{"id":28630,"date":"2020-02-18T13:05:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T18:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=28630"},"modified":"2021-12-15T00:17:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:17:16","slug":"assessing-your-it-risk-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/assessing-your-it-risk-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Your IT Risk Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT risk is not a thrilling type of uncertainty. And risk gone wrong is disastrous. Here are three steps to analyze and manage your company’s IT risk.<\/h2>\n
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Part of a series.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

For most people, risk is a part of life. Sometimes taking risks can even yield big rewards, whether it\u2019s buying a new stock or deciding to change jobs to pursue your dreams.<\/p>\n

But for those of us who work in IT, taking risks rarely yields rewards. In fact, it can be disastrous. Consider security breaches that expose customers\u2019 private information, or data loss that cripples your processes, or hardware failures that bring your factory floor to a standstill. Application failures can cause frustration at best, and massive financial losses at worst.<\/p>\n

The good news is, you can manage IT risk\u2014but first, you have to understand various risk factors: the kinds<\/strong> of risk you face, how likely<\/strong> each is to occur, the impact<\/strong> of each, how quickly<\/strong> it could happen, and how long<\/strong> it might take to recover.<\/p>\n

Conducting this analysis is a simple, three-step process:<\/p>\n

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  1. Talk to your people.<\/strong> The subject matter experts (SMEs) who work with your systems every day best understand the scope of the risks you face.<\/li>\n
  2. Quantify the risk.<\/strong> A simple scoring system helps to weigh what\u2019s at stake with each potential risk.<\/li>\n
  3. Put your data to work. <\/strong>With each risk quantified, you can make smart decisions about how to eliminate risks, develop strategies for handling impacts if problems occur, and how to monitor risks as systems change.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step 1: Talk to Your People<\/h2>\n

    Chances are, when you ask your SMEs to evaluate risk, they won\u2019t know where to begin. Help them out by providing a set of questions to help contextualize risk, such as:<\/p>\n