporting requirements.
Cyber Security Risk Register Example
The example below shows how a cyber security risk can be recorded, scored and treated using the template, including how treatment actions can reduce the residual risk.
| Risk Theme | Phishing and credential compromise |
| Operational Risk Statement | Staff credentials may be compromised because phishing emails, social engineering and fraudulent login prompts are not consistently identified or prevented. |
| Risk Owner | IT Manager |
| Inherent Likelihood | 4 – Likely |
| Inherent Impact | 4 – Major |
| Inherent Score & Rating | 16 – High |
| Key Treatment Actions | Implement MFA; strengthen email filtering; provide security awareness training; run phishing simulations; establish reporting procedures. |
| Residual Likelihood | 2 – Unlikely |
| Residual Impact | 3 – Moderate |
| Residual Score & Rating | 6 – Medium |
Download the full Cyber Security Risk Register Template to add, assess and manage risks using the same structured approach.
🤔 Why use a Cyber Security Risk Register?
You can’t eliminate every cyber risk. But you can manage them consistently.
This template helps ensure:
- Every cyber security risk is recorded – creating a central, structured record of identified risks.
- Risks are assessed consistently – using a standard likelihood and impact scoring methodology.
- Ownership is clearly assigned – ensuring accountability for reviewing and treating each risk.
- The highest-priority risks are easy to identify – helping teams focus on the areas requiring the most attention.
- Reviews and treatment actions are documented – supporting governance, reporting and continual improvement.
🚀 Benefits of the Cyber Security Risk Register Template
⏳ Save time – start with a ready-made template instead of building a cyber risk register from scratch.
🎯 Improve prioritisation – quickly identify and focus on your highest-priority cyber security risks.
📊 Increase visibility – gain a clear overview of your organisation’s cyber risk profile through built-in dashboards and reporting.
🤝 Promote consistency – use a standard scoring methodology to assess risks in the same way across the organisation.
📜 Support governance and compliance – maintain an auditable record of risks, treatment actions and review history supporting structured approaches such as ISO 27001.
🧰 Easy to customise – tailor the template to your organisation’s risk appetite, governance framework and reporting requirements.
🧩 Supporting Cyber Security Frameworks
A Cyber Security Risk Register provides a structured record of how risks are identified, assessed, owned and treated, supporting wider cyber security and compliance activities.
ISO/IEC 27001 – supports requirements around information security risk assessment and treatment by providing a clear record of identified risks, ownership and actions.
Cyber Essentials – works alongside the scheme’s five technical controls by helping organisations consider and manage wider cyber risks beyond this baseline..
NIST Cyber security Framework (CSF) 2.0 – recognises risk registers as a practical way to record, prioritise and communicate cyber security risks and track risk responses.
Used consistently, a risk register provides a clear view of cyber risk and how it is being managed across the organisation.
👥 Who this Template is For
This resource is designed for organisations that need a simple and consistent way to identify, assess and manage cyber security risks, including:
- IT managers responsible for identifying and managing technology-related risks.
- Cyber security teams maintaining the organisation’s cyber security risk register and monitoring treatment actions.
- Risk and compliance professionals overseeing governance, risk management and regulatory compliance.
- CISOs, vCISOs, CTOs and technology leaders responsible for understanding and reporting on the organisation’s cyber risk profile.
- Small and medium-sized businesses looking to establish a structured cyber risk management process without investing in specialist software.
Whether you’re creating your first Cyber Security Risk Register or replacing an existing spreadsheet, this template provides a practical, consistent and fully editable foundation for managing cyber security risks.
What Next?
To get started:
- Download the Cyber Security Risk Register Template (completely free, no email required)
- Review the example risks and scoring guide to understand how the register works
- Customise the template to reflect your organisation’s risk appetite and governance processes
- Add your cyber security risks, assign owners and record any planned treatment actions
- Review and update the register regularly to ensure it reflects your current cyber risk profile
This resource helps organisations move from ad hoc risk tracking to structured cyber risk management.
Got questions? Contact us, we’re happy to support you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a Cyber Security Risk Register contain?
Your cyber risk register should record each identified risk, its owner, likelihood and impact. These factors then determine the overall risk rating, treatment action and risk status. The register should also distinguish between inherent risk, the level of risk before controls or treatments are considered, and residual risk after these measures are applied. Review dates and notes should be included so that risks can be monitored and updated over time. Where a risk is accepted rather than treated further, this decision and its rationale should also be recorded.
What is the difference between a Cyber Security Risk Register and a risk assessment?
A risk assessment is the process of identifying, analysing and evaluating individual risks. A risk register is the central record used to document those risks, assign ownership, track treatment actions and monitor their status over time. In simple terms, the assessment helps you understand the risk; the register helps you manage it.
How often should a Cyber Security Risk Register be reviewed?
The risk register should be reviewed regularly or whenever there is a significant change to the organisation or its threat landscape. Many organisations establish a monthly or quarterly review cycle, with higher-risk items reviewed more frequently. Risks should also be revisited following significant incidents, new suppliers, regulatory changes or other events that could affect their likelihood, impact or treatment.
Who should own and maintain a Cyber Security Risk Register?
Overall responsibility for maintaining the register should sit with those responsible for cyber security, information security or risk management. Individual risks should also have a named risk owner with the authority and accountability to oversee treatment and review. For smaller organisations, this may be an IT Manager, CTO, CISO or another senior leader with responsibility for managing cyber risk.
Is a Cyber Security Risk Register required for ISO 27001?
ISO/IEC 27001 requires organisations to identify, analyse, evaluate and treat information security risks, and retain documented information about these processes. In practice, a well-maintained information security risk register provides a clear way to demonstrate this to an auditor, documenting identified risks, their assessment, ownership and treatment, and showing that a structured risk management process is being followed.
