Losing money, taking a hit to your reputation and lost time are some of the most common ways your company can suffer from a poorly managed risk exposure. In some industries, poorly managed risk exposures even have the potential to destroy a business.

Being in business requires an appetite for risk and uncertainty. However, you can make smart decisions to reduce the consequences of a risk event. In the technology realm, your company is exposed to a variety of risks, including hacking, fraud and theft of information. Let’s focus on ways you can limit these types of IT risk exposure.

1. Develop And Promote A Risk Management Culture

A sound risk management culture is the foundation for reducing risk exposure. In financial institutions, employees have elaborate risk management procedures and policies. In fact, some banks ask each employee to demonstrate how they have managed risk as part of their performance reviews. If you are in that industry, reviewing guidelines and regulations from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a good first step.

What if your industry does not have those kinds of regulations? There is still value in developing a risk management culture. Identify the risks that matter to your firm, develop ways to reduce those risk exposures and train your staff accordingly. There is a cost to reducing and managing risk, so choose carefully which areas you will focus on. Read about the risks and losses that other companies in your industry have encountered to inform your view.

Resource: For additional guidance on IT risk management, explore ISACA’s standards and resources such as Risk IT Framework for Management of IT Related Business Risks.

2. Know Your Access Situation

In the past, creating a list of who had what access to what took days, and you could never be sure if you had captured everything. Instead of starting with a blank page, use an automated onboarding solution to catalog all the user access rights in your organization. Once you run such a tool, you will have a good list to review.