Cyber Risk Management: Identifying and Managing Cyber Risk

In order for businesses to run smoothly, without disruption in their organisational processes, they must have practices in place for risk management.

This applies to cyber risk management. Companies could opt-out, believing it will “never happen to me.” Without having a plan in place in case of emergencies, an attack would leave them defenceless and vulnerable.

Let’s take a look at how cybersecurity improves when a plan can be set in place, and how to properly manage it.

Cyber Risk Management Best Practices

Building a cyber risk management plan doesn’t have to be difficult. There are plans that can be set in place to improve a company’s overall cyber risk and prevent an organisational shutdown. The first? Get all management, employees and the executive team on the same page.

Getting Your Team on Board

Having your team on board means getting all parties involved in your cybersecurity practices and policies. Your board needs to sign off and agree to the plan set in place, your management needs to implement it, and your employees need to follow it.

Getting upper-level management and executives to buy in may not be as easy as it sounds. Complex cyber risk management gets easily swept under the rug when shared in the light of other enterprise risks.

Having the board of directors on your side needs to happen in order to have an effective plan. Informing them of all of the details of the plan so involvement occurs when something happens is key. When upper management learns about the seriousness of cyber attacks, developing a cyber risk management strategy will be easier.

Once they understand the risks, it’s important they understand everything the company is going to do in light of a cyber attack. Policies and procedures must take form and administer into place, so they can assure their data assets are safe and protected.

Putting Policies and Procedures in Place

What is involved in putting together comprehensive policies and procedures for cybersecurity? Let’s take a look at the policy best practices.

Simple processes need to be put in place for cyber risk management. These include, but are not limited to, issues like data breaches, categorising data, and data security when traveling.

It’s important that business data is secure when employees are traveling. Will your employees use Wi-Fi or internet on their personal devices? Having a consistent plan in place will make it easier to identify the origin of a problem if one does arise.

Cyber Security of Your Technology

Having the most up to date technology in your business will help in a cyber crisis. There are a bunch of cybersecurity technologies out on the market. Understanding what each of them does, and which ones are in line with your business plan and strategy is important.

Good cybersecurity uses technology that reduces access points. Having an open network leaves your company exposed and susceptible to cyber threats. Along with secure, tight-knit systems, having technology in place to monitor potential threats is also important.

Your sensitive company data must be secure. Your customer and client data such as social security numbers, names, addresses, drivers licenses, and other private information must also be safe.

Whatever system you have in place needs to have the ability to identify the type of data you’re securing. If most of your data involves drivers license numbers, your system would need to recognize, understand, and prevent that data from leaving your network.

Software Customised For Your Business

This may mean that whatever software you choose needs to be configured and customised to your business environment. If it only recognises credit card numbers, while that is great, it isn’t protecting information important to your organisation.

Maybe your company already has a system in place that would work, but they aren’t using it the way they could be. Learning how to utilise the systems in place to their maximum potential saves company money while protecting them.

All in all, it’s important to be careful and selective when choosing the right type of software for cyber risk management. When you’ve chosen the right software that meets your business needs, your data will be more private and protected.

Having the right type of technology and policies in place for cyber risk management is not the only thing a business needs to consider when it comes to cyber security. Cyber security must be integrated into every part of the business and employee culture.

Prioritising Risky Assets

You have the right people on board with your cyber risk management. You have policies and procedures developed and set into place. You have the right technology implemented. Now what about the data?

What types of data do you need to make sure are secure? Which are your riskiest assets you need to protect? What are the biggest threats facing your organisation when it comes to your information?

Logging detailed attack patterns or staying up to date with other cyberattack trends happening in your industry will help you plan for what could happen to your business. Knowing the threats out there will allow for building a comprehensive risk strategy. If your business has suffered from a cyber attack in the past, take into account the details of what occurred, and what you did to reverse it.

Define Your Assets

Most organizations have huge stockpiles of private information and data. It is not logical to shut down operations over a few records. The highest risk assets need to be defined in order to identify when there truly is a crisis. It could be that your data isn’t the issue and it’s actually your IT systems.

Defining what matters most to your business in a serious attack will prevent a downfall. When you know what your most critical business data is, you can devise a plan on how to stop attacks against it. The more strategic your business is, the less the risk of compromise of your important data.

Building a cyber risk management system is not an easy feat. It will be easier though when you’ve identified a solid end goal and determined if you have the resources required to achieve this goal. Knowing your goal gets everyone on board, from lower level employees to upper management. That way, you all work towards the end goal together.

Appetite for Risk

You know what kind of technology your business needs, your team is all on the same page, and you’ve identified your riskiest assets. You’ve even devised a plan regarding those assets. How much risk can your business tolerate?

When is the time to deploy your cyber risk management plan and how do you know when your business is going to be impacted in a negative way?

Having a Documented Risk Appetite Statement

Best practices of risk management for cybersecurity include developing a risk appetite statement for your organisation. This is a statement that is documented and pushed out to every member of the company. It notifies the company of when to implement their cyber risk strategy with detailed directions on the amount of risk a company should incur.

This statement should include detailed instructions to daily employees on things to watch out for. Employees can then discern when more action needs to be taken against an outside threat, or when it simply needs to be monitored.

The statement can be difficult to develop if everyone isn’t on the same page. It also can be difficult when a company is intolerant to new risks. Setting up a range of tolerance can help the organisation respond to different degrees of attacks. Management will then know when to escalate an issue to a greater risk and take immediate action.

Pillars of Support of Risk Management

Following the above-listed tips for building out a risk management plan and securing your company’s private and important information are crucial.

Having one data breach or attack on your company that you weren’t prepared for can result in a huge loss of trust and resources. What it boils down to is four main pillars of success.

These pillars include

All of which we have described in detail above. Without one, the protection of business data is compromised and lacks proper security.

Incorporating all four of these pillars is what builds a well-rounded strategic plan. These four pillars help organizations identify breaches and create a culture throughout the organisation that has risk awareness.

Having a plan in place will empower leaders and board members to make sound judgments while providing a balance between risk and security.

If you are looking to find resources who have the cyber security skills needed to help you implement or revise your cyber risk management strategy and plan – reach out to us today to schedule a consultation.