Risk Management

Are you concerned about the cybersecurity risks facing your organisation? Do you want to ensure that your information systems are adequately protected against cyber threats? If so, it’s time to take action and implement a comprehensive approach to risk management.

Risk management is the key stone of cybersecurity. The threats and risks facing business are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated. Effective risk management involves identifying potential risks, assessing the likelihood and impact of those risks, and implementing appropriate measures to reduce or eliminate those risks. By implementing a risk management discipline, you can identify and address potential vulnerabilities and threats, which helps to reduce the likelihood of a cyber attack or data breach occurring. Risk management helps to prioritise cybersecurity efforts and resource allocation to ensure that critical assets are protected. It is also fundamental for maintaining compliance with regulatory and sector specific requirements eg finance.

Our risk management service will identify, evaluate, and mitigate cybersecurity risks for organisations of all sizes. Our team of experts will work with you to develop a risk management plan that addresses your specific needs and requirements. It can be tuned to the needs of ISO 27001, IASME Cyber Assured or any recognised security framework and provides your business with access to the expertise and resources of a dedicated professional without the cost and commitment of a full-time hire.

The service delivers a robust risk management framework to ensure that your business is well-prepared to address the evolving threat landscape and maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your critical information.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to address cybersecurity risks. Contact us today to learn more about our risk management services and take the first step towards protecting your organisation’s valuable assets.

What are the five steps in the risk management process?

Asset identification.

The first step towards effective risk management is to identify the relevant information assets. This will include all the information that is processed by your business and information such as where it is stored and where it is transmitted to. You would include all servers, laptops etc but also software assets such as payroll, Office 365 or Customer Relationship Management. 

Some important questions arise during identification. Who “owns” the asset and who is responsible for its protection? Where is it located? How is it currently protected? Is there a process for keeping the asset register up to date? 

The conclusion of the identification step provides the ability to categorise the results. Not all assets are equal, some assets will process much more sensitive information than others. Some assets may be critical to business operations whilst others are only used at specific times. By identifying and categorising the information assets, it becomes easier to assess the potential risks associated with those assets.

Risk assessment.

This involves identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities to each of the identified assets. Threats may include human error, deliberate attacks from external sources, system failures and natural disasters. Vulnerabilities are flaws in assets that could lead to its compromise. Vulnerabilities may include missed security software patches, weak network connections, a confusing user interface design.

Once the threats and vulnerabilities have been recorded the likelihood and impact of those threats occurring can be evaluated. Likelihood is determined using experience and historical insight. Impact takes into account the possible consequences of a threat arising in terms of financial loss, regulatory liability and reputation damage. 

The likelihood and impact can be combined to provide a risk score for the asset. The score provides the mechanism for prioritising risk treatment actions.

Risk treatment

The goal of risk treatment is to reduce the likelihood and potential impact of security incidents by the selection of appropriate methods (controls) to achieve this outcome. This may be by technical means such as the implementation of anti-malware software or organisational such as the delivery of specific training or a new policy. Each asset type will have it’s own risk treatment plan.

Risk monitoring

Once the risk treatment has been activated, this step delivers continuous review and assessment of the risk register with the objective of maintaining the security stance. It will catch new and emerging threats and apply corrections where necessary in order to ensure that the risk treatment continues to address identified risks.

If any incidents occur for any asset, this too would prompt a re-evaluation of its risk assessment.

Risk Reporting

The risk management process gains from organisation input. The reporting step delivers a feedback loop to all stakeholders to ensure that the process is open and transparent.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to address cybersecurity risks. Contact us today to learn more about our risk management service and take the first step towards protecting your organisation’s valuable assets.