Risk Assessments Can Save Your Business
Think risk assessments can save your business? You’re right.
A risk assessment is a critical component of any organization’s infrastructure. They help to create an awareness of risk. In today’s threat landscape, specifically cybersecurity, it’s more important than ever to know where your assets live, fully understand the controls in place to protect those assets, and test the efficiency of those controls. When understanding why completing a risk assessment is important, you must first understand how a risk assessment can save your business. Let’s look at what a risk assessment is, the benefits of a risk assessment, and the steps you should take to complete a risk assessment.
What is a Risk Assessment?
According to NIST SP 800-53, a highly-regarded industry standard, a risk assessment is fundamental to any organizational risk management program and is a methodology used to identify, assess, and prioritize organizational risk. Most information security frameworks require a formally documented, annual risk assessment. Without a risk assessment, organizations can be left unaware of where their critical assets live and what the risks to those assets are.
What are the Benefits of a Risk Assessment?
First and foremost, it is important to complete a risk assessment because it is mandated by most information security frameworks. Regularly performing a formal risk assessment lets you get a clear picture of where your assets lie and potential threats. From there, you can assess the likelihood and impact of those threats from actually happening and allow yourself to evaluate your current security controls to determine if what you’re doing will be an effective defense mechanism against a malicious attack. Another way a risk assessment can save your business is by being proactive rather than reactive. If you can anticipate a potential security incident and address the potential adverse impacts, chances are you will be successful and save your business from operational and reputational loss.
How to Perform a Risk Assessment
A risk assessment aims to identify risks, analyze vulnerabilities, and assess risk likelihood. The risk assessment process must be a continuous process for any organization. So, where do you begin? The five steps of how to perform a risk assessment are as follows:
- Conduct Risk Assessment Survey
- Identify Risks
- Assess Risk Importance and Risk Likelihood
- Create a Risk Management Action Plan
- Implement a Risk Management Plan.
For more details on how to complete a formally documented risk assessment, and to learn more about how a risk assessment can save your business, download our free Risk Assessment Guide.
Sarah Morris is the managing editor for KirkpatrickPrice. The original post can be viewed here.