What Is Cybersecurity Risk Management and Why Is It Important?

Businesses that exist in the digital era have to protect the valuable customer, employee, and financial data that they possess from getting lost or used for cybercrime, which is where cybersecurity risk management can come in handy. As someone working for a company, your employer may have assigned you one day to be part of its cybersecurity team. Even if you’ve undergone Certified Authorization Professional (CAP) training before or you’re still new to handling information systems, here’s what you need to know about what cybersecurity risk management is and why it’s essential.

What Is Cybersecurity Risk Management?

Just like how you should keep all your valuable documents locked in a storage vault, you’ll also have to stash all the useful information possessed by the company that you work for in a secure environment – this is what cybersecurity is in a nutshell. It doesn’t mean, though, that your employer can rest easy in thinking that all data concerning their business are already safe.

Your entire business organization may become prone to cybersecurity risk if a cybercriminal manages to find out that they can easily access your company’s information systems because of any of the following vulnerabilities:

• An employee uses a simple password such as “abcde” or “12345” that anyone can easily predict.
• An employee shared his/her password with a coworker.
• An employee watches YouTube videos or checks their social media account while accessing your company’s information systems.

Cybersecurity risk management is all about you gaining the upper hand against the vulnerabilities listed above. Here are some ways you can use to prevent these vulnerabilities from ruining the business where you work:

• Require all employees registering in your company’s information systems to enter a password consisting of letters, numbers, and special characters.
• Prohibit new users of your company’s information systems from using their username as their password.
• Set the minimum password length to at least eight characters.
• Inform employees not to share their passwords with anybody else, even with their coworkers.
• Limit employees’ Internet access by blocking social media sites and websites that don’t have anything to do with the business.
• Get a paid VPN that employees can use if ever they have to access your company’s information systems using a public network while away from their workstations.

Why Is Cybersecurity Risk Management Important?

Now that you know what cybersecurity risk management is and how you can perform it within your organization, here are some reasons why it’s important:

1. To prevent any loss of potential customers willing to do business with your company

The organization that you work for you may be in possession of a large amount of customer data. If a hacker gains access to the said data by intruding upon your company’s information systems, they can use them to pretend that they’re your customers. Once your potential customers find out about the said identity theft, they may postpone doing business with you.

2. To prevent any potential loss of trust from existing customers

Any previous customers that your company has had before entrusted their personal information to you, but if they also find out about the same cybercrime as mentioned above, they might not want to do business with your company anymore. Worse, they might file a class-action lawsuit against your entire organization, especially if you weren’t able to catch the cybercriminal responsible for stealing their identities.

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3. To prevent any potential loss of profit

Because both potential and existing customers of your company don’t want to avail of any products or services from you anymore after finding out that their personal information got stolen by a cybercriminal, the business may lose so much income, which may eventually lead to bankruptcy. You may not get to work for the said company any longer unless you start managing all cybersecurity risks that may happen at any given time.

Conclusion

News reports about cyberattacks against various companies and organizations are becoming more and more common nowadays that the frequency in which they occur is quite alarming. That’s why businesses should ramp up their cybersecurity now more than ever. If ever your employer tasks you into handling your workplace’s information systems, you’ll want to know what cybersecurity risk management is and why it’s essential so that you can protect your company data from any unwanted threats.

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