Question
Identify cyber security risk components that may exist within your real or fictional company.
Develop and describe a cyber security risk mitigation strategy for a real or fictional company.
Describe the challenges and benefits of implementing a cyber security risk mitigation strategy for a real or fictional
company.
Sample paper
Risk Management
With the rampant use of technology in recent years to conduct most business operations, it has become easier for a cyber criminal to launch attacks from time to time. Through cyber attacks and crime, criminals and unauthorized personnel can get access to confidential and sensitive information and data regarding a business or an individual. Therefore, it is the duty of every organization, institution or an individual to make sure that all sensitive and confidential information is protected and out of reach of any unauthorized people. Computer security emphasizes on the protection of organizational and individual computer systems from the damage to their data, information software as well as hardware (Loiseau & Lemay, 2013). Some of the notable, cyber security measures that are at the disposal of organizations and individuals include controlling physical access to the company information hardware and protecting them harm that may come through network access or even code injection. This assignment will focus on identifying cyber security components that may exist within most organizations as well as describing the challenges and benefits of implementing a cyber security risk.
Cyber security risk components
Companies and organizations with leaders who pay little or no attention to cyber security experience data breaches. Effective cyber security risk components include some or all of the following components.
- An effective framework – all cyber attacks are conducted independently and under different situation and circumstances. Thus, there is the need for an organization to design, implement and adjust cyber security risk management to match an organization’s particular circumstance and the type of data and information being protected. For any cyber crime mitigation strategy to successfully work there is the need for collaboration from all parties and stakeholders in an organization (IT Governance Publishing, 2013).
- End-to end scope – any cyber security strategy adopted by an organization must be inclusive to include all stakeholders in the organization as well as all the units and departments in the company. Therefore, all data and information in an organization should be protected irrespective of the ever growing number of devices connected to the network considering that leaving one device unprotected can give access to criminals to access an organization’s document.
- Proactive incident response planning – acknowledging that any organization system can be breached gives a company the much-needed platform to design an appropriate cyber security strategy. It is the duty of the organizational leadership to make sure that these strategies and plans are updated, and employees are fully prepared to handle and mitigate any cyber attack that might be launched at the company systems.
Cyber security risk mitigation strategy
Cyber security measures are too sensitive to be left in the hands of few people in the organization. Below is an example of one of the most viable cyber security risk mitigation strategy that can be applied in any organization.
- Establishing a team or a committee – it is prudent for any organization to assign the task of cyber design security to a well experienced and skilled committee consisting of representative stakeholders from across the organization who, as a whole understand the operations of the company as well as the value of the company’s data (Samuels & Rohsenow, 2015).
- Ensuring the group is informed – apart from finding a skilled and experienced team, it is advisable to train and educate the team members on any legal, regulatory, security and operational requirements of the organization.
- Identifying any business or security challenges and assumptions – just like any organization team, the cyber security team can face several challenges such as limited budget, urgent deadlines, the organization’s views on success and legal mandates. Therefore, it is the duty of the members of the team to identify these constraints in advance and develop a plan and a strategy on how to mitigate their effects objectives.
- Communicating cyber risk decision in clear, unambiguous terms – communication involves the transferring of messages and information from one party to another. It is the duty of the team leaders with the help of the organizational leaders to communicate to the entire organization on the potential cyber attacks and how to handle them. Additionally, these leaders have a duty to prioritize these risks (European Commission & TNS Opinion & Social, 2015).
- Integrating cyber risk mitigation strategy with the enterprise risk management to make sure every member of the organization is aware of the need and importance of protecting the information technology infrastructures of the company.
The challenges and benefits of implementing a cyber security risk mitigation strategy
One of the major challenges that have been facing most organizations when it comes to designing and implementing cyber security risk mitigation strategy has been the lack of enough funds to support the training and education of cyber security mitigation teams. Cyber attacks often use complex software and codes to hack and attack organization, and this means that organizations have to heavily invest in their employees and machinery to prevent these attacks. On the other hand, a major benefit of such strategies is increasing collaboration in the company while at the same time decreasing the likelihood of any cyber attack in the company (Stevens, n.d.). By designing complex and appropriate password and firewalls as well as a complex strategy to access an organizations information and data the company stands a better chance to keep of cyber attacks.
References
European Commission, & TNS Opinion & Social. (2015). Cyber security. Brussels: European Commission.
IT Governance Publishing. (2013). Cyber Security. Ely, Cambridgeshire: It Governance Publishing.
Loiseau, H., & Lemay, L. (2013). Canada’s Cyber Security Policy: A Tortuous Path Toward a Cyber Security Strategy. Cyber Conflict, 1-44. doi:10.1002/9781118562666.ch1
Samuels, D., & Rohsenow, T. (2015). Cyber security. New York: Arcler Press.
Stevens, T. (n.d.). Cyber security, community, time. Cyber Security and the Politics of Time, 20-41. doi:10.1017/cbo9781316271636.002
