5 Reasons Why You Should Conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment

Whether you run a small business or a large multinational organisation, cyber security cannot be ignored. Conducting regular cyber security risk assessments will reduce your organization's likelihood of experiencing a data breach, it will also ensure the steps you are taking to reduce your exposure to a breach are effective. If you haven’t conducted a risk assessment lately, we have five reasons as to why you should do so, ensuring your organisation gets the best start to 2021.

 

1. Avoid Security Breaches

Regardless of how sophisticated your systems are, unfortunately you’re never immune to cyber security threats. Viruses, malware and cyber criminals are always evolving looking to exploit any loopholes or weaknesses in the systems of their victims. Conducting regular cyber security risk assessments will help your organisation identify gaps in your defenses and highlight what remediation steps you can take to mitigate the risk of a breach.

 

2. Protect Your Reputation

The risk of a breach is always present, however, without regular cyber security risk assessments and the proper controls and procedures in place your risk of a security breach increases. A breach could negatively affect your organisation's reputation and how prospective clients and employees will view your company. With a question around security issues, your business can seem less trustworthy, which could be a deciding factor in a potential customer going to a competitor. Conducting regular cyber security risk assessments will allow you to proactively identify and remediate any vulnerabilities which will consequently improve your cyber security posture.

 

3. Reduce Overall Costs and Budget

Using low level cost security measures may be inefficient if the security gaps remain uncovered in an organisation which can ultimately cost you more in the long term. Handling the fall out of a cyber security breach can in some cases be very costly for an organisation.

To avoid wasting a considerable fraction of your organisation's resources both financially and in terms of professional capacity it is good practice to carry out regular cyber security risk assessments. These assessments will allow you to effectively plan ahead and decide what fraction of your budget should be spent and where it should be spent in regards to IT security, in order to achieve your desired security goals.

 

4. Avoid Violating Privacy

Any organisation which stores or processes the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of EU citizens needs to comply with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). Failing to take the necessary measures to ensure the PII your organisation stores and/or processes is adequately protected is a breach of the GDPR. Organisations who put their clients or employees PII at risk through poor security practices can be subject to hefty fines if they are breached.

 

5. Increase Productivity Levels

Without the expert knowledge most organisations operate with the fear of being victim of a security breach. This area of unknown can reduce productivity as it can result in projects or decisions being delayed or put off entirely to reduce the chance of exposing an organisation to a cyber attack. A cyber security risk assessment can be tailored to take into consideration current and future senior management decisions to see how they could be implemented without compromising the cyber security posture of the organisation. Conducting a cyber security risk assessment will provide your senior management team with the expert advice they need to allow them to effectively make informed strategic decisions and grow the company without compromising your cyber security posture.

 

How can Secora Consulting help?

Secora Consulting’s Cyber Security Risk Assessment can be delivered as a consultative process which would help your organisation understand the gaps that exist between your present and your future desired cyber security posture which is in-line with best practice.

We will establish what your most critical assets are against Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. We will then draw out the potential threats against these assets which could impact your organisation negatively. We will then list which controls are needed to mitigate the uncovered threats and then analyse where your controls are using a maturity assessment to score each control so you can understand exactly where your gaps lie and where to prioritise your time.

If you would like to speak to a member of our team to find out more about our Cyber Security Risk Assessment service please get in touch.  

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