For many organisations, IT security can be intimidating and figuring out where to begin, what level of security will be required and what exactly needs securing, can be overwhelming.
At Redpalm, the first and the most important step we’d suggest is to perform a thorough IT risk assessment.
To help you get started, we’ve created a simple IT security risk assessment checklist. We’ve also mentioned what this checklist aims to help you with.
Let’s take a look.
The Objectives of Our IT Assessment Checklist
1. Helps You Understand Your Data
When it comes to the cyber security of your organisation, the first thing you need to understand is what data you hold or process.
Put simply, you need to look at the current data you’re saving and decide whether or not you need it. If some of the information is not required, make sure you get rid of it properly – after all, cyber criminals can’t get hold of something that doesn’t exist.
However, in order for you to get a complete understanding of your data, it’s important for you to know where it’s stored, how long it has been held for and who has access to it (more than who doesn’t).
2. Helps You Understand Your Threats
Apart from helping you understand your data, our IT security risk assessment checklist also aims to help you comprehend the potential issues.
We’ve divided it into three categories:
- Threats – This is something that can cause damage to your company and ranges from physical threats like flood or fire to cyber attackers hacking your confidential data.
- Vulnerabilities – These are essentially any and every type of gaps in your cyber security that can potentially enable already identified threats to cause harm to your organisation. A good example of this would be the lack of a firewall.
- Risks – These are possibilities that one of your identified threats can feed on your vulnerabilities. For instance, what is the likelihood of a virus infecting your business network if you lack a firewall?
By looking at your business and its data in this way, you’ll gain a better understanding of how your confidential information is protected.
Our IT Security Risk Assessment Checklist
1. Make a Note of Where All Your Data is Stored
When it comes to conducting an IT risk assessment of your business, it’s important you start with your data.
Speak to your employees, management team and other data holders to figure out where all your data is saved. While you’re at it, make sure that you’re including digital data as well as other physical items.
2. Think About How Your Business Might Be Affected Due to Data Loss
While it’s important to understand where exactly your data is stored, you also need to figure out what data is crucial for your business.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What technology is used by your team for daily operations?
- Do you store customer information?
- What type of data your business can’t do without?
- What data, if lost, could be detrimental to your business?
Find out answers to these questions and based on that, make sure you’re properly securing your data.
3. Figure Out Possible Consequences
One of the most important steps in our IT security risk assessment checklist is the identification of potential consequences your business might face if data is lost.
Here are some scenarios you need to take into consideration:
- Application or System Downtime: Find out an estimate of how much money you could lose if your business faces a system downtime for a day, week or perhaps even months?
- Legal Issues: Understand the fines or reputational damage that your business might incur in case your data gets stolen, along with other legal expenses that you could face for not meeting the data protection legislation. For instance, you could incur heavy penalties under GDPR.
4. Discover Risks and Their Possibility
When conducting an IT risk assessment, it’s crucial that you identify different threats, their likelihood and how much damage they could cause your company.
Some of the risk you need to figure out are:
- Natural Calamities: Get an understanding of the fire, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes situation in your location.
- System or Application Failure: Check for how long you’ve been using your systems and applications, whether they’re being maintained properly and were they purchased from a well-known brand.
- Human Error: This is perhaps the most common threat most organisations face. Mistakes, such as opening malicious emails or links, or deleting crucial information, are bound to happen at any time and you need to be prepared beforehand.
5. Have Proper Policies In Place for Every System
Once you’re done sorting your data, identifying what problems your business could possibly face and their possibility, you need to ensure that you have proper security measures in place.
Add to that, you must make sure you’re providing your employees with the right IT security training and that you have antivirus software installed. Get in touch with professional IT companies like Redpalm to help you with training and the implementation of security protocols.
To Secure Your IT Infrastructure Get In Touch With Redpalm Today!
This IT security risk assessment checklist is just a starting point to help you boost your cyber security. It will help you comprehend where exactly your data is stored, the amount of information your business has and in what places you could face vulnerabilities.
For professional advice on securing your IT infrastructure and keeping both your employees and organisations safe from data loss and hackers, contact Redpalm today!
