Wednesday, July 29, 2020

IT risks: IT risk management and information security

Information technologies are interconnected systems that allow you to study and implement methods that ensure effective management and organization of employees involved in processing, storing company data.

IP Risks and Security: Risk Management

It is very important to understand what constitutes IT risk. This is the likelihood that negative consequences may occur that are associated with the emergence of various threats. Such threats include viruses, hacker attacks, information theft, damage to equipment. During the design, development and implementation of information systems, various factors may arise that provoke the emergence and development of such threats. Such factors may represent an inappropriate automation solution. Also, it can be errors in the project, inconsistency of the infrastructure and the decision on automation.

To prevent the emergence of such threats, the company needs complex systems that integrate risk management. Also for these purposes is internal control, audit, which is performed as a main or auxiliary activity on the territory of the enterprise.

It should be noted that risk management is an activity that is primarily important for the company's management. Through such activities, the development and increase of such risks can be minimized. Risk classification is a fairly broad concept. These are risks related to information security, internal control, personnel management, IT projects, etc.

When automating the company's activities, as well as automating each individual process, risk management is carried out, but at the same time, the result often does not meet the expectations of the company's management. Among the risk management processes, there is a category of risks associated directly with IT projects. These can be a wide variety of types of risks, including the category of general risks that show the result of the activities of the customer and the contractor. There is also a category of risks that deals with information security issues, therefore, to manage such risks, it is necessary to select participants who can be completely trusted.

IT Project Risk Management

IT risk management starts with understanding how IT risk is represented. These can be business risks, as well as the level of risks that affects the internal structure and management of the organization.

Risk IT is presented in several basic principles. IT risks, or rather, their management, first of all, must be consistent and linked to the goals of the company. If we talk about IT risk analysis, it shows the dependence of business processes on various IT resources.

Risk management must be consistent with the corporate governance system. At the same time, the purpose and size of the business is expressed in clear values. This means that for each process, the consequences of its implementation are clearly defined. In addition, all the advantages of risk management processes can be balanced and clearly aligned, that is, the company's management will receive a stable and strictly predictable result. When undertaking IT risk management activities, there is a potential for continual improvement. Moreover, risk management in IT will become a mandatory part of the company's activities.

Risk classification in IT projects

Risk classification is an area that requires more detailed consideration. After all, the classification makes it possible to get a clear and structured picture of how such risks will develop, while their assessment can be carried out in order to take a set of measures to further eliminate and prevent them. Risk classification allows you to create a whole set of management systems, thanks to which all risks will be distributed in certain categories. At the same time, the standardization of terminology is carried out, which is needed for both monitoring and reporting. It is important to understand that classification is necessary to identify risks. They can be functional, divided by areas of management, manifestation, by the time of occurrence. Also risks can be classified by structure, by quality metrics and other specific features. The choice of IT risk classification will depend on what specificity the IT project will have.

Risks typical for IT projects are divided into the following options: Network administrator task

Operational risks, due to which unforeseen losses are possible arising from technical errors in the conduct of operational actions. These can be emergency situations, unintentional or deliberate actions of the company's specialists, equipment failures, unauthorized access.

Technological risks are the ability of the implemented solution to overlap with the infrastructure and various information flows. This is often due to the fact that the manager makes the sole decision on projects. And the more complex the project is, the greater the risk that it will have a negative impact on the scale of the entire organization.

Financial risks. They show a deterioration in various business performance. And if the IT strategy is wrongly chosen, then the consequence can be serious financial risks.

Technical risks can exist in almost any IT-related project and where any technique is used. Failure, equipment breakdown, failure to meet deadlines - all this can be associated with just such risks.

Timing risks. In many companies and organizations, very often the planned timeline for an IT project can be very different from what it actually will be.

Integration risks. Such risks will always be high, especially for large enterprises that introduce new technologies, information systems and other innovations, while they are superimposed on the existing infrastructure and information flows.

Risks associated with the rejection of a new product by users. It is important to understand that changes, the introduction of a new product and service are important for each participant in the system. If there is no appropriate organizational structure, then there will be rejection of the new product.

Commercial risks are based on business-related factors. This can be the reliability of suppliers, the experience of the performers, the solvency of customers, and much more.

Personnel risks. Here we can distinguish such categories of risks as qualifications, experience, professionalism, communication skills and other factors that directly affect the quality of work and interaction with customers, partners, clients and performers.

Risk management system 

In the modern interpretation, risk management is characterized by the continuity of this process. At the same time, such risks are identified and analyzed continuously.

The risk management process, for all the complexity of the description, is actually quite simple. It includes the identification of risks, in which risks are analyzed, the reasons are identified, a risk map is built, and their detailed and detailed description takes place. Further, the analysis of scenarios is carried out, which show the further development of the current situation. At the same time, the level of such risks is established. After that, activities are carried out that make it possible to reduce the level of risks that have arisen.

But one process is not enough to start the risk management process. Requires definition of principles and formation of a concept - it is necessary to establish a framework where risk management will take place. This is precisely the factor for creating a risk management system. Such a system has three main levels.

The first level of risk management involves the development of an IT risk management strategy. This level makes it possible to define a framework for risk management. It also evaluates risk management during certain decisions. During this period, we study, analyze risk management and their impact on the state of the organization. Additionally, the level of risks perceived by the company is determined. That is, its tolerance to such risks is determined.

The risk management system is already a tactical level. This level is characterized by the fact that the general management of the processes is carried out, such processes are created and constantly improved, a specific methodology for IT risk management is selected. Accordingly, the efficiency of management increases. Top management defines and approves the concept of risk management, defines performance indicators, distributes responsibilities and various responsibilities for risk management, allocates resources and forms a management culture.

The third level is the concept of risk management. Here the decisions of the company's management, the basic principles, as well as the directions of activity in this area are formalized. The overall vision should describe the goals of the organization as well as the various policies. It also describes the responsibility, responsibilities of the processed risks, notification rules to a certain level of management. Additionally, it describes how such risks will be mitigated, including quick response mechanisms. It also includes the main goals, indicators of management processes, describes the rules for resolving various conflicts.

Limitations of risk management

When a risk event occurs, the risk management process is not always possible to implement. You can only manage risk if the company has a culture that embraces uncertainty and is willing to manage that uncertainty. Also, the company should have predictability of various events, including internal and external events. Additionally, there should be predictability of internal conditions regarding the activities of the enterprise. In addition, it must be possible to counter the risks. But for this there must be time and resources that can be involved.

But such conditions may not always arise. Not in every case it is possible to determine the magnitude of all possible consequences, respectively, time and certain resources are also not always available. In this case, risk management would be a meaningless activity. Moreover, such activities can be replaced by other approaches. For example, it could be crisis management.

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