There are a few things to consider when it comes to managing the risks that your data and information assets face in the current cyber landscape.
To begin, let’s have a look at the cyber security landscape as of September 2021. Due to the increasing demand for remote work, the demand for remote security has also risen substantially over the past year and a half. More and more companies are outsourcing their security capabilities to allow for cost-effective protection of information assets.
As seen in recent months, ruthless ransomware attacks have tormented organisations worldwide, targeting all kinds of organisations from schools to healthcare systems, SMB/SMEs to large corporations, and everything from the public sector to the private sector.
The need for data backups and stronger security controls has grown exponentially. Cloud computing has also become more popular, with businesses relying on service providers to maintain their IT infrastructure. This reduces the cost of their on-premises infrastructure and increases the effectiveness of security due to the third-party nature of these service providers.
Incidentally, supply chain attacks (bundled with ransomware infections) could prove devastating if security isn’t taken seriously by these service providers, so it’s important to find out about a provider’s security setup before committing to it.
Keeping up with cyber security and regulatory compliance isn’t easy. That’s why we, at IronTree, try to make it easier by any means possible. Relying on a trusted service provider to maintain your digital infrastructure and advise on your compliance seems like the best bet.
Responding to risk
Response to risk usually takes one of the following forms:- Avoidance: Eliminating particular risk by getting rid of its cause.
- Mitigation: Decreasing the calculated financial value of risk by lowering the possibility of occurrence.
- Acceptance: Developing strategies and controls to mitigate the risk, should it occur.
Analysing risk
Another important part of risk management is risk analysis. This process consists of four phases:- Identifying existing risks: A big part of this step is brainstorming. Gather your employees to review various sources of risk. After that, arrange the identified risks in order of priority. It’s near impossible to mitigate all risks a business faces, so the risks that could affect the business significantly should be prioritised and dealt with first.
- Assessing the risks: Prior to figuring out how to best handle risks, you should assess the root cause of the risks to figure out how they could affect your business.
- Developing an appropriate response: You should ask which measures could be taken to prevent the identified risks from occurring. If they do recur, what’s the best thing to do?
- Developing and implementing preventative measures for identified risks: Once you’ve decided on suitable mitigation methods, you can assign them into tasks and then into a contingency plan to be deployed in the future. This ensures that if a threat occurs a plan can quickly be put into action.
