In this day and age, even though technology is more advanced than it has ever been, that doesn’t mean there are no risks involved. Here are a few of the most important key concepts when it comes to managing tech risks.
Identifying Risks
The first thing you need to do is identify the main tech threats you may face. This step of enterprise risk management should include the most obvious threats, such as a data breach, to something you may not expect, like software bugs or third-party control.
Once you fully identify all the risks you may face, it becomes far easier to plan for them happening, or even prevent them completely.
Analysis & Prioritization
Next, you need to take each risk and analitthem individually. This means establishing how they would happen, what damage it could cause, and your short and long-term solutions for it.
Knowing which risks you could face isn’t useful if you don’t know how to deal with them, but you also don’t want to waste a lot of time and resources on trying to stop a risk that has a minuscule chance of happening.
Develop Mitigation Strategies
Once you have identified and analyzed the risks, you need to develop mitigation strategies. These strategies, in simple terms, should be a step-by-step guide to deal with any tech problems, hacks, breaches, etc., that you may experience.
One important feature of these strategies is that they should be simple to understand and follow, even for someone who isn’t very tech-savvy. This is because you will want your employees to implement a strategy, and not have to wait for an IT expert or third-party to come in.
Control Implementation
Control implementation can take many forms, ranging from two-factor authentication, to simply limiting access to certain files, systems, batches of data, etc. In simple terms, this is about controlling how information is stored and accessed.
This also means implementing software that can detect intrusions or encrypt data, the latter of which is vital in the event of a data breach, as it can prevent the thieves from viewing the data without the encryption key that you will have.
Business Contingency Planning
A business contingency plan, or BCP, is a plan that puts into place how a business will continue to operate even in the event of a significant crisis. This will include the actual BCP, as well as testing it to ensure it will work effectively.
Plan for Disaster
Speaking of a significant crisis, always be prepared and plan for the worst-case scenario. This is fairly difficult to predict, as it can range from a natural disaster, to a pandemic, or something specific to your business, such as a massive data breach and theft.
This should typically be tied to your BCP, but it should also include mass backups of data onto the cloud or to a separate server, as well as safe ways to recover data later on.
Third-Party Risk Analysis
One area where a risk or threat may arise is through third parties. When using a third-party, you don’t know what type of precautions they use, which firewalls or safety nets they have in place, etc.
Because of this, you first need to be sure that if you work with this third-party, they will have the same standards and risk management plans in place as you to ensure you are both protected.
Employee Training
When it comes to tech safety, employee training is still highly underrated. When you think of a data breach or hack, you probably think of a faceless individual or team spending hours trying to “crack the code” to get to your data.
However, a data breach can happen with something as simple as clicking on the wrong website, downloading a suspicious app, or opening a benign email. This is why employee training is a must.
Each employee should know what they should and shouldn’t do on computers or devices connected to your system, how to spot suspicious links or emails, and what to do in the event of something happening.
Constant Monitoring & Audits
Your security systems and protocols shouldn’t be left without any oversight. You need to constantly monitor your systems to ensure they are still doing their job, still in place across all connected systems, computers, etc, and still up-to-date.
As threats adapt and new ones emerge, audits also need to be performed to ensure your systems are updated enough to deal with these new threats. AI, for instance, can adapt to new threats, but audits still need to be done to confirm it isn’t missing anything.
Ask an Expert
Finally, when in doubt, the best route is to always call in an expert. Not only will they be able to offer invaluable advice on how to upgrade your systems, but they will also be able to perform audits, identify weaknesses, and do stress tests.
Managing tech risk can sometimes be harder than other types of risk since it is something still fairly new, and advancing faster than many people can keep up with. Because of this, an expert can give you the holistic, highly detailed approach you may need.
