Each new year brings with it a slew of new Cybersecurity threats, breaches, and previously unknown vulnerabilities that impact businesses in unimaginable ways. Users get affected, business (or personal) data gets exposed, and enterprises end up losing a lot of time, effort, money, and their brand in securing loopholes and bringing the business back to normal.
Given the far-reaching repercussions of such attacks, the significance of Cybersecurity risk management has grown tremendously. A robust cyber risk management practice enables organizations to have systematic processes in place, so they can assess and respond to risks – in a timely and cost-effective manner.
An Overview of Cybersecurity Risk Management
Cybersecurity risk management is the process of identifying potential cyber risks, assessing the impact of those risks, and taking proactive measures to avoid them – if possible – or at least minimize their impact. By evaluating the likelihood (and potential impact) of a risk, they can determine the best approach to detect, deter, correct, and prevent risks.
Cybersecurity risk management helps establish clear communications and situational awareness about risks; this lays the foundation for business decisions that are well-informed, well-considered, and made in the context of organizational objectives.
Why Cybersecurity is Important
Cybersecurity risk management empowers businesses to integrate an effective cybersecurity strategy built with their enterprise risk management policies. With objectives that span across data loss prevention, access control, endpoint protection, and network security, Cybersecurity risk management can have a huge bearing on an organization’s ability to meet business goals and performance metrics. Here are some benefits:
- Identify potential Cybersecurity risks and threats and plan for increasing the risk posture of the organization
- Understand new security requirements that need to be implemented to reduce threat landscape and improve security standing
- Have a robust security policy document in place that outlines risks and vulnerabilities, so that employees can refer to it on a periodically
- Spread awareness on risks and empower employees to work in a way that safeguards company data from attacks and breaches
- Define and establish a focused Cybersecurity strategy to protect employees’ interests and earn their trust
- Establish trust with customers to improve their loyalty, sustain business reputation in the markets you operate in, and experience long-term success
- Pave the way for better security measures and minimize the risk of unexpected losses
- Protect employee, business, and customer data to get ached and achieve a competitive edge
- Enable IT teams to focus on critical tasks rather than wasting time in managing Cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities
5 Considerations for Cybersecurity Risk Management
Given the relentless rise in Cybersecurity incidents, integrating Cybersecurity risk management into the enterprise has become a business requisite. This type of risk management ensures that your business is safe and protected while also identifying risks before they occur. Here are 5 types of considerations to keep in mind when managing your Cybersecurity risk:
1. Establish a Culture of Security:
The first and most important aspect of a successful Cybersecurity risk management strategy is establishing a culture of security. No number of tools can help you if your leadership and employees do not understand the importance of having strong Cybersecurity policies in place. With the average cost of a cyberattack exceeding $1.1 million, establishing a Cybersecurity-focused culture throughout the entire organization should take precedence over everything else.
2. Set Your Priorities
Protecting your organization against every type and scale of threat is impossible. Since all organizations have limited budget and staff, it is important to set your priorities right. Make sure to understand the risks and responses that are most likely to impact your business. Such prioritization will help you assess both the probability and the level of impact of each potential risk and help you plan your security arrangements accordingly.
3. Implement a Cybersecurity Framework
Once you’ve set your priorities, is important to implement a robust Cybersecurity framework that is defined by the standards adopted by your industry and your region. Such adherence to regulatory and government standards will not only enable compliance, it will also drastically bring down the costs associated with non-compliance.
4. Develop a Risk Assessment Process
Risk assessment is an integral aspect of any Cybersecurity risk management practice. Make sure to identify and document all digital assets, including stored data and intellectual property. Next, enlist all potential cyber threats – external and internal – that are likely to impact your organization. Also, evaluate the impact of each threat on employee confidence, competitive standing, customer trust, organizational revenue, and business reputation.
5. Revisit Your Information Sharing Policies
Poor access control and authorization mechanisms are often the most common reason for Cybersecurity attacks. Therefore, as part of your Cybersecurity risk management process, make sure to revisit your information sharing policies. Implement strong access control as well as endpoint protection measures to bring down the probability of risk. Ensure all risks are regularly communicated across the organizations to keep employees aware and involved in the risk management process.
Strengthen Your Threat Intelligence
Cybersecurity incidents, if not properly identified and resolved, have the potential to bring the entire business down. Therefore, it is every organization’s responsibility to improve its Cybersecurity. Cybersecurity risk management is a great way to improve threat intelligence while accounting for all types and kinds of potential risks.
It helps in implementing basic Cybersecurity hygiene while focusing on ways to secure IT infrastructure, prevent attacks, and reduce the impact of risks. It helps in maintaining continuity of mission-critical operations and allowing businesses to operate and perform – as required – to meet short- and long-term goals.
Interested in optimizing your company’s Cybersecurity hygiene? Contact an expert at Synoptek today.
