How To Identify Cyber Security Risks In Your Organization

Risk management is a concept that has been with humans since the first time civilized societies emerged on earth. If any individual has something they want to protect, they will take precautionary measures against all types of risks associated with the entity.

A simple example that is very commonly used is insurance. Whether it is auto, health or something as big as your life, insurance is designed in a way that it helps the individual deal with a loss bearably. A more physical representation of risk management can be the locks and doors to protect homes and personal belongings, safes and vaults to protect money and jewelry, and the police and fire departments to protect us against maximum of the physical security risks we face.

Today we have more things to think about than just physical risk. We have a new kind of risk which threatens us in the cyber world. A majority of the earth’s population today has a lot of their personal information stored on online platforms which is why they are under constant threat of having their information stolen and used for wrong purposes. With companies having credit card numbers and bank account numbers stored on an online platform, the demand for cyber security personnel is increasing and cyber security training is gaining popularity among IT professionals.

Setting Up a Risk Management System

Before setting up a risk, the enterprise has to prioritize the assets it needs to protect the most. According to most cyber security personnel and organizations, there isn’t a standard way that can fit all organizations. There has to be a sincere and thorough analysis of the organization’s structure to understand what can cause a lapse in security and which factor can lead up to the most important asset being exposed.

Some organizations like firms that handle financial services or health care organizations, are more focused on concerns regarding regulatory operations in addition to business concerns which need to be added to the cyber security risk management system.

A good way to setup your cyber security is to go with a layered approach. This means that additional protection should be given to the most important assets and in the top priority for this you usually have customer and corporate data. For firms that are asking for data from its customers can be damaged a lot more on the basis of reputation than the actual breach.

Risk Management Process

Begin with a framework, which is developed from different components of your business to see what approach should be taken for your cybersecurity.

Most cyber security personnel recommend using newer technologies which can better map and find data across your enterprise. After the data is mapped, organizations start taking decisions on data handling to reduce the risk footprint.  This is done because most of the times information that leaves the organization unauthorized is mostly an accident. With data that is stored in hidden rows on spreadsheets, or in notes of presentations made by employees or email threads that are longer than required.

An overall scan of the enterprise’s data and then removal of the sensitive data from the places it does not belong can heavily reduce the risk of data leaking from the organization.

A good way to follow the risk management process is to take the Capability Maturity Model approach with the following five levels:

• Initial - This is the starting point for using a process that is new or has an undocumented repeat process.
• Repeatable – A sufficient documentation of the process is done so that repetition of steps can be attempted.
• Defined – A process is confirmed and defined as standard business procedure.
• Managed – Quantitatively managed process according to the agreed-upon metrics.
• Optimizing – Deliberate process improvement/optimization.

When the desired risk approach is determined, the next step is to examine the enterprise technology infrastructure to determine a common ground with the current risk system and what the enterprise requires to improve its current state of risk exposure.

If careful steps are taken to understanding and identifying potential risks, the likelihood of an occurrence of risk exposure will be lesser and the enterprise will be much safer than falling victim to a cybersecurity related incident. Many individuals are opting for a cyber security certification online to cater to organizations looking for individuals who can help them create a better security system.

Cyber security training has become a growing source of employment in many large organizations as there are numerous apps and platforms that store the information of their clients and customers online, which is why a security system is required by every organization to keep their reputation and their data safe.