Your organization is operating in a highly volatile modern environment. Every day, employees are working on tasks and managing operations virtually, which involve a certain degree of digital security risk. This risk could be related to financial loss, disruption in business operations, or damage to the organization’s reputation because of an unplanned negative outcome as a result of the failure of IT systems and cyber security currently in place.

Because of this, sensitive data as well as the digital assets and systems of a business or organization need to be protected and secured against attacks from malicious programs or individuals at all times. Data actually shows that there is a cyber attack attempt every 40 seconds and that ransomware attacks have increased by an alarming 400% year over year.

Any of these attacks could lead to a breach in your cybersecurity. In 2020, 155.8 million sensitive records were exposed to data breaches, and this could be from your company if you don’t take IT security risk assessment seriously.

What is IT Risk Assessment?

IT risk assessment is the process or practice of identifying and evaluating risks or threats to your organization’s digital assets, which include data, networks, and systems. Cyber risks include malware and viruses, damage to servers, data loss, theft of sensitive information, compromised credentials, and failure of your company website or app to load or function as intended.

Cyber security attacks can potentially impact your organization’s confidentiality and integrity, and data availability. These risks or threats could be internal or external, and their impacts on IT security will differ depending on your business and the type of threat you’re facing. IT risk assessment comes in to evaluate the potential consequences or damage a successful cyber security attack might have. It also involves planning or implementing strong defenses and other security controls.

In other words, IT risk assessment informs your organization which assets and systems are most vulnerable so you can develop and create a tailored IT security and data protection plan that suits your business’ risk tolerance. In particular, IT risk assessment lets you know which of the organization’s IT assets would have a major impact on business operations should they be lost or exposed to security risks, which processes use these assets, and what threats could derail your operations. So, IT risk assessment enables decision makers to make informed decisions based on holistic information.

But, for any IT risk assessment to result in a successful security program, it has to be done regularly, e.g., annually, or as mandated by information security framework requirements, such as ISO 27001 and CMMC. You should also conduct IT risk assessment whenever your organization experiences any major changes, such as a shift to remote work, implementation of a new technology, or acquisition, merger or any other type of reorganization within the company. If you do this, you’ll be able to see how your organization’s risks and vulnerabilities change over time and respond accordingly.

IT risk assessment also helps estimate the potential financial costs you’d have to shoulder should these systems go down. These could include profit loss due to operational downtime, lost business because of customer distrust, and legal fees.

However, with an IT risk management strategy in place, you’ll actually cut costs associated with a cyber security attack. For instance, organizations with fully deployed automation actually spend $3.58 million less, on average, per data breach compared to those who don’t have security automation. But, security automation is only a first line of defense. You also need to pair that with strong IT risk management best practices.

IT Security Risk Assessment Best Practices

IT risk management best practices include the following: 

  • Know the risks.

Identify all the data, systems, and other digital assets that your organization owns, and monitor the IT environment to ascertain the risks on these assets. It helps to think like an attacker and anticipate where attacks might come from and what digital assets are most vulnerable. You can use threat modeling and other proactive project risk management tools to do this. Then, you can prioritize your business-critical assets and allocate resources effectively.

  • Develop your IT risk management strategy. 

Look to established cybersecurity frameworks, such as the ISO, NIST, and CIS, as a starting point when you’re developing your own IT risk management plan. This should include your organization’s risk tolerance, risk profile, incident response and escalation plans, and so on. Once you have your IT risk management plan, ensure that you keep updating them as the IT security landscape constantly changes.

When developing your IT risk management strategy, remember to include scalability. Your IT risk management plan should adapt to the ever-evolving security needs of the organization.

  • Integrate IT risk management philosophies into company culture and values. 

To properly implement your organization’s IT risk management strategy and plan, you’ll need the cooperation of employees and other stakeholders. Your IT security philosophies must be well documented and clearly communicated to the stakeholders so that they understand their role in helping to manage cyber security risks and this becomes a part of your company’s values and culture.

  • Continuous monitoring and regular frequency of IT security risk assessment.

With the introduction of new technologies or changes in business processes, an organization’s risk also shifts or evolves. So, you’ll need risk assessments that are continuous and adaptive.

This means your IT security risk assessment strategy must undergo regular review and updates to remain effective. Reviews must include actionable insights that will be implemented in the updates. Of course, how often you review and update your IT security risk management plan depends on your budget, time, staffing capacity, and other priorities. That is, whatever is manageable for your organization. However, the general best practice is at least two IT risk assessments annually. When you have this schedule or frequency in place, you’ll set expectations for stakeholders.

For the reviews and updates to be effective, it’s important to have a baseline or benchmark of the organization’s current risk level. From this, you can craft a plan of action with the right key metrics to track and measure. Ensure that you keep a thorough, accurate, and continuous log of network events to prevent cyber security attacks. You can use software to automate this process and provide real-time insights to aid risk mitigation.

  • Have a business continuity plan.

While you might do your best to ensure no security threats push past your IT defenses, it’s unrealistic to think that none ever will. You must have a backup plan for these worst-case scenarios to ensure business-critical systems will continue to operate while your IT department is fixing the security issue. This could include containment strategies and reliable communication channels.