Do You Know Your Digital Risk?
From higher productivity to improved customer satisfaction, technology plays a critical role in how businesses across the world grow. It also means businesses are vulnerable to digital risks. But don't worry—you can address potential challenges when you know how to identify them and implement the right security measures and controls.
Recognizing Digital Risks
On a broad scale, digital risks can be classified into physical, technical, and administrative risks. Here are some of the most prevalent in today’s digital world, which should be top priorities for your business:
- Cybersecurity: Cyberattacks keep evolving, as businesses are more technology-driven.
- Data Privacy: Data has become the most valuable commodity in the world. That's why hackers target critical business data and misuse it for their own gains.
- Compliance: Failing to adhere to regulations around data privacy, cybersecurity, organizational standards of practice, etc. can attract heavy fines and penalties.
- Third-parties: When you outsource certain services, it can compromise the security of your IT infrastructure.
- Resiliency: This means how well your business can bounce back after an unexpected disaster.
- Human Error: According to the IBM Cyber Secuirty Intelligence Index Report, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Whether it’s falling for phishing scams or misusing work devices, human errors can be costly.
- Automation: While automation is reshaping the tech industry for the better, it can also lead to new risks related to compatibility, governance, etc.
- Cloud Storage: The flexibility and affordability the cloud offers makes it one of the most popular options for backup and storage. But the cloud is also prone to risks related to privacy, shared servers, and more.
Managing Digital Risks
The best way to start managing your digital risks is with comprehensive and regular security risk assessments. With a risk assessment, you can measure your security posture against various internal and digital threats and determine how equipped you are to deal with these risks. When you perform a security risk assessment you can proactively:
- Identify vulnerabilities: A risk assessment helps you identify which part of your digital environment is relatively weak against various security threats. You can identify which systems are most likely to be targeted by attackers and take measures to strengthen these systems.
- Review and bolster security controls: In most cases, security incidents occur due to a lack of controls in the process. For instance, without proper cybersecurity awareness training, employees may not follow security protocols on their own. This can result in losses due to human error. A risk assessment will help you upgrade your security and incorporate preventive measures.
- Track and quantify risks: A risk assessment helps you quantify various risks and identify the potential losses posed by various threats.
Why Risk Assessment?
IT and security budgets can be difficult to explain to management. While everyone understands the consequences of not investing in the right security measures, the value of risk assessment is based on how you respond to the information you get from a risk assessment report.
But a vital question is: What is the cost of not making this investment? If you had a data breach, it could result in unrecoverable financial losses and damage to your reputation. You might even be facing regulatory non-compliance and receive heavy penalties from regulators. Reviving a business after a major disaster can be extremely difficult. In the case of such a breach, the cost of investment in security solutions and cyber insurance is negligible since it concerns the survival of the business.
Access Your Risks Correctly
Monitoring and managing digital security risks is a continual process and should be part of your ongoing operational strategy. To implement it correctly, you need a risk monitoring strategy that focuses on the right risks and how to identify them.
The good news: You don't need to do it alone. Reach out to us. We'd be honored to talk with you about a complete risk assessment of your digital infrastructure and help you develop resilient security against various threats.