{"id":1462,"date":"2024-01-01T00:39:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T00:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/thought-leaders\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2024-02-02T14:40:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T14:40:25","slug":"introduction-to-information-risk-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/thought-leaders\/introduction-to-information-risk-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Information Risk Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizations are increasingly embracing data governance tactics to address data quality and availability. However, the growing dependence on a wide array of data sources (of which many originate outside the administrative control of the organization) exposes several vulnerabilities associated with what I refer to as \u201cinformation risk.\u201d In this post, I introduce the concept of information risk as well as recommend the need for establishing an information risk management program to understand data vulnerabilities and mitigate information risk.<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia there are\u00a0several definitions of risk<\/a>, including \u201cthe potential for uncontrolled loss of something of value,\u201d and \u201c(Exposure to) the possibility of loss, injury, or other adverse or unwelcome circumstance; a chance or situation involving such a possibility.\u201d Using this definition, \u201cinformation risk\u201d would be the potential for loss of value due to issues associated with managing information.<\/p>\n

Exposure to any kind of risk affects the way that a business operates. There are operational affects, impacting corporate ability to execute due to data availability or accessibility issues. There could be numerous financial impacts, such as increased operational costs, decreased revenues, other financial losses associated with execution failures caused by flawed data. There is certainly the potential for reputation damage that can lead to decreased confidence and loss of customers associated with processes impacted by data issues. Information issues can lead to losses associated with fraud, waste, and abuse, as well as disrupting business continuity. \u00a0Data issues affecting regulatory non-compliance can lead to penalties and necessary remediation activities.<\/p>\n

Most organizations implement some kind of risk management program to understand and identify any threats of quantifiable damage, injury, loss, liability, or other negative occurrence that may be avoided through preemptive action.<\/p>\n

The same should be said for information risk. In most cases, organizations conflate the concept of information risk and data protection. But information risk comprises so much more, including:<\/p>\n