IT Security: Why You Should Make Risk Management An Ongoing Operational Standard
Are you making IT security a top priority?
No business today is 100 percent secure from cyberthreats, and more businesses are waking up to this reality now than ever before.
It’s no wonder cybersecurity investment in 2020 is pegged to grow by 5.6 percent to reach nearly $43.1 billion in value.1
With cyberattacks surging due to widespread remote work and increased online interactions during the pandemic, it seems likely that this trend will only continue to grow.
While 58 percent of IT leaders and practitioners consider improving IT security their topmost priority, nearly 53 percent of them find cybersecurity and data protection to be among their biggest challenges as well.2
That’s primarily because cybersecurity is not a one-and-done exercise.
While your business might be safe right now, it could be at risk the very next minute.
Are you doing enough to ensure your IT security?
Securing your business’s critical data and the data of your invaluable clients/customers requires undeterred effort sustained over a long period of time.
Although there are several pieces to this puzzle, the most important one, considering today’s threat landscape, is ongoing risk management.
Through the course of this blog, you will understand the definition of a cybersecurity risk assessment and why you must conduct and monitor them regularly.
Cybersecurity risk assessments will help you:
- Understand the risks threatening your IT security
- Take action to keep your cybersecurity strong
- Steer clear of ever-evolving cyber threats
- Prevent loss of data, productivity, and revenue
By the end of this article, we hope you realize how installing cybersecurity solutions alone isn’t enough to counter cyberattacks — unless you make ongoing risk management an operational standard for your business.
Keep reading to start understanding the importance of cybersecurity risk assessments right now.
Understanding The Importance Of Cybersecurity Risk Assessments
In general, a cybersecurity risk assessment refers to the act of understanding, managing, controlling and mitigating cybersecurity risks across your business’s infrastructure.
In its Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) states that the purpose of cybersecurity risk assessments is to “identify, estimate and prioritize risk to organizational operations, assets, individuals, other organizations and the Nation, resulting from the operation and use of information systems.”
The primary purpose of a cybersecurity risk assessment is to help key decision-makers tackle prevalent and imminent risks.
Ideally, an assessment must answer the following questions:
IT Security Risk Assessment Questions
- What are your business’s key IT assets?
- What type of data breach would have a major impact on your business?
- What are the relevant threats to your business and their sources?
- What are the internal and external security vulnerabilities?
- What would be the impact if any of the vulnerabilities were exploited?
- What is the probability of a vulnerability being exploited?
- What cyberattacks or security threats could impact your business’ ability to function?
The answers to these questions will help you keep track of security risks and mitigate them before disaster strikes.
Now, imagine periodically if you had the answers to these questions whenever you sat down to make key business decisions. If you’re wondering how it would benefit you, keep reading.
Why Make Ongoing Risk Management An Operational Standard?
Making ongoing risk management an operational standard is vital, especially in today’s cyberthreat landscape, where even a single threat can break your business.
In one assessment, your business might seem on the right track but in the next one, certain factors could show weaknesses in your cybersecurity framework.
That’s precisely why having an ongoing risk management strategy is now an integral part of standard operations for most successful businesses.
Are you ready to prioritize your cybersecurity and keep your business safe from cyber threats?
Here are seven reasons why you just can’t keep this key business decision on the backburner anymore:
7 Reasons To Make Risk Management An Operational Standard
Reason 1: Keep Threats At Bay
Most importantly, an ongoing risk management strategy will help you keep threats, both prevalent and imminent, at a safe distance from your business; especially ones you usually do not monitor regularly.
Reason 2: Prevent Data Loss
Theft or loss of business-critical data can set your business back a long way, leading you to lose business to your competitors. Ongoing risk management can help you remain vigilant of any possible attempts at compromising your business data.
Reason 3: Enhance Operational Efficiency And Reduce Workforce Frustration
As a business owner or key decision-maker of your organization, you would be amazed how consistently staying on top of potential cybersecurity threats can reduce the risk of unplanned downtime. The assurance that hard work will not vanish into thin air will keep the morale of your employees high, thereby reflecting positively on their productivity.
Reason 4: Reduce Long-Term Costs
Identifying potential vulnerabilities and mitigating them in time can help you prevent or reduce security incidents. This can save your business a significant amount of time, money and/or potential reputational damage.
Reason 5: Set The Right Tone And Plan For The Future
You must not assume that there should only be one fixed template for all your future cybersecurity risk assessments. However, in order to update them continuously, you need to conduct one in the first place. Hence, the first few assessments will set the right tone for future assessments as part of your ongoing risk management strategy.
Reason 6: Improve Organizational Knowledge
Knowing security vulnerabilities across the business will help you keep a keen eye on important aspects that your business must improve on.
Reason 7: Avoid Regulatory Compliance Issues
By ensuring that you put up a formidable defense against cyberthreats, you will automatically avoid hassles with respect to complying with regulatory standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, etc.
Now that you know why risk management is an important operational standard, it’s time to start putting it in place — and fast.
Did you know? The Oxford Academic Journal of Cybersecurity estimates the costs of cyber events to total roughly $8.5 billion per year.
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The Best Cybersecurity Firm In South Florida
As you now know, cyber threats are increasing every day. Don’t get hit hard by a cyber attack. Ensure your cybersecurity now so your business can keep growing.
Don’t wait for a problem to take place — prevent hacks from happening by partnering with the most trusted IT firm in South Florida.
At ThirdPower IT, we’ll help you gauge every single cybersecurity risk your business is exposed to and protect your business continuously for a prolonged period of time.
Protect Your Business Now – Connect With ThirdPowerIT, a Miami Cybersecurity Company, Today
Connect with us today to find out how you can prevent cybersecurity problems from happening before they start.
Call us now at 844-677-3687, or visit ThirdPowerIT.com and learn more about how our IT Security services and chat with an IT security expert today.
Article curated and used by permission.
Data Sources:
- Global Cybersecurity 2020 Forecast Canalys
- 2020 State of IT Operations Survey, Kaseya
- Oxford Academic Journal of Cybersecurity
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