What is an IT risk assessment?
IT risk assessment refers to the process of identifying and mitigating the risks and threats that can compromise a company’s IT infrastructure, network and database.
Globally, cybersecurity has emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing corporations, and discussions on how to prevent and defend against cyberthreats have been a focal point of MSPs and IT teams this year. Knowing which cyberthreats your business is most vulnerable to will help you improve your security setup, invest in the right tools and take preventative steps to stop a major breach or incident. Nonetheless, IT risk assessment isn’t just confined to cybersecurity. Hardware or software failure, backup and recovery problems, physical damage to devices or any other factor that could negatively affect IT infrastructure and disrupt business operations is included in the IT risk assessment plan. In a nutshell, an IT risk assessment involves examining all the IT assets of your company or customers to identify each one’s vulnerabilities and the threats most likely to harm them. It also involves assessing the potential loss or damage to the business should any of these assets be compromised, and developing a plan to mitigate or contain any threats should they occur.
What is the purpose of an IT risk assessment?
The risk profile of every company varies based on factors such as industry, location and database. Moreover, these factors also govern how organizations set up their IT infrastructure as well as the rules and compliance requirements that must be followed. IT risk assessments help companies not only protect themselves against cybercrime or other IT infrastructure-related failures, but also ensure compliance with government-mandated regulations.
IT risk assessments are designed to assist companies in identifying challenges in a systematic manner, so the right solution can be put in place.
Why is an IT risk assessment important?
The aim of an IT risk assessment plan is to identify weaknesses and loopholes in your company’s IT infrastructure so that you can take remedial measures to close them before they become a bigger issue or are exploited by internal or external threat actors.
You can collect a great deal of data about your IT assets and setup using the risk assessment process, which facilitates better decision-making and allows you to determine the appropriate IT budget,
The following are some benefits of an IT risk assessment:
Understanding your risk profile: Once you determine which risks you are subject to and why, you can formulate a well-considered battle plan to minimize the impact of even high-impact threats.
Evaluating existing security controls and tools: In some form or another, all companies have a security system in place. IT risk assessments allow you to evaluate your security strategy and tools and determine their effectiveness against the threats to which your business is vulnerable. Then you can identify what needs to be improved within your business and what threat intelligence tools would be most suitable.
Lower downtimes: Productivity is negatively impacted by server and application downtime. Risk assessments are not only used to identify security risks but also to monitor the health and functionality of devices. This is done so that they can be updated and upgraded regularly, thereby reducing the amount of downtime an organization experiences.
Help create robust policies: Risk assessments can serve as a valuable foundation for creating robust security policies that are easy to implement, meet your organization’s needs and guarantee more comprehensive security.
Cost control: Performing regular risk assessments will also let you know where to cut costs and where to concentrate resources. With the right IT solutions, you can optimize your IT budget, earn a higher return on investment and ensure better security.
Ensure compliance: Each organization must comply with the data security laws of the country, regions and industry in which they operate. The government and regulatory agencies enact new regulations frequently, so keeping up and complying can get difficult. Performing IT risk assessments can ensure your infrastructure and processes are always in compliance with the laws. Moreover, full compliance can increase your chances of having your claim accepted by an insurer in the event of a security breach.
We help define mitigative action based on your Risk Profile.
Having identified the risks, the next step is to decide what security controls would be necessary to prevent these threats from coming to fruition. In today’s world, cybersecurity, or the lack thereof, represents the biggest risk for companies. Knowing the threats facing your business can help you devise a security setup that is most effective. This stage also entails determining whether your company has the internal capacity to protect against identified risks, or if you need to partner with an external security organization such as a managed service provider (MSP) or managed security service provider (MSSP).
There are three sub-steps to risk mitigation:
- Risk prevention: Patching applications and operating systems on time, using the right security tools like antivirus/antimalware, firewalls and intrusion detection tools can help prevent cyberattacks.
- Risk mitigation: Cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever before, and even the best tools sometimes fail to detect a cyberattack. Risk mitigation plans outline the policies and procedures that guide technicians and employees on how to deal with a security incident, and how to contain the adverse effects as quickly as possible.
- Recovery: This is an essential step that determines how quickly and efficiently a company is able to return to work after a breach. In this stage, data and information must be recovered from various on-site and off-site locations while business operations must continue in a safe environment.