It Risk Analysis Risk Is a Constant

It Risk Analysis Risk is a constant in everyday life. It is part of life, where there are no guarantees. As humans, we have developed or reasoning skills enough to figure out that minimizing risk allows us to live a better life and provide some level of comfort and safety. No one or nothing is 100% safe and so risk analysis is necessary to provide this assistance to inform, protect and guide people and organizations into performing wise and prudent action.

The purpose of this essay is to explain the benefits of performing a risk analysis using information technology to secure data within an organization. This essay will discuss the objective and goal of this analysis as well as suggest ways to discuss these issues with the target audience. This essay will also list the steps necessary for performing a risk analysis and the types of securities that will be recommended. Finally mitigation strategies will be discussed to help describe a continuation plan and keeping risk analysis alive within that organization.

Objectives of Risk Analysis According to the text the objectives of risk analysis are very simple yet important. The text claims, " risk analysis will always be an art informed by science (p.290). This suggests that an open and 'artistic' mind should be maintained when discussing the objective of risk analysis. Essentially risk analysis, as it applies to information or data, is designed to lower the possibilities of having this critical capital stolen or manipulated.

Risk analysis should increase an organization's ability to increase their competitive advantage within any given industry and, at the same time, improve levels of efficiency, effectiveness and economic functioning. Causey (2013) explained that an effective IT security risk analysis plan is critical to the overall security posture of the organization but no single method should be adopted as correct. He wrote " It's important to note that not every IT security risk assessment is alike -- or even remotely close.

Indeed, there are many ways to perform IT security risk assessments, and the results may vary widely depending on the method used. It should also be noted that performing a risk assessment is a very small part of the overall risk management process." Conducting a Risk Analysis In conducting this analysis a simple three step method is used to guide this process.

First the evaluation and general assessment is taken to help find where the weak and strong points of the system are located and what qualities the system is displaying overall. Next, the assessment is conducted to discover new threats. The third component of this process is risk mitigation or implementing cost effective security measures, where risk is accepted or eliminated in order to create the strongest possible system.

Risk is inherent in any data management system so a risk analysis plan in this case can be addressed in several different manners. When assessing the organization, the whole environment must be taken into consideration including the types of data, the number of computers, the scope of IT involvement, the industry, the weather and many other possible threats. Next, new threats should be identified after applying several tests to determine where the weak spots are in the system.

Passwords and firewalls should be tested for their strength and other anti-hacking approaches should also be incorporated in this step of the process. Third party risks should also be considered as well as over focusing and losing the main function and goal of the organization. Regardless of any IT modifications, it is imperative that the risk analysis strategy is sufficiently aligned with the organizational strategy, otherwise there will be problems and disconnects, ultimately undermining the operation.

Mitigating a Safe Environment When weighing options it is once again important to remember the overall.