Business has changed, it is no longer defined by physical buildings in the traditional brick and mortar sense. Business today is an interconnected network of connections, business relationships, distributed operations, scattered data and systems, shared processes, and risk exposure etc. The growing wave of. globalization and an ever-changing regulatory and risk environment amplifies these complexities and relationships which threatens to expose organizations of all sizes to risk. Managing risk exposure in the complexity of business and inline with the organization’s goals poses a serious test to business executives as well as professionals within security, risk management, and compliance departments.
This expanding exposure and complexity reveal a unique challenge for IT and information security. Reactive and manual approaches to managing security risk falls short in adequately dealing with and understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of risk throughout the organization. IT security and risk runs through the whole of the organization in such a growing digital world where the Internet of things now has the microwave in the break room connected to the Internet. The smallest of vendor relationships may have a network connection that brings exposure to the whole organization. Security risk management for many organizations has become a proverbial game of whac-a-mole - where every time risk is stomped out, more risk vaults up needing to be combatted.Every business faces the inevitable challenge of its’ risk profile growing in sync with expanding business complexity and distributed operations and relationships.
Failing to understand the interconnectedness of information security threatens to lay waste to organizations. The augmenting and rampant impact of information risk on a business cannot be understated. Risk exposure, in the chaotic modern business world, is a complex mesh of vulnerabilities that crosses through different departments and functions within the business and its operations. The effect of a seemingly isolated information or technology risk can soon become ubiquitous, having a spiraling effect cascading throughout different departments of the organization and impacting the organizations brand, reputation, and bottom line. In the modern digital world, information security has become a critical issue facing organizations, and is at the heart of the organization’s most pressing and serious compliance and risk concerns.
There is no hope of making wise and intelligent risk decisions that could affect the business and its’ operations as a whole when information risk is not understood from a business context. Reactionary and isolated approaches fall short inputting information security in the proper context of overall business goals and objectives and is blind to a much larger picture. A good IT and information security system that understands the web of intricacy and the mesh of interconnectedness within information risk enables the organization to make smart decisions and understand the impact of information risk across the whole of the organization as it aims to achieve its objectives.
Ensuring that your information risk and security control is at a proper level of maturity is paramount in being able to fully monitor and understand the chaotic modern world of business and effectively scrutinize and evaluate risk and compliance across the entire organization. An immature IT and information security system leaves organizations vulnerable and caught off guard to risk exposure. When organizations approach information risk in isolation and as a quarantined issue, the mesh of interconnectedness amplifies the risk throughout the organization, leaving a lasting and perhaps fatal effect on the business operations and objectives of the organization. While the mature organization will have complete visibility and contextual understanding of information security and technology risk exposure on the business.
Gaining a complete, 360 degree view of information risk management across the entirety of the organizations and its’ operations and systems is a requirement in developing a good information security system that has the ability to understand the exposure of information risk and the effect it has on business performance and objectives. Managing information risk is successful when risk and compliance matters are dealt with in an assimilated and combined approach. aligned with the business that the business understand. IT security and business executives need to work collectively to understand the big picture of information risk. Past paradigms of managing security no longer work as security risk was managed in isolation. The modern organizations require that it has atop-down view of security in context of information and technology risk impact on the business and operations.
Guideline has years of experience in helping organizations increase their maturity in information security and align it with the business. Engage Guideline today for our free IT governance maturity assessment.
