Compliance and Risk
Managing risks within the company and IT is critical in today’s fast paced environment. The confluence of interconnections of businesses, consumer demand for privacy, potential IT failures and corporate governance have elevated the importance of managing risk effectively while adhering to compliance regulations.
- Mitigation – reducing the risk
- Transfer – moving the risk
- Acceptance – assuming the risk
- Avoidance – removing the possibility
Using risk management helps to evaluate the tolerance of risk for the company and help determine the priorities. The key to maximizing your efforts is to deal with risk on a strategic basis. There are four classic ways of coping with risk;
The operational budget for security related spending and staffing has increased dramatically. For IT departments it is the most critical of risks and can impact an organization in the most negative of ways. The keys to successfully leading this top priority are the following;
- Develop a formal security policy. Communicate it to everyone – often.
- Manage security processes on an ongoing basis – it becomes part of the routine.
- Don’t overlook insider threats.
- Take a long-term view of your security architecture that is tied to your risk assessment.
- Ensure the tactical steps of audit trails, code of conduct, monitoring of systems, access rights etc.
- Understand thoroughly the requirements of new and existing regulations
Monitoring and evaluating risk has now become a critical part of IT. Remember that security is not a goal but a process. It’s what we all strive for in a constantly changing environment.
