Information Security And Risk
November 22, 2009
information security risk have grown in with a rapid phase over the years that today organizations will have to take extreme measures about it. If an information security risk goes unnoticed, it can lead to reputational damage for the organization and severe financial regulatory. Controling the security level of highly important information therefore is deadly important.
Information security will have many wings such as Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, disruption, disclosure, use or destruction . There would be a bigger impact on the business than one would expect from a leakage of valuable information. Information security risk is the possibility of a threat trying to gain unauthorized access into an organizations information system. Information security management processes are available in order to cut down the possibility of such instance.
In an organization, not all information is equal therefore not all information requires the same degree of protection. Therefore measuring the importance of the information is important.Start with assigning information a security classification by indentifying a member of senior management as the owner of particular information that is to be classified. Develop a classification policy where it describes the different classification labels and define the criteria for information to be assigned a particular label with each classification having a list of required security controls. Some common labels used by businesses today are public sensitive, private and confidential. It is vital that all employees of an organization are trained on the classification and understanding of the required security controls and handling procedures for each classification of information.
Compared to assessing other types of risks, information security risk analysis can be more difficult because of the costs involved with information security risk factors and the data probability are most often limited as well due to the rapid changes of risk factors. Costs such as the disclosure of sensitive information or the loss of customer confidence are naturally difficult to measure. When new controls are implemented there will be some other overhead costs such as built time cost and run time costs.To obtain better risk management, it is important that the companies get up to dated with the technology involved in information security risk.
