IT Risk Profile: A description of the overall (identified) IT risk to which the enterprise is exposed.
An information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. This profile is developed collaboratively with numerous stakeholders throughout the organization, including business leaders, data and process owners, enterprise risk management, internal and external audit, legal, compliance, privacy, and IRMS.
Key data elements that are identified and defined in the risk profile often include intellectual property, transaction data, financial data, nonpublic personal information, customer data, human resources information and other sensitive data assets. Defining the key data elements ensures users that the information risk profile provides a data dictionary that offers a clear understanding of the data element as well as its value to the organization.
An information risk profile can be an invaluable tool to assist leaders and decision makers in establishing this guidance and effectively communicating their information and data risk appetite and expectations.
An information risk profile is critical to the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities. It provides valuable insights into an organization’s information risk appetite and expectations for information risk management. Information risk and security professionals and programs that effectively leverage this information in their actions and activities can be confident in their alignment with business requirements and expectations.
Hi Shubham,
I appreciate your in depth description of the IT profile. Thinking back to our first week, I considered how aside from quantitative analysis, the risk management team could use qualitative techniques to determine the impact of potential threats. To prepare for future threats, the risk profile can help the organization determine where resources can be better allocated; that is, if they find a certain threat is less of a risk than previously thought when safeguards were originally placed.
I agree with what you said: “offers a clear understanding of the data element as well as its value to the organization.” Analysis and calculation. A basic principle of information risk management is that the cost of protecting information should not exceed its value. To assess the value of information, it is often easier to identify, communicate, and monitor the value of processes, rather than data assets. Processes can be attached to the activities of the organization, such as revenue generation, core and general operations, and the achievement of strategic business goals. The information risk profile does not need to quantify the exact value of the data asset, but it needs to establish a general representation of value to define the appropriate classification and level of control.
An information risk profile identifies risks that the enterprise is exposed to, and determines the sensitivity and importance of a resource against other resources in an organization. The profile contains the inventory of a company’s known risks and attributes, and documents IT resources, capabilities, and controls in the context of specific business products, services, and processes. The risk profile is used as a tool in the risk evaluation domain by narrowing and documenting the variations of risks, track costs, and acceptability levels. The profile or portfolio can be used to allocate proper IT resources and controls against potential risks for successful risk management. Additionally, it can be used to determine if the frequency and magnitude of risks represent an acceptable risk or not which influences an organization’s response (avoid, accept, mitigate, transfer). Establishing prosperous risk profiles is essential to mitigating threats that an organization has as it provides an outline for the number of risks, type of risks, and the effects of the risks. Importantly, it helps decision-makers and management identify and understand risks, and strategize on how to mitigate those risks depending on what benefits the organization.
To sum it up i would say a risk profile should not be viewed as a check-box exercise which is completed and forgotten. Nor should it be seen as a simple way of grouping clients together and quickly designing portfolios. The real value of a risk profile is as a strategic document to refer back to over time that helps keep you on track to achieving your goals. In addition, it should be used as a tool to initiate deeper conversations between you and your Adviser.
The information risk profile defines the acceptability and priority level of the organization for different information risks, including quantitative analysis of the types of threats faced by the organization, assets, projects or individuals. The goal is to provide a non-subjective understanding of risk by assigning values to variables that represent different types of threats and the dangers they pose.
Organizations usually have many business processes, but the resources and bandwidth to protect them are limited. It is very important to determine the organization’s key business processes and capabilities in the information risk profile-if it is negatively affected, it may have a significant impact on business operations. Generally, they can be divided into business support functions (i.e. wages and benefits, messaging and communication, finance) and production (i.e. revenue generation, regulated, contractual requirements).
An organization’s information risk profile should include guidelines consistent with its strategic guidance and IRMS plans and capabilities to support activities. This information should be listed early in the configuration file so that readers can understand its context and intent. Common guiding principles include:
1. Ensure the availability of key business processes, including relevant data and functions.
Provide accurate identification and assessment of threats, vulnerabilities and related risks, enabling business leaders and process owners to make wise risk management decisions.
2. Ensure that appropriate risk mitigation controls are implemented and function normally, and are consistent with the organization’s established risk tolerance.
3. Ensure that funds and resources are effectively allocated to ensure the highest level of information risk mitigation.
A simple but often overlooked source of listing these processes and functions is the organization’s business continuity and/or disaster recovery plan. These plans usually include not only key business processes, but also their level of importance to the organization. They also provide valuable insights about recovery time and recovery point objectives that are often considered in risk calculations.
In an enterprise, the ability of the management team to understand and measure the gap between the company’s risk profile and its risk appetite is an important aspect of the successful operation of an enterprise risk management plan.
An information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. It aims to provide organizations with a high-level means tosketch their risk profile, defined as the combination of their exposure to threat and vulnerabilities with the potential impact on their critical information assets. Of course, identifying the risk profile through a mere questionnaire should not be confused with the result of a fully conducted risk assessment.
It can be used systematically to quantify the business processes, performance, growth and reason for the risk and source of the threat both internal and external and the possible likelihood that the threat will materialize and by so doing the need to remediate a focused approach by high level manager of an organization to document an inventory of IT data assets crucial to the information risk profile management to the organizations risk control management. Risk profile further, helps management’s decisions in categorizing the objectives of traditional practices, methods of analysis, sampling and inspection, feasibility of enforcement and compliance, and the
prevalence of specific adverse effects.
IT Risk Profile: A description of the overall (identified) IT risk to which the enterprise is exposed.
An information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. This profile is developed collaboratively with numerous stakeholders throughout the organization, including business leaders, data and process owners, enterprise risk management, internal and external audit, legal, compliance, privacy, and IRMS.
Key data elements that are identified and defined in the risk profile often include intellectual property, transaction data, financial data, nonpublic personal information, customer data, human resources information and other sensitive data assets. Defining the key data elements ensures users that the information risk profile provides a data dictionary that offers a clear understanding of the data element as well as its value to the organization.
An information risk profile can be an invaluable tool to assist leaders and decision makers in establishing this guidance and effectively communicating their information and data risk appetite and expectations.
An information risk profile is critical to the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities. It provides valuable insights into an organization’s information risk appetite and expectations for information risk management. Information risk and security professionals and programs that effectively leverage this information in their actions and activities can be confident in their alignment with business requirements and expectations.
Hi Shubham,
I appreciate your in depth description of the IT profile. Thinking back to our first week, I considered how aside from quantitative analysis, the risk management team could use qualitative techniques to determine the impact of potential threats. To prepare for future threats, the risk profile can help the organization determine where resources can be better allocated; that is, if they find a certain threat is less of a risk than previously thought when safeguards were originally placed.
Hi Shubham,
I agree with what you said: “offers a clear understanding of the data element as well as its value to the organization.” Analysis and calculation. A basic principle of information risk management is that the cost of protecting information should not exceed its value. To assess the value of information, it is often easier to identify, communicate, and monitor the value of processes, rather than data assets. Processes can be attached to the activities of the organization, such as revenue generation, core and general operations, and the achievement of strategic business goals. The information risk profile does not need to quantify the exact value of the data asset, but it needs to establish a general representation of value to define the appropriate classification and level of control.
An information risk profile identifies risks that the enterprise is exposed to, and determines the sensitivity and importance of a resource against other resources in an organization. The profile contains the inventory of a company’s known risks and attributes, and documents IT resources, capabilities, and controls in the context of specific business products, services, and processes. The risk profile is used as a tool in the risk evaluation domain by narrowing and documenting the variations of risks, track costs, and acceptability levels. The profile or portfolio can be used to allocate proper IT resources and controls against potential risks for successful risk management. Additionally, it can be used to determine if the frequency and magnitude of risks represent an acceptable risk or not which influences an organization’s response (avoid, accept, mitigate, transfer). Establishing prosperous risk profiles is essential to mitigating threats that an organization has as it provides an outline for the number of risks, type of risks, and the effects of the risks. Importantly, it helps decision-makers and management identify and understand risks, and strategize on how to mitigate those risks depending on what benefits the organization.
Elizabeth,
To sum it up i would say a risk profile should not be viewed as a check-box exercise which is completed and forgotten. Nor should it be seen as a simple way of grouping clients together and quickly designing portfolios. The real value of a risk profile is as a strategic document to refer back to over time that helps keep you on track to achieving your goals. In addition, it should be used as a tool to initiate deeper conversations between you and your Adviser.
The information risk profile defines the acceptability and priority level of the organization for different information risks, including quantitative analysis of the types of threats faced by the organization, assets, projects or individuals. The goal is to provide a non-subjective understanding of risk by assigning values to variables that represent different types of threats and the dangers they pose.
Organizations usually have many business processes, but the resources and bandwidth to protect them are limited. It is very important to determine the organization’s key business processes and capabilities in the information risk profile-if it is negatively affected, it may have a significant impact on business operations. Generally, they can be divided into business support functions (i.e. wages and benefits, messaging and communication, finance) and production (i.e. revenue generation, regulated, contractual requirements).
An organization’s information risk profile should include guidelines consistent with its strategic guidance and IRMS plans and capabilities to support activities. This information should be listed early in the configuration file so that readers can understand its context and intent. Common guiding principles include:
1. Ensure the availability of key business processes, including relevant data and functions.
Provide accurate identification and assessment of threats, vulnerabilities and related risks, enabling business leaders and process owners to make wise risk management decisions.
2. Ensure that appropriate risk mitigation controls are implemented and function normally, and are consistent with the organization’s established risk tolerance.
3. Ensure that funds and resources are effectively allocated to ensure the highest level of information risk mitigation.
A simple but often overlooked source of listing these processes and functions is the organization’s business continuity and/or disaster recovery plan. These plans usually include not only key business processes, but also their level of importance to the organization. They also provide valuable insights about recovery time and recovery point objectives that are often considered in risk calculations.
In an enterprise, the ability of the management team to understand and measure the gap between the company’s risk profile and its risk appetite is an important aspect of the successful operation of an enterprise risk management plan.
Reference:
Key elements of an information risk profile. ISACA. (n.d.). https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile.
An information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. It aims to provide organizations with a high-level means tosketch their risk profile, defined as the combination of their exposure to threat and vulnerabilities with the potential impact on their critical information assets. Of course, identifying the risk profile through a mere questionnaire should not be confused with the result of a fully conducted risk assessment.
It can be used systematically to quantify the business processes, performance, growth and reason for the risk and source of the threat both internal and external and the possible likelihood that the threat will materialize and by so doing the need to remediate a focused approach by high level manager of an organization to document an inventory of IT data assets crucial to the information risk profile management to the organizations risk control management. Risk profile further, helps management’s decisions in categorizing the objectives of traditional practices, methods of analysis, sampling and inspection, feasibility of enforcement and compliance, and the
prevalence of specific adverse effects.