When you’re in the middle of a complete mess, knowing it could have been prevented only sharpens the pain. So when your business suffers a breach, the what-ifs may haunt you. What if you had known that the software needed a patch? What if you had said no to that employee’s request to take their laptop home? What if you had created a better data destruction policy earlier? A security risk assessment is a process that helps employers prevent the preventable. You can’t verify that your security procedures are sound unless you know where the risks are coming from, and a security risk assessment answers that question.
What’s a Security Risk Assessment?
A security risk assessment, or SRA, is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an assessment that identifies weaknesses in your security systems and allows you to estimate how at risk you are for security breaches. Think of doing a security risk assessment as a little like having an inspection done before buying a new home. It’s a comprehensive overview of a company’s current security state, and can reveal weak spots and possible problem areas so the company can shore up its security and minimize its risk.
How Does a Security Risk Assessment Work?
There’s no formalized process for completing a security risk assessment, and there are a few ways this can work. In a small company with no SRA compliance requirements, the in-house IT team might be responsible for completing an SRA checklist at regular intervals. There are also some digital SRA tools that some companies can use, like the one that’s downloadable from HealthIT.gov for HIPAA-covered businesses.
Many companies outsource their security risk assessments to specialized vendors. This may be advisable for companies that lack adequate in-house IT expertise, that have extensive security challenges or that have experienced breaches in the past. Risk assessment consultants make site visits to analyze their clients’ security systems in person. In any case, completing a comprehensive security risk assessment can take anywhere from days to several weeks.
The process starts with a comprehensive overview of the business’s assets and processes: its servers, networks, devices, security procedures and so on. The assessor should also look at the ways physical data is managed and business’s data destruction procedures. (Steps may include reviewing the business’s data destruction policies and checking whether the business uses a secure data destruction firm.) This discovery process is basically like doing a complete inventory of the company’s technological footprint and vulnerabilities.
Next, the assessor will do an onsite review to inspect and test the business’s systems. They should look for things like ways in which the servers could be breached, flaws in your data management policies, vulnerabilities in your disaster recovery plan, and so on.
After some analysis, the assessor will share their findings. They may create risk profiles for individual assets, summarizing the weaknesses of each one and estimating how likely it is to fail or be breached. Essentially, these profiles tell the business where it’s most vulnerable. This analysis should also project the consequences of any such failures; for example, “if X does happen, it would cause Y and possibly Z.” A professional security risk assessment firm may also provide consulting services, advising the business on how to improve its security.
Do We Need a Security Risk Assessment?
Virtually any company can benefit from an SRA because a security breach can happen to virtually any company. As long as your business uses digital data, you most likely have financial and private records that could be compromised by a security breach. Such breaches aren’t only caused by malicious hackers: Human error is the cause of many data security breaches. Natural disasters and even weather emergencies can expose you too. A security risk assessment helps you see all potential holes that need to be plugged.
Businesses in certain industries, like accounting and healthcare, may have legal requirements around security risk assessments. Companies that are subject to HIPAA, for example, are required to undergo risk assessments as part of the HIPAA Security Rule. So there could be a compliance piece to an SRA that’s relevant to your company specifically.
In any case, business leaders have to stay informed about the ways that their businesses could be harmed. A single security breach risks your reputation, opens you to possible fines and may affect your ability to keep your workers employed. Shoring up your own security and data destruction policies is a good place to start, even if you’re not in a position to hire an outside firm to do a security risk assessment.
Northeast Data Destruction is your partner in data security. Whether you’re preparing for your next SRA or simply need help with secure data destruction, we’re always here to help. Contact us today with questions.