The cruciality of Digital Risk Protection in today’s digital world

RiskXchange The cruciality of Digital Risk Protection in todays digital world RiskXchange The leader in Third-Party Cyber Risk Management

RiskXchange can help protect an organisation from cyber threats during digital transformation and ensure you have the right digital risk protection programme in place.

As technology evolves at a rapid rate, businesses must adapt to these changes at an equally fast pace. With these new technologies comes risk which can open up organisations to digital threats. These threats can sometimes come from the untested nature of cutting-edge technology while others are simply associated with the learning curve of users within an organisation.  

The average cost of a data breach is now estimated at £3 million and climbing. So it’s never been as important to ensure that a business is protected at all times. Businesses should be investing in the latest technology, but also in the latest cybersecurity steps at the same time. With that in mind, organisations should be aware of both digital risk and invest in digital risk protection (DRP). 

Digital risk 

According to McKinsey, digital risk is a term encompassing all digital enablements that improve risk effectiveness and efficiency—especially process automation, decision automation, and digitized monitoring and early warning. The approach uses work-flow automation, optical-character recognition, advanced analytics (including machine learning and artificial intelligence), and new data sources, as well as the application of robotics to processes and interfaces. Essentially, digital risk implies a concerted adjustment of processes, data, analytics and IT, and the overall organizational setup, including talent and culture. 

Digital risk is any risk that arises from an organisation’s adoption of new technologies. Digital transformation of any nature can open an organisation up to new risk and the familiarity (or unfamiliarity) that comes with it means threats are harder to spot. The unwanted and unforeseen consequences of new technologies are digital risks.  

Digital risk protection 

DRP is the variety of measures taken by an organisation to mitigate risk and control undesired outcomes so that new technology can be incorporated in a quick and safe way. It’s quite simply the act of protecting an organisation from cyber threats during digital transformation.  

Depending on the type of risk, DRP can be seen in several different forms. Cybersecurity risks can be mitigated by penetration tests, monitoring attack surfaces, and educating workers about the dangers of ransomware and phishing attacks. Third-party risks can be mitigated by monitoring suppliers and partners and providing them with limited access to a network. Business continuity risks and process risks can be mitigated by planning out workflows and creating a response plan should the organisation be attacked. 

Let’s take a closer look at the different types of digital risk:  

Cybersecurity risk 

Cybersecurity risk is the sum of the external exposure and likelihood of loss of critical assets and sensitive information, and/or reputational damage as a result of a breach or cyber-attack within an organisation’s network. These risks include phishing, hacking and other types of attacks. Internal attacks are also classed as cybersecurity threats, such as malicious insiders. 

Internal vulnerabilities 

Internal vulnerabilities are weak points within an organisation’s network that allow hackers entry and can also include unauthorised access being granted to outsiders to company data. One of the most common vulnerabilities is misconfigured Amazon Web Services (AWS) buckets which can sometimes accidentally expose sensitive information to the internet.  

Compliance risk 

Compliance risk is the threat posed to a company’s organisational, financial, or reputational standing which results from violations of regulations, laws, codes of conduct, or organisational standards of practice. Switching over to new technology can also affect compliance standing. Regulated organisations also run the risk of falling out of compliance with the laws and regulations, so it is important for an organisation to stay on top of the latest updates. 

Process automation risks 

Changing automated processes, or in this case automating them, is a fundamental step taken by businesses to improve workflows and to streamline processes. Process automation can also come with risk. A new process can yield compatibility issues, or a workflow might not work with the rest of the network. Therefore, ensuring all points are secure and everything is in-sync is crucial. 

Resiliency risk 

Ransomware attacks can interrupt business by locking organisations out of their network, systems or data. Resiliency risk is the financial risk that comes along with not being able to do business for a long period of time, which is often caused by attacks such as ransomware attacks. 

Workforce risk 

Workforce risk is any risk that could arise through staff-related actions. It could also be something as simple as if an organisation has a high turnover, or it can’t find workers with the right skillset. 

Third-party risk 

Third-party risk is any threat or risk related to an organisation’s third parties, including any suppliers, vendors or partners associated with the company. 

Data privacy 

The threat of sensitive data being leaked is the main risk facing organisations today. Not only does this include company information, but also personally identifiable information (PII) of clients or customers, such as names, addresses and financial information.  

Get in touch with RiskXchange to find out more about digital risk protection. 

How RiskXchange can help  

RiskXchange is one of the firms leading the fight against cybercrime, coming up with novel solutions to everyday problems experienced at the hands of hackers. 

With full visibility over your ecosystem’s entire attack surface in near real-time, you can regularly monitor and mitigate risks to prevent unnecessary exposures. Our passive data collection methods are effective and have no impact on your network performance. Using data-driven insights to prevent breaches is the best way to reduce an attack surface and prevent cyberattacks.   

About RiskXchange 

RiskXchange provides a powerful AI-assisted, yet simple automated and centralised 360-degree cybersecurity risk rating management approach. We generate objective and quantitative reporting on a company’s cyber security risk and performance, which enables organisations with evolving business requirements to conduct business securely in today’s open and collaborative digital world.  

RiskXchange is an information security technology company, which helps companies of all sizes fight the threat of cyber threats by providing instant risk ratings for any company across the globe. RiskXchange was founded and is led by recognised experts within the security industry, who have held leading roles within companies such as IBM Security.  

Find out more here.