If your organization lacks proper data security, it can cause vulnerabilities that lead to data breaches. These breaches can result in sensitive data being compromised by malicious actors.
These breaches can also damage business reputations when client, patient, or customer data is leaked, as well as create business continuity problems or industry compliance issues that result in legal ramifications.
If you are not aware of what data risk management is and how it can help your organization secure its data, you may not understand how best to keep your data secure.
COEO understands the importance of data security and has helped thousands of organizations manage their data risks to secure their data and prevent cyberattacks and data breaches from compromising sensitive information.
We want you to understand data risk management so you can determine whether it can help your organization improve data security.
By the end of this article, you will know what data risk management is, why it’s important, and whether it would be beneficial for your organization.
What is data risk management?
Data risk management is the set of processes and workflows used to identify and mitigate risks and vulnerabilities within data security. There are several important elements of data risk management, including:
Full understanding of data
To incorporate data risk management, organizations must understand the types, amounts, and locations of their data assets. Unknown risks are unmanageable, so it is important to understand the data you have to find risks more easily.
Risk assessment
Organizations must evaluate data risks to their privacy, security, availability, and compliance based on the sensitivity of their data.
For example, it is important to evaluate the risks of data stored in a customer database consisting of sensitive customer information, while public marketing materials may have far fewer risks.
Data governance
To ensure data is properly secured and protected, it is important to enforce data governance rules that outline the proper use, handling, and storage of each type of data in your network.
Data must be classified into different categories, with each category having specific governance rules. It is important that your employees have a strong understanding of the governance rules for each type of data so they know how best to use it to avoid risks.
Risk mitigation strategies
It is also important to set risk mitigation strategies to address and mitigate any operational concerns that may threaten your data storage.
Organizations can set up an Identity and Access Management (IAM) database that uses data protection technologies to provide real-time logging and alerting access.
Monitoring and reporting tools
Data risk management often includes software tools that monitor access to data, building analytics into the data that was accessed, when it was accessed, and who it was accessed by.
These reporting tools create daily reviewable logs that incorporate data analytics and set off real-time alerts when improper access is detected and security measures are deployed.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about data risk management or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
The importance of data risk management
With so many organizations operating in a remote or hybrid work environment, access to data and data storage has become critically important.
It is also important to protect and secure this data, especially more sensitive data, to prevent it from being accessed by malicious actors. Some of the reasons why data risk management is important include:
Business continuity
Data risk management aligns with business continuity, ensuring data is accurate and available to employees to access.
Having data secured and protected helps prepare for a disaster by maintaining critical business functions before and during the event.
Maintain data security
Data risk management provides policies, procedures, and techniques that secure sensitive data against theft or loss. This, of course, improves and maintains data security by requiring data authentication and authorization.
Sensitive data access is typically monitored at all times to prevent malicious activity.
Maintaining compliance
Using data risk management ensures your organization maintains compliance with industry regulations that protect customer or patient data.
Most regulations and compliance requirements impose fines and consequences for non-compliance, so it is important to utilize data risk management to achieve compliance and avoid these adverse ramifications.
Is data risk management beneficial for your organization?
Now you understand what data risk management is and its importance. However, it is also important to understand whether data risk management should be implemented and practiced in your organization.
If your organization stores significant amounts of sensitive data internally, such as patient or customer data, your organization may benefit from practicing data risk management to avoid vulnerabilities that lead to data breaches and the consequences that come with them.
Additionally, if your organization is worried about data vulnerabilities or has already found them within your network or data, using data risk management policies may be beneficial.
Data risk management may also be beneficial if your industry has strict compliance and regulatory requirements for your organization’s data. Data risk management will help you achieve and maintain compliance.
Determining if data risk management would be beneficial for your organization
Now you understand what data risk management is, its importance, and whether it is beneficial for your organization. This will help you determine whether you should implement data risk management policies throughout your organization as a better way to protect data.
No organization can afford to have poor data security resulting in vulnerabilities that lead to sensitive data being compromised. This can result in legal consequences, damaged business reputation, and loss of revenue and customers.
To avoid these challenges and the consequences that come with them, it is important to understand what data risk management is and whether it can help prevent data breaches.
COEO understands how important data security is and has helped thousands of organizations secure their data to prevent attacks and data breaches within their network.
We want you to understand what data risk management is and whether it would be beneficial for your organization in order to prevent sensitive data from being compromised.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about data risk management or ask any questions you may have, you can schedule an appointment.
