Risk Management related to Information Security

Introduction:

Risk management is the process that identifies, assesses, and prioritizes and addresses risks to minimize the chances of their occurrence so that an organization can achieve its objectives. The risks can come in different ways such as accidents, deliberate attacks, natural causes and others incidences that might hinder an organization from achieving its set goals (Christopher, 2002).

Risk sources in an organization can be located in the infrastructure and other tangible variables, human factor variables, and decision-making. The strategies for managing these threats include avoiding the risk, transferring the risk to another party or reducing the effects of the risk.

One of the risks a company might encounter is the risks involving its information security. Information is a vital component of every organization because these organizations use the information on their daily operations. Most of the information on an organization is confidential to that organization. Therefore, there could be serious implications if the information is accessed by unauthorized persons or if it is lost. With the modern technology companies and other organizations are using information system to collect data, analyze it, store it and even transmit the data to valid designations. This calls for protection of the information contained in these information systems to ensure that it is secure from unauthorized individuals. In addition, the information needs to be protected from losses because the information could be stolen or lost through an information system breakdown. Therefore, it is mandatory for every organization to have a mechanism for protecting its information. One of such mechanism is the information security management system. Information security management system consists of a set of strategies concerned with the management of the risks related to information security.

Types of risks to information security:

An information system consists of people and computers that process information. The information system helps organizations in decision-making, operations, and management (Elky, 2006). Most of the organizations use these systems to store their information. Therefore, there is the risk of losing this information in case there is a breakdown of the computers or similarly, the employees operating the computers could leak the information to unauthorized individuals. Similarly, the information could be lost through physical occurrences such as the destruction of the systems by floods or it could be intercepted or accessed by hackers. It is known that security is determined by the people more than the technology. This implies that employees are a greater threat rather than outsiders. These employees have easy access to an organization’s vital information; thus they are the major risk to information security. Though other unauthorized persons can access a company’s vital information through hacking activities, the risks they pose are very minimal. However, the use of computer information systems poses other risks to information like information extortion, software attacks, and sabotage and identity theft. Information extortion involves theft of an organization’s information and using it to receive payment. On the other hand, software attacks include the destruction of an organization’s software either by viruses or phishing attacks. Identity theft is a situation where one uses a person's identity with an aim of accessing his/her vital information or take advantage of the access to their information. Sabotage is the destruction of an organization’s website to cause loss of confidence in its clients. All these are the possible risks to information security of an organization. There could be great financial losses or destruction of a company’s reputation if its vital information or the information about its customers gets into the hands of competitors or hackers. Therefore, there is a need for organizations to have a well laid down information security management system (Peltier, 2005).

Information security management system:

Information security management system consists of a set of strategies concerned with the management of the risks related to information security. Information is a valuable asset to an organization; thus it should be protected by all means. The information security management system (ISMS) is based on the principle that an organization should develop, implement and maintain a coherent set of strategies, processes and systems in managing risk to its information assets. The information security management system includes people, IT systems and processes using risk management systems. A good information security management system should ensure integrity, availability and confidentiality of the information. The integrity of information means that the data is accurate and consistent; thus an information security system ensures that information of an organization is not tampered with or modified by unauthorized users. Similarly, the ISMS ensures that the information is available when it is needed by authorized users while it also ensures that the information is only available to the authorized parties.

Development of ISMS:

The development of information security involves six steps that include a definition of security policy, the definition of its scope, risk assessment, risk management, control selection and maintenance and improvement. The initial step in the ISMS development entails with developing the policies that would govern the risk management system while the second step involves determining the purpose of the management system (Humphreys, 2010). The risk assessment is said to be the process of identifying the information assets, the threats associated with them and the impact on the organization in case they were stolen or lost. On the other hand, the risk management is the development of strategies that aims to stop these risks from taking place or reducing the impacts of these risks in case they occur. The control selection is the process in which the appropriate measures to mitigate the information security risks are implemented with a view to reducing the occurrence of the identified risks. The maintenance and improvement involve ensuring that all the selected controls are efficient and effective throughout without changing the business environment. Therefore, information security management is a continuous process that requires monitoring and reviewing to ensure that the integrity, confidentiality and availability of an organization’s information are guaranteed.

Benefits of ISMS:

The general benefit of implementing an information security management system is the reduction of the chances of the risk occurring or/and reducing the impact of the risk if it occurs. However, it has other advantages that include protection of the organization’s information in terms of integrity, availability, and confidentiality and allows regular monitoring and improvement of the system (Humphreys, 2010). The development of information security management also helps an organization meet contractual requirements as it serves as an indication to the clients that the company is concerned about the security of their information. This gives the organization a competitive advantage over its competitors. The information security management also ensures that there the right people, procedures, processes and technologies input in place to ensure that the organization’s information asset. It also provides a common conceptual basis and language for information security easy confidentiality between business partners with compliant ISMS. In addition, ISMS brings about profitability and cash-flow. This is because an organization with a well laid out information security management system protects the image of the company winning consumers’ confidence. The increase in confidence will result in increased output hence increasing the organization's profitability and cash flows.

Conclusion:

Risk management is the process that identifies, assesses, and prioritizes and addresses risks to minimize the chances of their occurrence so that an organization can achieve its objectives. Risk sources in an organization can be located in the infrastructure and other tangible variables, human factor variables, and decision-making. The strategies for managing these threats include avoiding the risk, transferring the risk to another party or reducing the effects of the risk. Information security is prone to a number risks threats. The information on an organization is prone to loss or theft and other risks like information extortion, software attacks, and sabotage and identity theft. Therefore, there is a need for organizations to have a well laid down information security management system. A good information security management system should ensure integrity, availability and confidentiality of the information. Similarly, an information security management system has other benefits such allowing regular monitoring and improvement of the system. It also helps an organization meet contractual requirements as it serves as an indication to the clients that the company is concerned about the security of their information. This gives the company a competitive edge over its competitors. Therefore, ISMS is vital in every business because to ensures that the organization’s information is secure and protected.
References:      

Christopher (2002) Managing Information Security Risks: The OCTAVE Approach; Addison-Wesley Professional, USA

Elky S. (2006) An Introduction to Information System Risk Management.

Humphreys E. (2010) information security management.

Peltier R. (2005) Information Security Risk Analysis, Second Edition; CRC Press, USA.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in write my nursing research paper services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from essay already written services.