IT risk management process | nibusinessinfo.co.

uk 2024/3/26 23:05

IT risk management
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IT risk management process
Guide
In business, IT risk management entails a process of identifying, monitoring and managing potential
information security or technology risks with the goal of mitigating or minimising their negative
impact.

Examples of potential IT risks include security breaches, data loss or theft, cyber attacks, system
failures and natural disasters. Anything that could a!ect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of
your systems and assets could be considered an IT risk.

Steps in the IT risk management process

To manage IT risks e!ectively, follow these six steps in your risk management process:

1. Identify risks
Determine the nature of risks and how they relate to your business. Take a look at the di!erent types
of IT risk.

2. Assess risks
Determine how serious each risk is to your business and prioritise them. Carry out an IT risk
assessment.

3. Mitigate risks
Put in place preventive measures to reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring and limit its impact.
Find solutions in our IT risk management checklist.

4. Develop an incident response

Set out plans for managing a problem and recovering your operations. Devise and test your IT
incident response and recovery strategy.

5. Develop contingency plans

Ensure that your business can continue to run after an incident or a crisis. Read about IT risk and
business continuity.

6. Review processes and procedures

Continue to assess threats and manage new risks. Read more about the strategies to manage
business risk.

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IT risk controls
As part of your risk management, try to reduce the likelihood of risks a!ecting your business in the
first place. Put in place measures to protect your systems and data from all known threats.

For example, you should:

Review the information you hold and share. Make sure that you comply with data protection
legislation, and think about what needs to be on public or shared systems. Where possible,
remove sensitive information.
Install and maintain security controls, such as firewalls, anti-virus software and processes that
help prevent intrusion and protect your business online.
Implement security policies and procedures such as internet and email usage policies, and train
sta!.
Use a third-party IT provider if you lack in-house skills. Often, they can provide their own security
expertise. See how to choose an IT supplier for your business.

If you can't remove or reduce risks to an acceptable level, you may be able to take action to lessen the
impact of potential incidents.

Mitigate IT risks
To mitigate IT risks, you should consider:

setting procedures for detecting problems (eg a virus infecting your system), possibly with the help
of cyber security breach detection tools
getting cyber insurance against the costs of security breaches

You can also use the National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) free Check your cyber security
service to perform a range of simple online checks to identify common vulnerabilities in your public-
facing IT.

The NCSC also o!er a free Cyber Action Plan. By answering a few simple questions, you can get a free
personalised action plan that lists what you or your organisation can do right now to protect against
cyber attack.

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‹ prev up next ›
IT risk assessment methodology ISO 27001 IT security management
standard

In this guide:
Introduction 
What is IT risk? 
Di!erent types of IT risk 
IT risk assessment methodology 
IT risk management process 
ISO 27001 IT security management standard 
IT risk management policy 
IT incident response and recovery 
IT risk and business continuity 
IT risk management checklist 

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Actions
NCSC: Risk management guide
Cyber security: small business guide
NCSC: 10 Steps to cyber security
Risk management for practitioners
Invest NI's ICT support for business

Also on this site

Risk management 
Cyber security for business 
UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) 

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