How to Make Sure Your Security Risk Management Strategy Covers All Bases
The field of security risk management is diverse and complex. Then, what does that entail? It entails identifying security concerns and putting procedures to deal with them. These processes involve evaluating the possible occurrence of known threats, how these attacks might exploit any weaknesses in your security defenses, and the potential impact on your business.
According to ASIS International, many industries, including business R&D and insurance, have been using the term “risk management” for many years. However, it is only recently being used in asset management and security protection. The purpose of security is to manage risks, which is why it makes sense to balance the expense of protection solutions with their usefulness.
A security expert would restrict the overall occurrences contributing to loss to manage risk properly. In risk management, one of the goals is to manage losses as effectively and cheaply as possible. Most professionals agree that risk is the most important factor in deploying security measures.
What is the Main Security Risk Category to consider?
Risks associated with security fall into three categories. The three risk management categories are human threats, physical threats, and cyber threats. Now let’s consider them from the standpoint of access control.
- Human Threats, e.g., employees may give authorization to the wrong person by mistake or on purpose.
- Physical Threats, e.g., when a criminal destroys a door to take entry.
- Cyber Threats, e.g., someone hacks your employee database, takes employee details, or modifies access control permissions.
As part of your risk assessments, you should also consider the possibility of natural disasters. Physical security risks and cyber security concerns are increasingly convergent as information and technology take over security procedures. As a result, coordination between physical security personnel and IT and cybersecurity teams has become increasingly critical.
Focus Areas for Your Security Risk Strategy
It’s a good idea to separate a security risk management plan into smaller projects because it can be a complex endeavour. Here are a few crucial areas for you to focus on:
- Business Continuity: By focusing on your business continuity, you can identify what could endanger it. In a disaster, you can also determine how to limit the risks and ensure company continuity.
- Occupational Health and Safety: Focusing on occupational health and safety can help you prevent illegal access to locations that pose health and safety risks.
- Emergency Management: Since you have focused on emergency management, you will quickly take the appropriate actions in case of an emergency.
- Security and Asset Protection: If you focus on protecting your organization’s physical and intellectual assets, you might be able to secure them appropriately.
- Securing Budget: As long as you focus on your security budget, you will spend on the security solutions you picked.
This latter task might be especially challenging for security experts. A clear, predictable return on investment can be presented in most industries. By contrast, decision-makers usually view the purchase of security technology as an expense rather than an investment.
The objective is to demonstrate the severity of each risk and the financial or other consequences if security-related processes and systems are not in place to mitigate it. Even though this is not always a monetary expenditure, its effect on the bottom line is significant. In the case of a security breach, for instance, a company’s reputation might be hurt, resulting in decreased consumer loyalty and a decline in sales.
Investing in a Future-Proofing Approach is Crucial
Incorporating future risks into your strategy development is essential as cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent. In terms of a system, it is crucial to pick one which has no closures and can be modified to address today’s and tomorrow’s threats. Make sure it is aligned with your security risk management plan as it changes constantly.
The Takeaway
We’ve come to the end of the round-up. Having learned the value of security risk management strategy, you should recognize that knowing about future threats helps you prepare for them long before they arise.