Call us on 03450 21 21 51
Call us on 03450 21 21 51
Share this article
ISO27001 risk assessments: knowledge is power when it comes to protecting your organisation from cybercrime
Protecting your business from a cybersecurity breach requires a lot of vigilance on your part, and it’s important to be aware of where the greatest risks to your business security lie.
It may be tempting to bury your head in the sand and cross your fingers, but understanding and addressing your weaknesses is a vital step in tackling cybercrime head on, and it must be done before you introduce new policies or new software into your organisation.
Risk assessments are essential to achieving ISO27001 certification. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly risk assessments involve, and why they are so important to cybersecurity as a whole.
As the name suggests, a risk assessment is the process of highlighting and reviewing the threats your organisation faces, in order to identify the best solutions. This helps you to improve the cybersecurity of your business as a whole, strengthening resilience and even reducing the likelihood that you will be surprised by a cyberattack.
The threats that an assessment can help to identify might include system vulnerabilities, such as outdated software, gaps in security, staff inexperience and more. These vulnerabilities can help cybercriminals to take advantage and launch an attack.
A full assessment will incorporate every location in which data is stored, as well as the channels it uses to move between them. For this reason, it will look at both physical and digital resources, i.e. USB sticks going missing and computer files being tampered with.
Through a risk assessment, your organisation can gain a holistic overview of where your risk areas are, and the specific incidents through which your data could be breached. This stands you in better stead to address cybersecurity concerns and better protect your business.
Despite the growing threats posed by hackers and cybercriminals, many businesses still fail to see the importance of conducting a full risk assessment for ISO27001. After all, surely the results of each assessment are broadly the same considering how most businesses operate in similar ways. It’s forgivable to assume that there will be digital records held on servers or in the Cloud, physical records held elsewhere, and a considerable overlap in the software used from business to business.
However, this is an all-too-common misconception. Many organisations treat risk assessments as a tick-box exercise, neglecting both the importance and the potential benefits that come with it.
No two businesses operate in the same way, and it’s the little differences and oversights which hackers can take advantage of. The more detail you put into your risk assessment, the clearer your resilience as an organisation becomes. Results should inform specific choices regarding your individual approach to cybersecurity.
The role of carrying out a full risk assessment can seem like a mammoth task, which is why most organisations will follow the framework outlined in ISO27001.
This provides a clear set of guidelines that begins by creating a methodology and a list of information assets, which accumulate in a risk evaluation process and treatment plan.
When it comes to risk assessment, it’s always best to keep things simple and clear. Make sure everyone involved understands their role. It’s much better to have a smaller, well-defined group of risks to work on than a complex dashboard of irrelevant information. This helps everyone within your organisation understand the problems and know how to deal with them. In other words, ISO27001 risk assessment is a matter of quality over quantity.
Looking to improve cybersecurity within your organisation? Get in touch with SRM today. Click here to reach out or call us on 03450 21 21 51.
