Developing a Comprehensive Risk Management Strategy

Managing risk has been an important consideration for as long as humans have been conducting business. Today, most of the focus is on protecting digital assets. A major data breach in the Internet age can bring even a large multinational corporation to its knees. Having a comprehensive risk management strategy is not optional.

But where do you begin in ensuring your business has a comprehensive risk management strategy that meets your needs? Brass Valley has some advice.

What is a Comprehensive Risk management strategy?

In the simplest terms, a comprehensive risk management strategy is a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, mitigating and monitoring risks to your business and its data. It goes well beyond simply following best practices in terms of password use and user account management. A sound strategy requires imagination and forward thinking. Remember, your business and its data are only as secure as the weakest link in the chain.

A comprehensive risk management strategy has two main components:

1. Prevention
2. Defense

Identifying Risks to Your Data

Both prevention and defense begin with identifying risks. It’s vastly more difficult to prevent or defend against an unanticipated risk. Consider both risks from within your organization (internal risks) and risks from outside of it (external risks). Truly sound risk management strategies don’t happen without creative thinking.

Believe it or not, failures to adequately secure data are often the result of a lack of imagination. For example, despite warnings (and plenty of portrayals in movies and TV shows) most organizations still fail to consider the threat of social engineering, much less mitigate the risk of it.

Examples of internal risks include:

• Hardware failures
• Software problems/bugs
• Poor IT asset disposition procedures
• Human error

Examples of external risks include:

• Viruses/malware
• DoS attacks and other assaults on your network or websites
• Social engineering/phishing attacks
• Natural disasters

Convene a group of people from your organization with management representatives from each department and brainstorm. Make a list of perceived internal and external threats to consider in your comprehensive risk management strategy

Risk Assessment and Prioritization

With your list of threats in hand, the next step is assessing each threat. Consider both the likelihood of each threat and its potential impact. This will help you prioritize which risks to address first and how to best deploy your available resources. A risk matrix, a tool that plots the severity of a risk against its likelihood can be instrumental here.

For example, while the likelihood of an epic natural disaster may be low, the potential impact on IT infrastructure could be immense, making it a higher-priority risk. Conversely, the likelihood of minor software bugs may be high, their impact might be relatively low, making them a lower priority.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Tools and procedures to develop comprehensive risk management strategies already exist. Focus your creative energies instead on imagining potential threats, then use the established methods for prioritizing and mitigating these risks.

Risk Mitigation for Your Organization

Once you’ve identified and prioritized your risks, apply measures to mitigate them. This could include everything from staff training to establishing airtight ITAD protocols to ensure data destruction best practices are followed to the T. Utilizing an ITAD partner with a flawless record in data protection, like Brass Valley is an excellent way to tick that particular box.

It is important to reiterate that every member of your organization plays a role in risk management. It’s not simply up to the IT department alone. It’s also important to have a recovery plan in place for when things go wrong. Remember, it’s not a matter of if, but when.

You should have a disaster recovery plan to restore operations after a major incident. A business continuity plan that details how to keep the business running during anything from a network outage to a major natural disaster is also wise. Again, use your imagination when envisioning potential risks.

Have a Fluid Comprehensive Risk Management Strategy

Remember that risk management isn’t a task to be completed and forgotten about, it’s an ongoing process and practice. The IT landscape is constantly evolving, with new threats emerging regularly. This means your risk management strategy must evolve as well.

It is crucial to continually monitor and review the efficacy of risk management strategies. That means staying informed about trends and emerging malware exploits and other threats. It also means testing your existing strategies with drills and simulations as needed. Complacency here could result in a terribly expensive lesson.

Brass Valley: The Gold Standard in ITAD Risk Management

Sound IT asset disposition (ITAD) must be a part of any organization’s comprehensive risk management strategy. Brass Valley is arguably the safest ITAD vendor in the U.S. With zero breaches in the over 20 years we’ve been in business, our track record and expertise speak volumes. Our elite-level shared risk model and High-Reliability processes offer unparalleled security for your valuable data.

Find out how the services we offer at Brass Valley can help solidify your risk management strategy today. Call us at (844) 390-5366 or by submitting your details through our contact page.