An information risk profile is a description of the overall risk that an organization is exposed to. It is used to ensure that risk management activities align with the company’s capacity/tolerance of risk.
This is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because it provides a guide for risk management strategies and activities for lowering risk to an acceptable level within the organization. It also makes the organization aware of future investments that may potentially increase risk as well.
You touch on a good point when discussing how critical an information risk profile is to a company. This profile is used to report the type of risks and amount of risk that a company deems acceptable and unacceptable. Having an information risk profile and complying with it is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. These guidelines are set and meant to be the best choices to make for the company’s sake when dealing with a certain risk.
If I may add, yes, indeed, it provides a guide for risk management strategies and activities. Still, the essence or even how it works is not that it lowers the risk to an acceptable level within the organization. Instead, it identifies the acceptable risk level to the organization based on its daily activities. And guides the organization to navigate its way within its risk universe’s considering its acceptable to tolerable risk appetite.
I agree with the reason you said. It facilitates risk management strategies and activities that reduce risk to an acceptable level within the organization. It also makes the organization aware of the risks that may occur in the future and avoids the wind in advance.
The information risk profile records the type, quantity, and priority of information risks accepted and unacceptable by the organization. This profile is developed collaboratively with numerous stakeholders, including business leaders, data and process owners, enterprise risk management, internal and external audit, legal, compliance, privacy, and IRMS. Provides accurate identification and assessment of threats, vulnerabilities, and associated risks, enabling business leaders and process owners to make informed risk management decisions. Ensures that appropriate risk mitigation controls are implemented and functioning correctly and are consistent with the organization’s established risk tolerance levels. Ensure that funding and resources are effectively allocated to ensure the highest level of information risk mitigation.
Undoubtedly, you are on point as regards your analysis on information risk profile records the type, quantity, and priority of information risks accepted and unacceptable by the organization but risk perception is the tendency for people to have different dramatically estimates of risk probability and impact given the same information that certainly make it too cumbersome to accurately estimate precise risk profile in an organization. for risk management purposes.
The information risk profile efficiently helps a company in many ways. It is very beneficial for organizations to be well aware of risks that may potentially to be in the future. This gives a company time to prepare for that risk and will not be blind-sided to when that moment comes.
An information risk profile is defined as critical to the operation and the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities. And it tells more about an organization’s information risk appetite and expectation for risk management. An organization information risk profile should be structured and formatted in a pattern that quickly exhibit its value and intent to align it with organization’s strategy. And it should also include guiding principles aligned with both its strategic directives and supporting activities of its program and capabilities. And it is critical to the success of an organization because it affords accurate identification and evaluation of threats, vulnerabilities and their associated risk to enable business leaders and process owners to make informed risk management that would be absolutely to the entity’s operations.
I agree with your point that the risk profile should be structured and formatted in a way that it clearly gets the points across to all of the necessary stakeholders. It is important that the information be easily understood by the necessary stakeholders so they can use it as a guide and apply any necessary changes.
An information risk profile is a current and complete inventory of an entity’s ” known risks and attributes IT resources, capabilities, and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes” (Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition, 2021). An information risk profile provides the organization an overarching view of all potential threats, vulnerabilities, and assets related to risk management. Enterprises have many moving parts that are constantly changing and evolving, introducing new threats and vulnerabilities that can be difficult to account for without oversight. Developing changes if not documented or reviewed can lead to configuration drift against the established risk baseline and increase the likelihood of potential risk exposure. A risk profile is a critical tool for monitoring these changes to adjust the organization’s security posture accordingly. Organizations are dynamic, and a risk profile allows us to map business operations and assets in a manner that helps mitigate risk by continuously analyzing where resources are best utilized and where gaps may exist.
Hi Kelly, it’s good to mention how you bring up how enterprises are constantly changing and evolving because adjustments are needed at times to continuously improve productivity. As these changes happen, the configuration of the infrastructure changes as well, which could be a substantial risk, depending on the severity of the drift.
Admittedly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get precise risk profile within business establishments due to perceptions that appear to play a pivotal role influencing the risk estimates. And that can give a wrong estimates in terms of it being high, medium and low with regard to organization’s risk profile.
Hello Kelly,
Albeit accurate, I would look at it from the perspective that a risk profile is a critical tool strictly for guiding the organization and helping it form its habit from risk the tolerance and acceptable risk perspective through a concise overview of the entity’s risk posture. By doing this, the organization can channel all its activities in line with the set-out risk limits. Therefore, I think that it serves more as a guide than a tool for change.
The risk profile is a part of the risk evaluation process. It quantifies all known risks by assigning numerical values to a risk’s frequency and magnitude. It should also include a list of controls, IT resources, and capabilities. As the risk environment is constantly evolving, businesses need to frequently revisit the risk profile to ascertain it is up to date or make appropriate changes.
A risk profile should contemplate the level of acceptable risk. It should also contemplate the following questions. How much risk is the organization willing to take on? How much risk can the organization reasonably fund? What risks are required for the organization to take on in order to meet stakeholder expectations?
If the organization miscalculates the magnitude or frequency of a risk, or if it does not contemplate a risk on its risk profile, the organization could experience serious, unexpected losses. Quantifying risk allows an organization to prepare for and fund for those risks. If they do not quantify the risk during the risk profile, the organization is unguarded. If the organization experiences a loss greater than it can reasonably fund, then it could go bankrupt, grossly miss stakeholder expectations, or experience other potential negative effects.
You highlight an important emphasis on quantifying risk within the risk profile. Admittedly, I am more comfortable focusing on qualitative risks but this does not produce the numbers needed to allocate the proper resources and funds to mitigate risk as you have explained here in your post. Quantitative risks demonstrate the real world costs to management whereas solely focusing on qualitative risks may not communicate the true impact of risk. Nice thought provoking post!
If I may add to your comment that “If the organization miscalculates the magnitude or frequency of a risk, or if it does not contemplate a risk on its risk profile, the organization could experience serious, unexpected losses. It is indeed very true that if a threat compromises a vulnerability, a risk would crystalize, which is indicative of a loss, theft, or damage. However, in the absence of an accurate information risk management process or calculation, an organization’s exposure worsens due to the misconception that proper risk management is in place when it actually isn’t. The margin of error for an information risk profile is zero; an erroneous one does the same job as not having any within the organization.
An Information Risk Profile is an assessment or an analysis of threats to an organization that is risky for the organization’s security. Such as various threats to assets, running projects, company hardware equipment, software, etc. IRP is an analysis report on what can be risky to an organization if a malicious user attacks an organization. It allows organizations to be aware of what can be done if a hacker succeeds in initiating an attack on the organization. Allowing organizations to take prior action to mitigate or minimize the effect of an attack. Organizations take precautions to protect their assets based on the risk profile assessment. Information risk profile play a very important role for the success of an organization. It helps organizations prepare and manage strategies against risk.
Risk Management Strategies and activities:
Risk Management strategies and activities are important. They are a key element for organizations to be successful in the current digital world. Organizations can prioritize risk and plan ahead on when and how expenses are used, and can invest to protect themselves from dangerous threats. It’s critical because it can help the organization run a proper risk mitigation program to protect themselves. Organizations can understand accurate possibilities and evaluate threats before they are faced with real situations. Thus the organization business leader’s/owners make proper risk management strategies for risk mitigation control.
Vacca chapter 34
Hello Mohamed. Well said, “Risk Management strategies and activities are important. They are a key element for organizations to be successful in the current digital world” I could not agree with you more based on the premise that we now live in a world where the survival of any entity would be based on their ability to identify, analyze and if possible mitigate inherent in their mission-critical business. Those who will survive would be entities that perfect their overall risk management capabilities by using tolls like a well-built and informative risk profile to guide them through their specific risk universe.
What is an information risk profile? How is it used? Why is it critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities?
An information risk profile reports the type of risk and amount of risk that a company deems acceptable and unacceptable. The details of the profile are determined by stakeholders throughout the company. The profile is used to be sure that all risk management decisions are in alignment with the company’s needs and guidelines for amount of acceptable risk. Having an information risk profile and complying with it is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because these guidelines are the best choices to make for the company’s sake when dealing with a certain risk. This profile gives the risk management team the best options to choose from when it comes time to face a decision like that.
Hello Michael, That’s a great post. I do agree that the stakeholders thought out the company would recognize the risk that the system has. As the stakeholder would know how important that system would be within the company’s operations. However, I would also add to that the system should also be determined regarding the risk at the enterprise level as well by someone else so if the stakeholder or system owner has determined the risk higher than it should be then it could be reevaluated.
I admire your statement of saying all risk management decisions should be in alignment with the company’s needs and guidelines for the amount of acceptable risk. This is very true. Not all organizations are the same, in turn a risk profile is sure to vary from company to company. It is important that the risk profile that is being created for a company is conducive to that company.
An information risk profile is “a description of the overall (identified) IT risks to which the enterprise is exposed” (ISACA Risk IT Framework). Using an up-to-date list of the known risks, a company can assess their threat landscape and understand which products, services, and processes are currently at risk. This is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because it is impossible to implement effective strategies and activities without knowledge of the current threats a company is exposed to. Each company’s threats are going to be unique. One industry will face a different set of threats than another industry, two companies within the same industry would face different threats than each other, a large company faces different threats than a small company. Because of this it is critical to identify the specific threats to an organization. Only then can you make sure the best policies, procedures, and activities are put into place to address the threats that specifically threaten that company’s business. Otherwise, a company could be applying measures to address unnecessary threats, or not addressing certain threats that they should be aware of. Referring to the information risk profile ensures that these outcomes do not happen.
ISACA IT Framework explains the information risk profile as “a description of overall risk to which the enterprise is exposed. To evaluate the risk, companies collect data, analyze the risk, and maintain the risk profile. The process starts with being aware of the current known risk and attributes, IT resources, capabilities and controls, so that company can document.
The documentation of risk profiles include both acceptable and unacceptable risks. According to ISACA, the key players for the risk profile are: “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.”
The risk profile is critical to the success of an organization because it performs as “foundational tool” once IRMS professionals use it. The profile helps company to have insights and guidelines associated with information security risk identification. Since, the risk profile should include strategic directives and supporting activities of its IRMS capabilities, it provides the understanding of key business processes, identification of threats and vulnerabilities, available risk mitigating controls. That way the profile should help business leaders and process owners to make effective decisions.
Great point about risk profile being a foundational tool once IRMS professionals use it. I think that is important to understand many of these businesses can have a sort of guideline but in the end must make their final assessment based on the business objectives.
Miray,
You made great points from the ISACA article. It is great that you pointed out the the risk profile is a foundation tool for an organization. This is 100% true. The risk profile is an analysis for a company to see the level of potential threats and how to make efficient decisions. This will avoid problems in the future and the company will know how to move forward with it.
An information risk profile is an overall outline and description of known risks, the probability they will occur, and the impact if they do. It is used when companies want to look over their current risk strategy and see if there are any changes they should make, for example, if new risks were to pop up that were not present last year. It is also used to help business management, ERM, and other involved departments understand the nature and potential impact of information technology risk, and the severity of not abiding by IT policy and educating the employees under them. It is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because the strategies used reflect the types of risk that are involved with the business based off the types of assets they own and information they deal with. An information risk profile makes it easier to see the current risks at hand, and makes it easier to prioritize certain risks because one feels more confident that they are not forgetting any major risks in their decision making.
An information risk profile is an up to date and complete inventory of known risks, attributes, technology resources, capabilities, and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes (Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition, 2021). This is used to document risk tolerances and allows the organization to compare changes over time as they respond to new information. A well defined risk profile enables effective stakeholder conversations and supports an informed decision making process. For example, this may be used to evaluate proposed changes to technology strategy, e.g. moving from on premise storage to the cloud, and how such a change would affect the organization’s assets and the potential threats that would result from such a change. Failure to maintain a risk profile can lead to increased risk, stakeholder misalignment, and lack of transparency across the organization when managing information technology risk.
Risk profile is definitely key when making technological changes in a workplace as you would want to know the potential risks involved when making a big change like that. It is very common in new technologies that lack proper security measures as some may have not been thoroughly tested enough. Great example.
The information risk profile is a maintained, up-to-date and completed inventory of known risks and attributes, IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services and processes. It documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. It is critical to the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities due to providing valuable insights into an organization’s information risk appetite and expectations for information risk management.
The enterprise risk profile documents information risk types, amounts, and priorities that an organization considers acceptable and unacceptable. The enterprise risk profile is the quantitative expression of the threats that an organization’s infrastructure faces with the overall objective of assigning values to this threat and the impact it may cause to critical business infrastructure.
A risk profile analyses the nature of the threats faced by an organization to determine the probability and likelihood of the same from a cost perspective. Risk profiling includes risk tolerance, risk required: and Risk capacity: the level of risk the client can afford to take.
An information risk profile helps the organization to properly manage the organization’s information risk management strategy and activities by providing valuable insights into an organization’s information risk tolerance and acceptability for risk management.
An information risk profile is a documented portfolio of the type of risk and attributes. It is used to help prioritize the risks within an organization. It is crucial to the success of an organization to the risk management strategies because it helps allocate the resources properly and bring awareness by including all the factors that are involved when deciding which risk to prioritize. Factors include expected frequency, potential impact, disposition, it resources, capabilities, and controls.
I agree with your analysis that the information risk profile is critical to an organization because it aids in the allocation of money and resources. It would be a hindrance to an organization to spend a lot of their risk or cyber risk budget on small threat that does not pose a large risk or a mitigation method that does not work as well as others. By mapping out risks, their probability/frequency, and their impact, it makes it easier to realize which risks are bigger and deserve a bigger portion of the budget.
An organizational risk profile is a combination of the types of risk as well as the degree of impact/damage those risks pose to an organization, should they occur. Organizations who adequately document their risk profiles are typically able to make more informed decisions based on their nature of business. Furthermore, organizations who can quantify (i.e. in terms of dollars) risks related to their business processes are able to determine if an asset or process is considered critical enough for safeguarding and subsequent controls implementation. It’s not only enough for organization to perform an initial risk profile baseline but rather they need to periodically review their profiles to ensure they remain unchanged. If new risks are introduced or existing risks change, these need to be documented and communicated to those who are responsible for maintaining the process to ensure business objectives are being met in spite of new risks.
Bryan, great point in addressing quantifying risk through financial means. Risk management can be costly, and risk registers can assist stakeholders in determining if security controls are suitable for the enterprise. It is also important that periodic reviews occur, since the risk scope of an organization is always changing; between product updates, an augmented threat environment, etc.
An information security risk profile is the total inventory of known risks and related risk characteristics; these include attributes (such as the expected frequency, sources of threat, and potential impact) and IT resources/capabilities/security controls in application to take action on listed risk, with consideration to the entire enterprise. An information risk profile is used to understand risk in relation to organizational capabilities and interdependencies (i.e. how a networking organizational risk might impact support personnel, customers, company finances, etc., and if the organization has the proper tools to mitigate said risk). A risk profile also helps companies determine critical business functions; this factor of the profile will assist companies in ensuring proper assets/criticalities receive essential security controls in order to maintain completion of business objectives. If this risk register/profile is kept updated, the tool will assist management in assessing/determining the risk impact, determining if a risk should be remediated, and if the company has necessary resources and business capabilities to remediate risk. A risk register is an essential portion of business risk analysis, guiding leadership to make educated business decisions on risk treatment.
I think you’ve correctly pointed out that this risk register needs to be kept up to date to be an effective tool that management can use. Risks that a company faces are always changing. If a company is using a stale risk register they are exposing themselves to unforeseen risks whilst believing they are correctly assessing the risk landscape. Therefore it is crucial for companies to keep this up to date.
Risk IT defines, and is founded on, a number of guiding principles for effective management of IT risk. The principles are based on commonly accepted ERM principles, which have been applied to the domain of IT. In other words, it helps an organization do a risk analysis, evaluates them and decides if those risks can be identified as acceptable or unacceptable.
The profile helps them mitigate their risk controls by assigning numerical values to variables representing different types of threats and the incident they pose.
It is critical to the success of an organization because it allows them to evaluate the likelihood of potential threats and helps them applying the CIA method to ensure the well functioning of the organization.
An information risk profile is identified as a summarized overall risks by quantifying different risks associated with the inventory inside of an organization. It is used by the organization for criticality analysis to determine appropriate processes and resources to maintain operations and estimate for new ones. It is used by senior management/executive/business branches to determine resource allocation and identify what is acceptable risk and determine organizational cost for operational security. This information is used by stakeholders to determine the reliability of the process/information system/entity they are collaborating in. The organization can set up risk map to assess security controls due to the everchanging world of security as new threats and vulnerabilities can potentially cause fluctuation within current analyzations of risk.
Without an risk map; the organization would struggle and potentially fail at identifying different areas where resourcing and managing risk is necessary. Organizations that do not have or mismanage their risk profiles cannot aggregate risks and conduct proper impact analysis which is detrimental for determining the cost operations.
A risk profile is “an up-to-date and complete inventory of known risks and their attributes (including expected frequency, potential impact, disposition), IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes”. (ISACA Risk-IT Framework), The risk profile is essentially used as a guideline for an organization to understand the totality of its risks from all angles, and to proceed to know how to make business decisions and plan strategy in accordance with the accepted risk tolerance thresholds. It is critical to an organization’s risk management strategies and activities not only for the aforementioned reason, but also because it displays IT capabilities and perhaps most importantly – risk response priority. Prioritizing risk response is crucial for an organization to take action to manage or mitigate risks in a cost-efficient manner. Furthermore, it shows risks of emerging threats as well, enabling the business to strategize for the future in accordance to its risk appetite in regards to the emerging threats. Lastly, it helps shape the key-risk indicators for the organization.
Antonio – you captured one of the biggest challenges of a risk profile in the words: ‘Up to date and complete inventory’. Since risk is not static and constantly changing one of the questions to be answered is how frequently does the risk profile need to be updated? Re-assessed? What are the criteria that require an update to be performed? Organizations tend to do these type of activities on a schedule (annual review) – not in response to events (my xx supplier got ransom-wared – am I exposed?) How do I know that I have a ‘complete’ inventory?
A risk profile is a maintained up to date complete inventory of known risks and attributes. It is also a description of the overall identified IT risks in which the enterprise is exposed. How much risk an organization can tolerate defines their risk profile. Tools like IT register and IT risk map are essential in the process of determining one’s risk profile. It is built upon the information received from; “the results of enterprise IT risk assessment, risk scenario components, risk event data collection, and ongoing risk analysis”
A risk profile is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. So it is imperative to “consider how IT strategies, change initiatives and external requirements may affect the risk profile.” Moreover, consistently updating IT risk register entries is important, as well as updating the IT risk map in response to any significant internal or external change.
You captured my attention at specifically updating entries. In my personal experience I’ve seen groups essentially “snap shot” their machines to make them look as good as possible at one time and then essentially let the system remain the same until the next time they are required to capture vulnerabilities. I see this as a huge problem because typically Risk Management methods usually impose some type of continuous monitoring; and certain exploits could escalate due to the severity. This actually happened in (2015?) when Eternal Blue reeked havoc on hospital machines from outdated Windows operating systems that were still using SMB v1. The result was catastrophic costs to hospital computers, many of which were forced to pay the ransom given the urgency.
The world of technology is dynamic and everchanging; so risk profiles and methods should dynamically change with it.
@Joshua, I think how much risk a company can take is also dependent on the size. The ability to take risks is evaluated through a review of a company’s assets and liabilities. A company with many assets and few liabilities has a high ability to take on risk. Conversely, a company with few assets and high liabilities has a low ability to take on risk.
As stated by ISACA “an information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable.” This allows an organization to determine not only what is an acceptable form of risk, but also what threats and vulnerabilities may exist within the organization. The profile is created with the information provided by a number of stakeholders allowing for a comprehensive document, which becomes critical when dealing with an organization’s risk management. A risk profile becomes critical to the success of the organization because it allows you to maintain an up-to-date inventory of risk and attributes as stated in The Risk IT framework.
Dhaval thanks for sharing – based on your post I think an organization who creates and monitors an effective risk profile could categorize or tier their systems expected risk exposure based on the types, amounts and priority of information risk as well as the threats and vulnerabilities outlined within it. Any systems categorized as “critical” as part of the categorization could require a certain level of controls implementation. Furthermore, this organization wouldn’t have to perform unnecessary controls for systems categorized as “non-critical” as they don’t introduce significant risk to the organization or its operations.
Dhaval thanks for sharing – based on your post I think an organization who creates and monitors an effective risk profile could categorize or tier their systems expected risk exposure based on the types, amounts and priority of information risk as well as the threats and vulnerabilities outlined within it. Any systems categorized as “critical” as part of the categorization could require a certain level of controls implementation. Furthermore, this organization wouldn’t have to perform unnecessary controls for systems categorized as “non-critical” as they don’t introduce significant risk to the organization or its operations.
The risk profile is a tracking tool for the organization to identify the critical systems within their network. It also includes the detail of the risk the system is expose to which allows the senior leader to review and determine whether to accept the risk or not. The information risk management security (IRMS) professionals can deploy the risk profile and present that to the business leaders and decision makers to have them aware of the risks within the critical operation systems. This allows the organization to manage the risk of the systems.
Enterprise risk management is an important concept within many of the organization. It includes the information risk management as a one function. It can calculate the risk at an organization level and can be used to monitor and mange the risks of the system at an organization level.
The risk profile is a tracking tool for the organization to identify the critical systems within their network. It also includes the detail of the risk the system is expose to which allows the senior leader to review and determine whether to accept the risk or not. The information risk management security (IRMS) professionals can deploy the risk profile and present that to the business leaders and decision makers to have them aware of the risks within the critical operation systems. This allows the organization to manage the risk of the systems.
Enterprise risk management is an important concept within many of the organization. It includes the information risk management as a one function. It can calculate the risk at an organization level and can be used to monitor and mange the risks of the system at an organization level.
An Information Risk Profile is a ‘picture’ of the risks an organization is exposed to. It is a way of looking at an organization and understanding the risks it is exposed to in order to decide how to respond to those risks. Once the overall risk profile is understood decisions can be made to reject/accept/transfer/mitigate individual risks.
The risk profile is critical to the success of a risk management strategy because it allows an organization to see all the risks in one place and plan for how to deal with that portfolio of risks. Risks can often be numerous and very different in type and impact, which in turn can necessitate very different responses.
What is an information risk profile? How is it used? Why is it critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities?
Information risk profile lays out/categorizes what an organization deals with/potentially could deal with in risks, and basically what it deems unacceptable and acceptable.
Its used with numerical values, so it can be deemed non subjective
It is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because failing to properly categorize risks can spell disaster for the business. For example a certain High level risks some how gets mistakenly categorized as Low, and in turn the response to the incident is not met with the proper urgency and the business operation takes a huge hit with downtime.
Couldn’t agree with you more Jason in deeming success of an organization’s risk management strategies as ‘critical’. High risk levels are more complex to control and is
extremely dangerous to assume as low risk. Not only does it takes a huge hit with downtime, but also can cause financial and reputational devastation.
To quote ISACA’s Risk IT framework, an information risk profile is an “up-to-date and complete inventory of known risks and attributes (e.g., expected frequency, potential impact, disposition), IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services
and processes.” “It is used in order to “document the types, amounts, and priority of information risk that an entity may find acceptable or unacceptable, so that it can then determine to how to handle the risk”, according to ISACA. Basically, as my quotes suggest, a risk profile is a complete listing of the risks, and it is used in order to properly handle risks when they present themselves. A risk profile is critical to the success of an organizations strategies/activities because it is imperative to have a pre-understanding of a risk before it occurs. By having a risk profile, a business is able to function how it supposed to without being disrupted by threats it does not have the ability to combat.
The information risk profile contains an overview of the types of information risk. It records the types of information risk that all organizations consider acceptable and unacceptable, and it improves the level of acceptable information risk within the organization. It is critical to the success of the organization’s risk management strategy and activities. Because IRMS professionals who make effective use of information risk profiles now have a solid foundation of tools. The structure of the configuration file provides a framework for logically organizing data in a short period of time so that the organization can use it according to the situation.
An information risk profile is an analysis shown by levels of threats that an organization may have. IT register and an IT risk map are tools that are essentially in the process of a risk’s profile. An analysis for the information risk profile should be friendly and available for the organization, executives, and stakeholders to read if needed.
It is critical to success if an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. The organizations are well aware of future investments that may be potentially at risk. It can also avoid problems in the future as well.
Executives are able to make effective and best decisions for the business because the organization is well aware of future investments and risks that may take place.
An information risk profile are documents created by the organization with different types, amounts and the level of priority of an information risk. It is critical to the success because without having background information or profile of a particular risk, the business is essentially fighting blind versus a risk, regardless of high, medium or low level. By having a solid profile on a risk, the organization can determine if the risk is acceptable or not.
Per ISACA, 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. 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.
An information risk profile is a description of the overall risk that an organization is exposed to. It is used to ensure that risk management activities align with the company’s capacity/tolerance of risk.
This is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because it provides a guide for risk management strategies and activities for lowering risk to an acceptable level within the organization. It also makes the organization aware of future investments that may potentially increase risk as well.
Hello Andrew,
You touch on a good point when discussing how critical an information risk profile is to a company. This profile is used to report the type of risks and amount of risk that a company deems acceptable and unacceptable. Having an information risk profile and complying with it is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. These guidelines are set and meant to be the best choices to make for the company’s sake when dealing with a certain risk.
Hello Andrew,
If I may add, yes, indeed, it provides a guide for risk management strategies and activities. Still, the essence or even how it works is not that it lowers the risk to an acceptable level within the organization. Instead, it identifies the acceptable risk level to the organization based on its daily activities. And guides the organization to navigate its way within its risk universe’s considering its acceptable to tolerable risk appetite.
Hi Andrew,
I agree with the reason you said. It facilitates risk management strategies and activities that reduce risk to an acceptable level within the organization. It also makes the organization aware of the risks that may occur in the future and avoids the wind in advance.
risk in advance*
The information risk profile records the type, quantity, and priority of information risks accepted and unacceptable by the organization. This profile is developed collaboratively with numerous stakeholders, including business leaders, data and process owners, enterprise risk management, internal and external audit, legal, compliance, privacy, and IRMS. Provides accurate identification and assessment of threats, vulnerabilities, and associated risks, enabling business leaders and process owners to make informed risk management decisions. Ensures that appropriate risk mitigation controls are implemented and functioning correctly and are consistent with the organization’s established risk tolerance levels. Ensure that funding and resources are effectively allocated to ensure the highest level of information risk mitigation.
Undoubtedly, you are on point as regards your analysis on information risk profile records the type, quantity, and priority of information risks accepted and unacceptable by the organization but risk perception is the tendency for people to have different dramatically estimates of risk probability and impact given the same information that certainly make it too cumbersome to accurately estimate precise risk profile in an organization. for risk management purposes.
Zijian,
The information risk profile efficiently helps a company in many ways. It is very beneficial for organizations to be well aware of risks that may potentially to be in the future. This gives a company time to prepare for that risk and will not be blind-sided to when that moment comes.
An information risk profile is defined as critical to the operation and the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities. And it tells more about an organization’s information risk appetite and expectation for risk management. An organization information risk profile should be structured and formatted in a pattern that quickly exhibit its value and intent to align it with organization’s strategy. And it should also include guiding principles aligned with both its strategic directives and supporting activities of its program and capabilities. And it is critical to the success of an organization because it affords accurate identification and evaluation of threats, vulnerabilities and their associated risk to enable business leaders and process owners to make informed risk management that would be absolutely to the entity’s operations.
Hi Kofi,
I agree with your point that the risk profile should be structured and formatted in a way that it clearly gets the points across to all of the necessary stakeholders. It is important that the information be easily understood by the necessary stakeholders so they can use it as a guide and apply any necessary changes.
An information risk profile is a current and complete inventory of an entity’s ” known risks and attributes IT resources, capabilities, and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes” (Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition, 2021). An information risk profile provides the organization an overarching view of all potential threats, vulnerabilities, and assets related to risk management. Enterprises have many moving parts that are constantly changing and evolving, introducing new threats and vulnerabilities that can be difficult to account for without oversight. Developing changes if not documented or reviewed can lead to configuration drift against the established risk baseline and increase the likelihood of potential risk exposure. A risk profile is a critical tool for monitoring these changes to adjust the organization’s security posture accordingly. Organizations are dynamic, and a risk profile allows us to map business operations and assets in a manner that helps mitigate risk by continuously analyzing where resources are best utilized and where gaps may exist.
ISACA. 2021. Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition.
Hi Kelly, it’s good to mention how you bring up how enterprises are constantly changing and evolving because adjustments are needed at times to continuously improve productivity. As these changes happen, the configuration of the infrastructure changes as well, which could be a substantial risk, depending on the severity of the drift.
Admittedly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get precise risk profile within business establishments due to perceptions that appear to play a pivotal role influencing the risk estimates. And that can give a wrong estimates in terms of it being high, medium and low with regard to organization’s risk profile.
Hello Kelly,
Albeit accurate, I would look at it from the perspective that a risk profile is a critical tool strictly for guiding the organization and helping it form its habit from risk the tolerance and acceptable risk perspective through a concise overview of the entity’s risk posture. By doing this, the organization can channel all its activities in line with the set-out risk limits. Therefore, I think that it serves more as a guide than a tool for change.
The risk profile is a part of the risk evaluation process. It quantifies all known risks by assigning numerical values to a risk’s frequency and magnitude. It should also include a list of controls, IT resources, and capabilities. As the risk environment is constantly evolving, businesses need to frequently revisit the risk profile to ascertain it is up to date or make appropriate changes.
A risk profile should contemplate the level of acceptable risk. It should also contemplate the following questions. How much risk is the organization willing to take on? How much risk can the organization reasonably fund? What risks are required for the organization to take on in order to meet stakeholder expectations?
If the organization miscalculates the magnitude or frequency of a risk, or if it does not contemplate a risk on its risk profile, the organization could experience serious, unexpected losses. Quantifying risk allows an organization to prepare for and fund for those risks. If they do not quantify the risk during the risk profile, the organization is unguarded. If the organization experiences a loss greater than it can reasonably fund, then it could go bankrupt, grossly miss stakeholder expectations, or experience other potential negative effects.
Hi Madalyn,
You highlight an important emphasis on quantifying risk within the risk profile. Admittedly, I am more comfortable focusing on qualitative risks but this does not produce the numbers needed to allocate the proper resources and funds to mitigate risk as you have explained here in your post. Quantitative risks demonstrate the real world costs to management whereas solely focusing on qualitative risks may not communicate the true impact of risk. Nice thought provoking post!
Kelly
Hello Madalyn,
If I may add to your comment that “If the organization miscalculates the magnitude or frequency of a risk, or if it does not contemplate a risk on its risk profile, the organization could experience serious, unexpected losses. It is indeed very true that if a threat compromises a vulnerability, a risk would crystalize, which is indicative of a loss, theft, or damage. However, in the absence of an accurate information risk management process or calculation, an organization’s exposure worsens due to the misconception that proper risk management is in place when it actually isn’t. The margin of error for an information risk profile is zero; an erroneous one does the same job as not having any within the organization.
An Information Risk Profile is an assessment or an analysis of threats to an organization that is risky for the organization’s security. Such as various threats to assets, running projects, company hardware equipment, software, etc. IRP is an analysis report on what can be risky to an organization if a malicious user attacks an organization. It allows organizations to be aware of what can be done if a hacker succeeds in initiating an attack on the organization. Allowing organizations to take prior action to mitigate or minimize the effect of an attack. Organizations take precautions to protect their assets based on the risk profile assessment. Information risk profile play a very important role for the success of an organization. It helps organizations prepare and manage strategies against risk.
Risk Management Strategies and activities:
Risk Management strategies and activities are important. They are a key element for organizations to be successful in the current digital world. Organizations can prioritize risk and plan ahead on when and how expenses are used, and can invest to protect themselves from dangerous threats. It’s critical because it can help the organization run a proper risk mitigation program to protect themselves. Organizations can understand accurate possibilities and evaluate threats before they are faced with real situations. Thus the organization business leader’s/owners make proper risk management strategies for risk mitigation control.
Vacca chapter 34
Hello Mohamed. Well said, “Risk Management strategies and activities are important. They are a key element for organizations to be successful in the current digital world” I could not agree with you more based on the premise that we now live in a world where the survival of any entity would be based on their ability to identify, analyze and if possible mitigate inherent in their mission-critical business. Those who will survive would be entities that perfect their overall risk management capabilities by using tolls like a well-built and informative risk profile to guide them through their specific risk universe.
What is an information risk profile? How is it used? Why is it critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities?
An information risk profile reports the type of risk and amount of risk that a company deems acceptable and unacceptable. The details of the profile are determined by stakeholders throughout the company. The profile is used to be sure that all risk management decisions are in alignment with the company’s needs and guidelines for amount of acceptable risk. Having an information risk profile and complying with it is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because these guidelines are the best choices to make for the company’s sake when dealing with a certain risk. This profile gives the risk management team the best options to choose from when it comes time to face a decision like that.
Hello Michael, That’s a great post. I do agree that the stakeholders thought out the company would recognize the risk that the system has. As the stakeholder would know how important that system would be within the company’s operations. However, I would also add to that the system should also be determined regarding the risk at the enterprise level as well by someone else so if the stakeholder or system owner has determined the risk higher than it should be then it could be reevaluated.
I admire your statement of saying all risk management decisions should be in alignment with the company’s needs and guidelines for the amount of acceptable risk. This is very true. Not all organizations are the same, in turn a risk profile is sure to vary from company to company. It is important that the risk profile that is being created for a company is conducive to that company.
An information risk profile is “a description of the overall (identified) IT risks to which the enterprise is exposed” (ISACA Risk IT Framework). Using an up-to-date list of the known risks, a company can assess their threat landscape and understand which products, services, and processes are currently at risk. This is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because it is impossible to implement effective strategies and activities without knowledge of the current threats a company is exposed to. Each company’s threats are going to be unique. One industry will face a different set of threats than another industry, two companies within the same industry would face different threats than each other, a large company faces different threats than a small company. Because of this it is critical to identify the specific threats to an organization. Only then can you make sure the best policies, procedures, and activities are put into place to address the threats that specifically threaten that company’s business. Otherwise, a company could be applying measures to address unnecessary threats, or not addressing certain threats that they should be aware of. Referring to the information risk profile ensures that these outcomes do not happen.
ISACA IT Framework explains the information risk profile as “a description of overall risk to which the enterprise is exposed. To evaluate the risk, companies collect data, analyze the risk, and maintain the risk profile. The process starts with being aware of the current known risk and attributes, IT resources, capabilities and controls, so that company can document.
The documentation of risk profiles include both acceptable and unacceptable risks. According to ISACA, the key players for the risk profile are: “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.”
The risk profile is critical to the success of an organization because it performs as “foundational tool” once IRMS professionals use it. The profile helps company to have insights and guidelines associated with information security risk identification. Since, the risk profile should include strategic directives and supporting activities of its IRMS capabilities, it provides the understanding of key business processes, identification of threats and vulnerabilities, available risk mitigating controls. That way the profile should help business leaders and process owners to make effective decisions.
ISACA. 2021. Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition.
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile
Hello Miray,
Great point about risk profile being a foundational tool once IRMS professionals use it. I think that is important to understand many of these businesses can have a sort of guideline but in the end must make their final assessment based on the business objectives.
Miray,
You made great points from the ISACA article. It is great that you pointed out the the risk profile is a foundation tool for an organization. This is 100% true. The risk profile is an analysis for a company to see the level of potential threats and how to make efficient decisions. This will avoid problems in the future and the company will know how to move forward with it.
An information risk profile is an overall outline and description of known risks, the probability they will occur, and the impact if they do. It is used when companies want to look over their current risk strategy and see if there are any changes they should make, for example, if new risks were to pop up that were not present last year. It is also used to help business management, ERM, and other involved departments understand the nature and potential impact of information technology risk, and the severity of not abiding by IT policy and educating the employees under them. It is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because the strategies used reflect the types of risk that are involved with the business based off the types of assets they own and information they deal with. An information risk profile makes it easier to see the current risks at hand, and makes it easier to prioritize certain risks because one feels more confident that they are not forgetting any major risks in their decision making.
An information risk profile is an up to date and complete inventory of known risks, attributes, technology resources, capabilities, and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes (Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition, 2021). This is used to document risk tolerances and allows the organization to compare changes over time as they respond to new information. A well defined risk profile enables effective stakeholder conversations and supports an informed decision making process. For example, this may be used to evaluate proposed changes to technology strategy, e.g. moving from on premise storage to the cloud, and how such a change would affect the organization’s assets and the potential threats that would result from such a change. Failure to maintain a risk profile can lead to increased risk, stakeholder misalignment, and lack of transparency across the organization when managing information technology risk.
Risk profile is definitely key when making technological changes in a workplace as you would want to know the potential risks involved when making a big change like that. It is very common in new technologies that lack proper security measures as some may have not been thoroughly tested enough. Great example.
The information risk profile is a maintained, up-to-date and completed inventory of known risks and attributes, IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services and processes. It documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable. It is critical to the success of an organization’s information risk management strategy and activities due to providing valuable insights into an organization’s information risk appetite and expectations for information risk management.
The enterprise risk profile documents information risk types, amounts, and priorities that an organization considers acceptable and unacceptable. The enterprise risk profile is the quantitative expression of the threats that an organization’s infrastructure faces with the overall objective of assigning values to this threat and the impact it may cause to critical business infrastructure.
A risk profile analyses the nature of the threats faced by an organization to determine the probability and likelihood of the same from a cost perspective. Risk profiling includes risk tolerance, risk required: and Risk capacity: the level of risk the client can afford to take.
An information risk profile helps the organization to properly manage the organization’s information risk management strategy and activities by providing valuable insights into an organization’s information risk tolerance and acceptability for risk management.
An information risk profile is a documented portfolio of the type of risk and attributes. It is used to help prioritize the risks within an organization. It is crucial to the success of an organization to the risk management strategies because it helps allocate the resources properly and bring awareness by including all the factors that are involved when deciding which risk to prioritize. Factors include expected frequency, potential impact, disposition, it resources, capabilities, and controls.
Hi Wilmer,
I agree with your analysis that the information risk profile is critical to an organization because it aids in the allocation of money and resources. It would be a hindrance to an organization to spend a lot of their risk or cyber risk budget on small threat that does not pose a large risk or a mitigation method that does not work as well as others. By mapping out risks, their probability/frequency, and their impact, it makes it easier to realize which risks are bigger and deserve a bigger portion of the budget.
-Mike
An organizational risk profile is a combination of the types of risk as well as the degree of impact/damage those risks pose to an organization, should they occur. Organizations who adequately document their risk profiles are typically able to make more informed decisions based on their nature of business. Furthermore, organizations who can quantify (i.e. in terms of dollars) risks related to their business processes are able to determine if an asset or process is considered critical enough for safeguarding and subsequent controls implementation. It’s not only enough for organization to perform an initial risk profile baseline but rather they need to periodically review their profiles to ensure they remain unchanged. If new risks are introduced or existing risks change, these need to be documented and communicated to those who are responsible for maintaining the process to ensure business objectives are being met in spite of new risks.
Bryan, great point in addressing quantifying risk through financial means. Risk management can be costly, and risk registers can assist stakeholders in determining if security controls are suitable for the enterprise. It is also important that periodic reviews occur, since the risk scope of an organization is always changing; between product updates, an augmented threat environment, etc.
An information security risk profile is the total inventory of known risks and related risk characteristics; these include attributes (such as the expected frequency, sources of threat, and potential impact) and IT resources/capabilities/security controls in application to take action on listed risk, with consideration to the entire enterprise. An information risk profile is used to understand risk in relation to organizational capabilities and interdependencies (i.e. how a networking organizational risk might impact support personnel, customers, company finances, etc., and if the organization has the proper tools to mitigate said risk). A risk profile also helps companies determine critical business functions; this factor of the profile will assist companies in ensuring proper assets/criticalities receive essential security controls in order to maintain completion of business objectives. If this risk register/profile is kept updated, the tool will assist management in assessing/determining the risk impact, determining if a risk should be remediated, and if the company has necessary resources and business capabilities to remediate risk. A risk register is an essential portion of business risk analysis, guiding leadership to make educated business decisions on risk treatment.
Hi Lauren,
I think you’ve correctly pointed out that this risk register needs to be kept up to date to be an effective tool that management can use. Risks that a company faces are always changing. If a company is using a stale risk register they are exposing themselves to unforeseen risks whilst believing they are correctly assessing the risk landscape. Therefore it is crucial for companies to keep this up to date.
Risk IT defines, and is founded on, a number of guiding principles for effective management of IT risk. The principles are based on commonly accepted ERM principles, which have been applied to the domain of IT. In other words, it helps an organization do a risk analysis, evaluates them and decides if those risks can be identified as acceptable or unacceptable.
The profile helps them mitigate their risk controls by assigning numerical values to variables representing different types of threats and the incident they pose.
It is critical to the success of an organization because it allows them to evaluate the likelihood of potential threats and helps them applying the CIA method to ensure the well functioning of the organization.
ISACA. 2021. Risk IT Framework, 2nd Edition
An information risk profile is identified as a summarized overall risks by quantifying different risks associated with the inventory inside of an organization. It is used by the organization for criticality analysis to determine appropriate processes and resources to maintain operations and estimate for new ones. It is used by senior management/executive/business branches to determine resource allocation and identify what is acceptable risk and determine organizational cost for operational security. This information is used by stakeholders to determine the reliability of the process/information system/entity they are collaborating in. The organization can set up risk map to assess security controls due to the everchanging world of security as new threats and vulnerabilities can potentially cause fluctuation within current analyzations of risk.
Without an risk map; the organization would struggle and potentially fail at identifying different areas where resourcing and managing risk is necessary. Organizations that do not have or mismanage their risk profiles cannot aggregate risks and conduct proper impact analysis which is detrimental for determining the cost operations.
A risk profile is “an up-to-date and complete inventory of known risks and their attributes (including expected frequency, potential impact, disposition), IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services, and processes”. (ISACA Risk-IT Framework), The risk profile is essentially used as a guideline for an organization to understand the totality of its risks from all angles, and to proceed to know how to make business decisions and plan strategy in accordance with the accepted risk tolerance thresholds. It is critical to an organization’s risk management strategies and activities not only for the aforementioned reason, but also because it displays IT capabilities and perhaps most importantly – risk response priority. Prioritizing risk response is crucial for an organization to take action to manage or mitigate risks in a cost-efficient manner. Furthermore, it shows risks of emerging threats as well, enabling the business to strategize for the future in accordance to its risk appetite in regards to the emerging threats. Lastly, it helps shape the key-risk indicators for the organization.
Antonio – you captured one of the biggest challenges of a risk profile in the words: ‘Up to date and complete inventory’. Since risk is not static and constantly changing one of the questions to be answered is how frequently does the risk profile need to be updated? Re-assessed? What are the criteria that require an update to be performed? Organizations tend to do these type of activities on a schedule (annual review) – not in response to events (my xx supplier got ransom-wared – am I exposed?) How do I know that I have a ‘complete’ inventory?
A risk profile is a maintained up to date complete inventory of known risks and attributes. It is also a description of the overall identified IT risks in which the enterprise is exposed. How much risk an organization can tolerate defines their risk profile. Tools like IT register and IT risk map are essential in the process of determining one’s risk profile. It is built upon the information received from; “the results of enterprise IT risk assessment, risk scenario components, risk event data collection, and ongoing risk analysis”
A risk profile is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. So it is imperative to “consider how IT strategies, change initiatives and external requirements may affect the risk profile.” Moreover, consistently updating IT risk register entries is important, as well as updating the IT risk map in response to any significant internal or external change.
(ISACA Reading 1: ISACA Risk IT Framework)
Hi Joshua,
You captured my attention at specifically updating entries. In my personal experience I’ve seen groups essentially “snap shot” their machines to make them look as good as possible at one time and then essentially let the system remain the same until the next time they are required to capture vulnerabilities. I see this as a huge problem because typically Risk Management methods usually impose some type of continuous monitoring; and certain exploits could escalate due to the severity. This actually happened in (2015?) when Eternal Blue reeked havoc on hospital machines from outdated Windows operating systems that were still using SMB v1. The result was catastrophic costs to hospital computers, many of which were forced to pay the ransom given the urgency.
The world of technology is dynamic and everchanging; so risk profiles and methods should dynamically change with it.
@Joshua, I think how much risk a company can take is also dependent on the size. The ability to take risks is evaluated through a review of a company’s assets and liabilities. A company with many assets and few liabilities has a high ability to take on risk. Conversely, a company with few assets and high liabilities has a low ability to take on risk.
As stated by ISACA “an information risk profile documents the types, amounts and priority of information risk that an organization finds acceptable and unacceptable.” This allows an organization to determine not only what is an acceptable form of risk, but also what threats and vulnerabilities may exist within the organization. The profile is created with the information provided by a number of stakeholders allowing for a comprehensive document, which becomes critical when dealing with an organization’s risk management. A risk profile becomes critical to the success of the organization because it allows you to maintain an up-to-date inventory of risk and attributes as stated in The Risk IT framework.
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.
Dhaval thanks for sharing – based on your post I think an organization who creates and monitors an effective risk profile could categorize or tier their systems expected risk exposure based on the types, amounts and priority of information risk as well as the threats and vulnerabilities outlined within it. Any systems categorized as “critical” as part of the categorization could require a certain level of controls implementation. Furthermore, this organization wouldn’t have to perform unnecessary controls for systems categorized as “non-critical” as they don’t introduce significant risk to the organization or its operations.
Dhaval thanks for sharing – based on your post I think an organization who creates and monitors an effective risk profile could categorize or tier their systems expected risk exposure based on the types, amounts and priority of information risk as well as the threats and vulnerabilities outlined within it. Any systems categorized as “critical” as part of the categorization could require a certain level of controls implementation. Furthermore, this organization wouldn’t have to perform unnecessary controls for systems categorized as “non-critical” as they don’t introduce significant risk to the organization or its operations.
The risk profile is a tracking tool for the organization to identify the critical systems within their network. It also includes the detail of the risk the system is expose to which allows the senior leader to review and determine whether to accept the risk or not. The information risk management security (IRMS) professionals can deploy the risk profile and present that to the business leaders and decision makers to have them aware of the risks within the critical operation systems. This allows the organization to manage the risk of the systems.
Enterprise risk management is an important concept within many of the organization. It includes the information risk management as a one function. It can calculate the risk at an organization level and can be used to monitor and mange the risks of the system at an organization level.
References:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/risk-profile.asp#:~:text=A%20risk%20profile%20is%20an,which%20an%20organization%20is%20exposed.&text=Organizations%20use%20a%20risk%20profile,mitigate%20potential%20risks%20and%20threats.
The risk profile is a tracking tool for the organization to identify the critical systems within their network. It also includes the detail of the risk the system is expose to which allows the senior leader to review and determine whether to accept the risk or not. The information risk management security (IRMS) professionals can deploy the risk profile and present that to the business leaders and decision makers to have them aware of the risks within the critical operation systems. This allows the organization to manage the risk of the systems.
Enterprise risk management is an important concept within many of the organization. It includes the information risk management as a one function. It can calculate the risk at an organization level and can be used to monitor and mange the risks of the system at an organization level.
References:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/risk-profile.asp#:~:text=A%20risk%20profile%20is%20an,which%20an%20organization%20is%20exposed.&text=Organizations%20use%20a%20risk%20profile,mitigate%20potential%20risks%20and%20threats.
An Information Risk Profile is a ‘picture’ of the risks an organization is exposed to. It is a way of looking at an organization and understanding the risks it is exposed to in order to decide how to respond to those risks. Once the overall risk profile is understood decisions can be made to reject/accept/transfer/mitigate individual risks.
The risk profile is critical to the success of a risk management strategy because it allows an organization to see all the risks in one place and plan for how to deal with that portfolio of risks. Risks can often be numerous and very different in type and impact, which in turn can necessitate very different responses.
What is an information risk profile? How is it used? Why is it critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities?
Information risk profile lays out/categorizes what an organization deals with/potentially could deal with in risks, and basically what it deems unacceptable and acceptable.
Its used with numerical values, so it can be deemed non subjective
It is critical to the success of an organization’s risk management strategies and activities because failing to properly categorize risks can spell disaster for the business. For example a certain High level risks some how gets mistakenly categorized as Low, and in turn the response to the incident is not met with the proper urgency and the business operation takes a huge hit with downtime.
Couldn’t agree with you more Jason in deeming success of an organization’s risk management strategies as ‘critical’. High risk levels are more complex to control and is
extremely dangerous to assume as low risk. Not only does it takes a huge hit with downtime, but also can cause financial and reputational devastation.
To quote ISACA’s Risk IT framework, an information risk profile is an “up-to-date and complete inventory of known risks and attributes (e.g., expected frequency, potential impact, disposition), IT resources, capabilities and controls as understood in the context of business products, services
and processes.” “It is used in order to “document the types, amounts, and priority of information risk that an entity may find acceptable or unacceptable, so that it can then determine to how to handle the risk”, according to ISACA. Basically, as my quotes suggest, a risk profile is a complete listing of the risks, and it is used in order to properly handle risks when they present themselves. A risk profile is critical to the success of an organizations strategies/activities because it is imperative to have a pre-understanding of a risk before it occurs. By having a risk profile, a business is able to function how it supposed to without being disrupted by threats it does not have the ability to combat.
https://community.mis.temple.edu/mis5206sec001fall2021/files/2017/08/ISACA_Risk-IT-Framework_fmk_Eng_0610.pdf
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile
The information risk profile contains an overview of the types of information risk. It records the types of information risk that all organizations consider acceptable and unacceptable, and it improves the level of acceptable information risk within the organization. It is critical to the success of the organization’s risk management strategy and activities. Because IRMS professionals who make effective use of information risk profiles now have a solid foundation of tools. The structure of the configuration file provides a framework for logically organizing data in a short period of time so that the organization can use it according to the situation.
An information risk profile is an analysis shown by levels of threats that an organization may have. IT register and an IT risk map are tools that are essentially in the process of a risk’s profile. An analysis for the information risk profile should be friendly and available for the organization, executives, and stakeholders to read if needed.
It is critical to success if an organization’s risk management strategies and activities. The organizations are well aware of future investments that may be potentially at risk. It can also avoid problems in the future as well.
Executives are able to make effective and best decisions for the business because the organization is well aware of future investments and risks that may take place.
Reference:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/key-elements-of-an-information-risk-profile
An information risk profile are documents created by the organization with different types, amounts and the level of priority of an information risk. It is critical to the success because without having background information or profile of a particular risk, the business is essentially fighting blind versus a risk, regardless of high, medium or low level. By having a solid profile on a risk, the organization can determine if the risk is acceptable or not.
Per ISACA, 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. 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.