The Importance of a Proactive Risk Assessment

The digital era has ushered in incredible innovations such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. At the same time, it has also introduced cyber threats and the need for reliable cyber security. These cyber threats have the potential to greatly affect your business in a negative way. As such, it’s important for you to take measures to protect your business from these risks. This is the reason that companies like yours implement proactive risk management strategies.

The Role of Risk Assessment in a Proactive Risk Management Strategy

Incidents such as data breaches and leaks have been growing in number year after year. The aftermath of these incidents can potentially devastate any business, regardless of what industry you’re in or how big your company is. It should go without saying that avoiding and/or promptly resolving a cyber attack is crucial to business continuity and success, but that task is easier said than done. Formulating a proactive risk management plan can result in risk reduction and improved cyber security.

Proactive risk management is a plan of action created for the purpose of reducing the odds of your organization succumbing to a malicious attack or accident in the future. Essentially, it’s a roadmap your team can follow to improve risk mitigation. Because threats are constantly changing and evolving, a proper proactive risk management plan needs to be an ongoing process. A crucial part of a good proactive risk management strategy is performing risk assessments.

A proactive risk assessment can greatly reduce your risk of falling victim to a cyberthreats. Get your assessment with PCR Business Systems

What Is a Proactive Risk Assessment?

There are three goals to a proactive risk assessment. The first is to identify the most important data and devices for your business. The second goal is to find out how a hacker could go about gaining access to your network. The final goal is to determine the risks associated with your data falling into the wrong hands. This assessment takes into account every weakness and vulnerability in your infrastructure so you can apply fixes that will strengthen your overall protection.

The Information Systems Audit and Control Association recommends performing a risk assessment at least once every two years.

Benefits of a Proactive Risk Assessment

A proactive risk assessment can greatly reduce the risk of becoming a victim of a cyber attack, but providing proactive cyber security isn’t the only benefit that comes with a risk assessment.

You can expect to see a few other advantages, such as:

Increased Awareness: The process of gathering information about your infrastructure and cyber security will shed light on the various threats facing your organization. Knowing this important information can provide an opportunity to teach your employees about the importance of cyber security.
Future Risk Mitigation: It’s impossible to stay 100% safe from all cyber threats, but being prepared can go a long way in preventing data breaches down the road—saving your company time, resources, and money.
Reassurance: Your stakeholders, partners, and clients will be able to rest comfortably knowing their data, investments, and sensitive information are being properly protected.
Decreased Magnitude of Loss: Even if your network is compromised, you have the tools to resolve the issue quickly and diminish the business impact of the attack.

A crucial part of a good proactive risk management strategy is performing risk assessments.

Executing Risk Mitigation Strategies

Proactive risk management should become an integral part of your business strategy if it isn’t already. It’s a continuing process that will limit exposure to threats and save you money in the long term. To implement risk mitigation planning, it’s necessary to understand the risks facing your company, which—mentioned previously—can be done with a risk assessment. Once you’re able to put a proactive risk management plan into action, your company will evolve into a more forward-looking enterprise.

Risk Avoidance With PCR Business Systems

When it comes to commercial risk assessments, many organizations leverage technology and software solutions offered by a vendor such as PCR Business Systems. PCR offers a comprehensive selection of cyber security services designed to prevent attacks in real time. Our highly trained team of professionals will assess your security systems, identify where improvements can be made, and help you implement a proactive risk management process.