Technology risk management demands careful attention and a comprehensive plan. RiskXchange can deliver both.
Almost every business today relies upon technology to function. The use of computers, laptops, smart phones, tablets, and the internet, have created a technological foundation upon which businesses are built. This, however, opens up some major technological risks and where technology risk management comes in handy.
The aim of technology risk management, as a part of a global cyber risk management practice, is to identify potential technology risks before they can occur. By implementing a plan to address those risks, technology risk management looks at both external and internal technology risks that could damage an organisation. Let’s take a closer look.
Facing technology risks
Technological risks are faced when an organisation’s software, hardware or online applications are compromised by equipment failure or cyberattack. Data breaches can occur in businesses of all sizes for a number of reasons, but the underlining issue is always technology based. Personal or financial information can be stolen and disseminated by cybercriminals an other threat actors in a matter of minutes so it’s important to ensure that sophisticated cybersecurity measures are always in place. The best way to ensure your business is secure is via a technology risk assessment.
3 advantages of a technology risk assessment
There are many advantages to utilising a technology risk management assessment to ensure that your cybersecurity measures are at an optimum level. Let’s take a closer look at the top three:
Reduces risk
Assessing and updating underlying technology is the key to reducing risk. Ensuring that software is always updated is just one of the steps toward decreasing risk. If applications dependent on the technology that your organisation uses fails in any way, it could lead to a knock-on effect of errors across your entire business and supply chain. Identifying and understanding underlying technologies that exist on your network, along with any software dependencies, is key to reducing risk.
Reduces costs
By assessing the functional fit of each IT component and how critical they are to the business is key to cutting the fat and reducing costs. This assessment streamlines the applications used by the business whether they are used on-site or remotely. It not only ensures that your business is using the correct software but eliminates unnecessary applications and costs.
Increases agility
A technology risk management assessment can also help to build, define, and outline guidelines and standards. If there are no standards in place, then it can become extremely chaotic. Once the standards have been outlined, it’s extremely important that they are adhered to at all times. Not only does it increase agility but leaves a healthy structure in place. This should, of course, be continuously monitored and updated.
How to do a technology risk assessment
Now that the benefits of utilising a technology risk assessment have been outlined, let’s take a closer look at an information technology risk management plan example:
Step 1: Have a list of applications you use
Documenting your applications is the first step. An overview of your applications provides you with exactly what’s being used and the costs. Therefore, listing all applications used across the entire business is your starting point which creates a record and a reference point.
Step 2: What version of software do you use?
Finding out what software versions are being used is key to not only cost but as to whether you are adequately protected. Using a technology stack to group your software is a recommended best practice. Tagging your software to reference them in the future also saves time and is cost effective.
Step 3: Check the servers and data centres in use
You can check the servers and data centres in use by assigning a technology stack to each. You should also verify the data. For example, an IT component location report can be used to check where your servers are located.
Step 4: Linking applications
Once the data has been located, it is important that a clearly defined link is made between software, applications, and servers. This helps you understand the dependencies between each technology.
Step 5: Are there adequate security controls?
Scanning and documenting security requirements, policies, and procedures is the next step in the process. Making sure you have the correct security controls in place for each element is key to securing your business.
Step 6: Which part of your business depends on IT?
Finally, pinpointing which parts of your business depends on IT and exactly what needs to be secured not only bolsters security but reduces costs. Take a closer look into information security risk assessment.
How can RiskXchange help with your technology risk management?
RiskXchange is the only platform that provides a complete 360-degree view of your attack surface, including that of your vendors. It will continuously monitor your complete attack surface, highlight any risk, and enable you to fix any issues before the attacker discovers them.
Let’s take a closer look at the key features of vendor risk management and RiskXchange’s security assessments:
Security assessments
- All in one place
Upload, create, and modify as many assessments as required.
- Prebuilt assessment
Use the RiskXchange cyber essentials predefined assessment to get a handle on key control points.
- Easy-to-view results
Presentation of the assessment results in a consistent and easy-to-review manner.
- Automated process
Automated assessment distribution and chasing for completion.
- Consistent scores
Automatic and consistent scoring across third-party assessments.
- Compliance check
Ability to look across all assessments for non-compliancy and upload supporting evidence documentation.
Risk ratings
RiskXchange quantifies and proactively helps you mitigate cyber risk across your entire third-party and fourth-party ecosystem by delivering real-time continuous risk ratings and analysis using advanced risk quantification methods. Let’s take a look at the benefits of security risk ratings:
- Identify cyber risk across your third parties
Identify the cyber risk posed by your third and fourth parties by analysing their entire attack surface and surrounding supporting technology ecosystems.
- Business-level and deep technical reporting
Produce executive level or deep technical reports on demand when needed by your organisation’s management or technical teams.
- Systemic and resilience cyber risk analysis
Discover third-party and fourth-party vendor systemic or resilience risks across your combined cyber ecosystems.
- Actionable security intelligence
We make it easy to mitigate cyber risk across your third-party vendor ecosystem by providing validated, actionable intelligence, making it easier for your technical teams to address the root cause in the fastest time possible.
- Automated alert system
Receive automated alerts that integrate with your existing workflows, alerting you to new security vulnerabilities.
- Integrated collaboration
Collaborate with other enterprises and third-party vendors using our integrated workflows that enable you to share and discuss best practices, security, or compliance issues.
- Fast onboarding and vendor risk scoring
Discover and acquire new vendors quicker by accessing instant risk ratings that provide you with the insights you need to make qualified business risk decisions during the new vendor acquisition stage.
- Flexible deployment models
Our flexible deployment models enable you to fully integrate the platform into your own infrastructure both on-premises, in the cloud or solely via a SaaS-based solution.
- Best-in-class intelligence
Our data is sourced from a wide range of sources which include both technical and business-level intelligence.
Manage your risks today with an information technology risk management framework for your company. Get in touch with RiskXchange to find out more about technology risk assessments.