5 Best Practices In IT Risk Management

Information technology risks, or IT risks, in short, are risks that can potentially damage your company's IT systems. It used to be pretty simple to manage with existing technologies, but with the appearance of new technologies, IT risks have become more of a threat than they originally were. Artificial intelligence can aid hackers in developing increasingly dangerous viruses. They can also hack into your employees' devices through the Internet of Things or IoT. In other words, emerging technologies can potentially lead to the downfall of many companies, but much like how these technologies can bring harm, they can also have a positive impact on organizations if used properly. More specifically, they can help with your IT risk management framework.

What Is IT Risk Management?

IT risk management is precisely what the name implies—it's the process of managing IT risks. Managing, however, can mean different things, but it usually involves identifying and evaluating risks for the purpose of minimizing the damage they can cause if they do happen. Below are a few examples of the most common IT risks you'll encounter when managing a business:

• Viruses
• Malicious attacks
• Human error
• Spams
• Software Failure
• Natural disasters

As previously said, emerging technologies can serve as a catalyst to more cyberattacks, but they can also bring a lot to the table when it comes to IT risk management. Having said that, here are some of the best IT risk management practices that make use of new technologies:

1. Consider Outsourcing

Before anything else, you have to remember that investing in information technology tools can be a bit costly. Furthermore, monitoring is a crucial part of IT risk management, so you'll have to invest quite a lot of time and money in this operation. However, if that's not possible, consider outsourcing your IT risk management operations. Outsourcing agencies procure their own IT risk management applications and work 24/7, so it would be an excellent choice for those lacking in time and money. If you decide to look for such agencies, perhaps the best way to do so is by searching up terms like cyber security Adelaide if you’re company is based in Australia. But if you insist on handling IT risk management yourself, risk assessment would be a great first step.

2. Perform IT Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the process of identifying and evaluating risks. It's usually the first step to IT risk management. After all, you can't prepare for risks if you don't know what they are. After performing the assessment, you can then determine which risks are more likely to happen by ranking them; then, you can adjust your IT risk management framework accordingly. If the rank 1 is virus, for example, you'd have to prepare an anti-virus application. If the most concerning risk are natural disasters, creating a backup of your data in a portable device or on the cloud is the best course of action in case all the computers are done in a cyclone or a storm. Risk assessment is best done with the help of the following technologies:

• Vulnerability Scanning
• Breach and Attack Simulation Tools
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework

3. Establish Communication Lines

When addressing issues within a company, you'd want everyone to know what's going on, which is why establishing clear communication among the employees is a must for all business owners. The same goes for when you're dealing with IT risk management. You want everyone to know what risks they're dealing with and what they should do. On that note, investing in communication technologies might be an excellent choice in this scenario.

4. Invest In Monitoring Tools

It’s mentioned earlier that monitoring is a crucial part of IT risk management. It allows you to determine if the IT systems are still functioning properly, and you can also find out if your employees are doing what they should be doing. Simply put, monitoring makes it so you won't miss anything significant by recording everything that's happening within the system 24/7. After all. IT risks never sleep, so your countermeasure must also do the same. With that said, consider investing in monitoring tools.

5. Create A Security Management Dashboard

Considering how you'll be using a lot of software and applications for IT risk management, notifications will eventually flood the IT server, and as a result, people won't know what to do with all the noise. As such, it's important to create a company dashboard that organizes everything that's happening within the IT risk management framework. Fortunately, with the current information technologies, creating a security management dashboard with such functions should be doable.

Final Words

Although technology plays a significant role in IT risk management, it's worth noting that people are also one of the most important parts of this operation. After all, technology still requires implementation and management, both of which are handled by your employees. On that note, you mustn't focus only on technologies. You should also consider providing your employees the necessary training and information to help them manage IT risks more efficiently.

Matt Igor

Matt Igor is a cyber security expert. He has extensive background in various tech fields and shares his expertise through web content writing. Matt enjoys playing golf and chess during his free time. He has a golden retriever dog named Adam.