Business’ have several methods of dealing potential threats, but broadly, it comes down to whether they adopt a reactive or pro-active approach. A reactive method means dealing with problems after they occur, and working to mitigate the impact of existing issues on business operations, while a pro-active approach means planning in advance, using available data, what kinds of potential risks your business could face, and working to eliminate them before they even occur. When it comes to identifying risks and possible information security breaches within your organisation it is worthwhile to adopt the pro-active approach. Doing so helps keeps your business costs down, minimises downtime, and helps uphold your reputation as a safe, reputable organisation to do business with.

The International Organization for Standardization’s certification, ISO 27001 Standards for information security management, provides an effective framework on how to conduct a pro-active Information Security Risk Assessment within your business, breaking it down into a clear, simple, step-by-step process that can be easily understood and followed. Specifically, Clause 6 of ISO 27001 details a five-step process that helps develop a risk management framework that outlines how and when potential risks will be dealt with in order to minimise operational disruptions, a systematic approach to identifying potential information security risks, such as by outlining ways in which confidential information could be breached through either a scenario-based or asset-based risk assessment, both of which address mitigating operational disruptions though different frameworks.

This system also helps business’ analyse the root causes of potential risks, and how to work at mitigating them. For example, a systematic two-step password authentication system could be implemented in order to access employee information, via an app, to act as a safeguard against potential security hackings. The categorical evaluation of risks is the next step, in which the potential amount of disruption each breach could cause is ascertained and scored, then weighed up against the amount of damage it would cause to business operations. This approach allows business’ to priorities bigger risks over lesser ones, ensuring that risk treatment is conducted in a systematic manner, in which issues are dealt with in order of their potential scope of disruption to business operations.

What is Information Security Management System (ISMS)?

Eliminating Risks is a safe bet

With an abundance of potential information security risks threatening the stability of your business, sometimes potential risk management can seem like a risky endeavour. However, there is a safe bet, and that is the implementation of an efficient, easy to use security system framework that works at identifying threats, assessing their potential degree of disruption to operations, and working to either eliminate or treat them, so your business can continue to operate at maximum efficiency. Anitech’s ISO consultants can help guide you through this process, by explaining how the risk management guidelines of ISO 27001 can be applied to your business in a simple, easily observable manner. Please contact us on 1300 802 163 to take steps towards ensuring that risk management is a safe and secure endeavour.

You might be interested in reading: How your business stands to benefit from implementing an Information Security Management System.