Why Are Risk Assessments Important?
Assessing risk may be the single most important factor in starting or supporting an effective security program. It is the foundational step for any successful efforts to identify and address vulnerabilities. Findings include employee errors, unpatched systems, and ongoing malicious activity across critical systems.
Regularly and accurately assessing risk provides direction for all of your organization’s information security procedures and helps strategize for meeting compliance goals. Plus, it enhances your cybersecurity posture and provides structure to activities by defining roles, responsibilities, and accountability.
AWA’s Risk Assessment Services
Our team provides comprehensive, independent, and unbiased risk assessment services. We work directly with your IT and security staff to address the most critical requirements of your risk management program, to ensure ongoing compliance, and boost your organization’s competitive advantage. AWA’s risk assessment service provides the following insight on your companies risks:
- Risk avoidance – where an alternative strategy can be used in order to decrease the level of risk;
- Risk acceptance – whether a risk needs to be addressed at all and if it can be shared with other organizations;
- Risk mitigation – how investments can be used to reduce risk;
- Risk transfer – when risk can be reduced by transferring it to another party.
AWA risk assessment experts include information security professionals who have hands-on experience with both risk management tools and best practices for risk assessment within specific industries. Contact our office to learn more.
Compliance Requires Risk Assessment
Compliance risk assessments performed by trusted third-party assessors to identify and help your team formulate measures to reduce risk to the organization stemming from non-compliance with applicable legal or regulatory standards.
This type of testing is a necessary process integrated into many regulatory standards including:
- ISO/IEC 27001 for information technology,
- NIST SP800-30 for risk management,
- GLBA regulations regarding financial data security, and
- HIPAA Security Rule for the protection of personal health information.
