IT risk assessment for businesses is when you look at the potential risks to your business’s IT systems and work out how to deal with them.
With an IT risk assessment, your company can keep your valuable assets safe and make sure everything keeps running smoothly.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) says in its “Risk Management Framework 2022–24” that businesses really need to get structured when it comes to risk management.
What is the IT Risk Assessment?
An IT risk assessment is a way of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating potential risks before they affect a business’s information technology infrastructure and assets.
An IT risk assessment’s main purpose is to help businesses understand the likelihood and potential impact of IT risks.
That way, your business can make better decisions about how to allocate resources and implement the right security measures.
The assessment process usually involves a thorough look at all parts of the IT environment, including hardware, software, data, networks, and even human factors.
The goal is to get a clear picture of the business risk exposure and develop strategies to manage those risks effectively.
The “Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems, special publication 800-30,” by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines risk as “the net negative impact of the exercise of a vulnerability, considering both the probability and the impact of occurrence.”
This method helps businesses plan ahead, make the smartest use of their resources, and cut costs associated with security breaches.
As the ANAO framework makes clear, effective risk management is all about strategic planning. It’s about making sure you’re embedding risk mitigation into your daily operations.
For further explanation, please read “The Purpose of IT Risk Assessment”.
What Should an IT Risk Assessment Include?
An IT risk assessment should cover a lot of different activities and things to really get a good understanding of the organization’s risk situation.
In Australia, where there are almost 94,000 cybercrime attacks on businesses every year, according to the ASD Cyber Threat Report 2022-2023, getting a structured approach to IT risk assessment is non-negotiable.
Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the key components you’ll need to assess thoroughly.
System Characterization
The U.S. Department of Education says in its “Handbook for Information Technology Security Risk Assessment Procedures,” you’ve got to get a good handle on your system because it’s the basis for the whole risk assessment process.
This means identifying and documenting the IT assets, systems, and data that are included in the assessment.
The other thing it includes is understanding how these parts of the system work together and how important they are to the company.
Threat Identification
The next step is to identify potential threats. The goal here is to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities in the IT environment.
There are lots of different types of threats out there, from natural disasters and human errors to malicious attacks and the ever-changing world of cybercrime.
The assessment team needs to think about both internal and external threats.
They should look at different sources of information, such as advisories, incident reports, and interviews with experts.
Vulnerability Identification
Once we’ve identified potential threats, we move on to assessing the vulnerability.
This means taking a close look at the weak spots in the system and the information it uses. This helps us create a complete list of potential vulnerabilities.
The U.S. Department of Education handbook suggests using the Baseline Security Requirements (BLSRs) as a starting point for a security checklist to identify potential weaknesses.
These BLSRs set the bar for security standards across all systems and major applications within the Department of Education. If there’s something that’s not met, it’s flagged as a vulnerability.
Control Analysis
Next, we’ll look at control analysis, where we’ll check how well the current security controls are working to reduce the risks we’ve identified.
The NIST risk management guide highlights the importance of considering the implementation of current or planned controls when determining the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited.
This step also involves spotting any gaps or weaknesses in the current control environment, which could leave the organization exposed.
Likelihood and Impact Analysis
When it comes to measuring risk, there are two key things to look at: how likely it is to happen and what the impact would be.
Likelihood determination is all about working out how likely it is that a threat will exploit a vulnerability.
This estimation looks at things like what the threat actor is trying to achieve, what they’re capable of, and how well existing controls are working.
The NIST risk management guide goes into a lot of detail on this, including how to use qualitative assessments (high, medium, low) and even quantitative measurements (probabilities).
Impact analysis is about looking at what could happen if a threat successfully exploits a vulnerability.
This analysis looks at how the organization’s operations, finances, reputation, and other key areas might be affected.
Risk Determination and Control Recommendations
This is where we figure out the overall risk level for each threat-vulnerability pair. We do this by looking at both the likelihood and impact. We usually categorize risk levels as high, medium, or low.
At the end of the day, the assessment leads to control recommendations based on what we’ve found.
These recommendations suggest putting in place or improving security controls to deal with the risks in a way that works.
The ANAO risk management framework shows how control recommendations can help us get ahead of risks and keep them at an acceptable level.
As a point of reference, you might want to read “3 Examples of IT Risk Assessments You Should Know.”
IT Risk Assessment Process
The IT risk assessment for businesses process is a big part of keeping sensitive data safe, making sure the business keeps going, and keeping security strong. Let’s go over the main steps in this process.
Identifying Assets and Systems
The first thing you need to do when you’re assessing IT risks is to get a good understanding of the environment you’re protecting.
This means identifying and documenting all the IT assets, systems, and data that are included in the assessment.
This process helps businesses figure out which systems are critical to their day-to-day operations.
For example, your IT system could fail because you don’t have all the details about your assets down pat. This goes to show why it’s so important to keep accurate inventories.
It’s also important to understand how the different systems work together. For instance, cloud-based services often link up with on-site systems, which makes both of them vulnerable if one is breached.
If you know which systems are connected, you can make sure you’re focusing on the right ones first, which helps you keep things running smoothly when there’s a security issue.
Threat Analysis
Once you’ve got a handle on your IT landscape, the next step is threat analysis. This means spotting potential threats that could take advantage of weaknesses in your system.
The U.S. Department of Education handbook groups threats into three main categories:
- Natural, like floods and fires
- Environmental, like power outages and pollution
- Humans like hacking and social engineering.
The analysis should look at how likely it is that each threat will happen and what the impact could be.
You should think about things like where the company is based, what it does, and whether there have been any security incidents in the past.
Vulnerability Assessment
Once you’ve identified the threats, you need to assess your vulnerabilities.
The NIST risk management guide makes a good case for spotting weaknesses in hardware, software, and network systems.
Vulnerabilities can range from outdated software to weak passwords.
Vulnerability assessments also include taking a look at internal policies and practices.
If security policies aren’t properly implemented, organizations could be vulnerable to risks like insider threats and phishing attacks.
Spotting these weaknesses helps businesses make their security stronger before a breach happens.
Risk Evaluation
Now we’ve identified the threats and vulnerabilities, we can move on to risk evaluation. This means looking at how risky each threat-vulnerability pair is.
The NIST risk management guide gives a framework for this evaluation, suggesting you use a risk-level matrix.
This matrix looks at both the chance of a threat using a vulnerability and the potential impact of that happening.
The impact could range from minor hiccups to major financial losses or even loss of life.
By rating the risks (high, medium, or low) for each threat-vulnerability pairing, companies can decide where to focus their risk-reduction efforts.
Risk Mitigation Planning
The last step is risk mitigation planning. This is where it all comes down to action.
Based on what the risk assessment shows, the company puts together a plan to deal with the risks that have been identified.
The ANAO Risk Management Framework says that there are a few ways to deal with risks.
You can use new security tech, update policies, or even restructure IT systems to make it harder for hackers to attack.
For instance, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a straightforward yet effective way to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
Mitigation planning also means coming up with a plan for how to respond to incidents that can’t be totally prevented.
This could include disaster recovery plans or incident response protocols, which make sure that businesses can get back on their feet quickly after an attack without too much operational disruption.
How Interscale Helps You in IT Risk Assessment for Businesses
All right, let’s get to the point. At Interscale, we don’t just talk about IT risk assessment and management—we live it.
We get that in the fast-paced world of architecture, engineering, and construction, you need IT solutions as flexible and reliable as your projects.
That’s why we’ve built our approach on the solid foundation of the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) Risk Management Framework. This ensures a systematic and thorough assessment of your IT environment.
That’s why we don’t just cover the basics—we go the extra mile by integrating advanced threat detection tools into our email security services.
But we don’t stop there. We make sure your data is safe with encryption and data loss prevention measures.
Plus, our premium email archive service gives you a 10-year cloud archive, so you can easily access historical data and keep an eye on risks as they evolve.
So, what does all this tech talk mean for you? It means there’s a much lower chance of potential risks affecting your IT environment.
Even if something does get through the cracks, the impact will be minimal.
We’re talking about less downtime, safer sensitive information, and the peace of mind to focus on what you do best—building the future.
But don’t just take our word for it. We’d love for you to do some fact-checking, due diligence, or anything else you can think of to learn more about how we work.
As a first step, we suggest you visit our Interscale IT Risk Assessment Service page, read some of our success stories, and see how we’ve helped other AEC companies like yours.
Or, if you are ready for a coffee and croissants, let’s grab a meeting.
Yup, we are open to discussing how we can help you navigate the complex world of IT risk management.
Conclusion
Given how lengthy and complex the process is, it’s not something you can just do once and forget about.
It’s something you need to keep an eye on and make part of your overall risk management strategy.
In a couple of words, it’s about being ready, not scared, when it comes to IT risk. And that’s where Interscale’s expertise in IT risk assessment for businesses can be your greatest ally.
