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By Cristiane Santos.
Nowadays, the increase in the volume of data available in companies is notable. According to IBM , the world generates around 2.5 quintillion pieces of data, 90% of which was generated in the last three years. However, data alone is not enough to generate business intelligence. It is crucial to establish adequate governance to ensure that data is available, integrated and, most importantly, secure.
Data security, in turn, must receive special attention, as all it takes is one “breach” to fatally harm business success. A survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) , which compares the volume and complexity of security risks over the years, indicates in the most recent study that 6 out of 10 companies say there has been a significant increase in them.
In this sense, as a consequence, cybercrimes arise, which, in the state of São Paulo alone, grew 144% in 2022, according to data from the Public Security Secretariat (SSP) . Such information reinforces the growing concern about the dangers, especially technological ones, that a company can face. Therefore, knowing the types of risks and ways to mitigate them is essential.
The types of risks for a company
Risk is a combination between the probability of a certain event occurring and the impacts – positive or negative – that it can generate. Unfortunately, in many cases, risks remain hidden and unknown, which leads some companies to overlook critical factors.
Currently, the most common security risks are: Compliance Risk, which refers to the violation of external or internal laws, regulations and standards, such as the LGPD ; Legal Risk, which represents a specific form of compliance risk, occurring when an organization does not comply with the rules established by the government for companies; and Strategic Risk, which arises as a result of a faulty business strategy or lack of adequate strategic planning.
In addition, there is also Reputation Risk, which covers corruption and ethical violations, negatively impacting the company's position, as well as public opinion about it. And finally, Operational Risk is related to a company's daily activities, such as the right to privacy, information leaks, system intrusions, fraud, among other situations.
Despite being different types, the dangers complement each other and generate negative consequences for business, such as fluctuations in profit, damaged reputation, loss of control of systems or data, damage to infrastructure and breach of SLA. In these cases, risk mitigation offers techniques that reduce their levels to a tolerable level for the business.
Techniques for risk mitigation
Security management, which encompasses risk identification, implementation of controls, monitoring and incident management, is one of the main actions that a company must take to ensure effective risk mitigation in order to be in compliance with the ISO 27001 Standard (standard for information security management system), and with the General Personal Data Protection Law ( LGPD ), ensuring compliance and information security.
The main techniques to be applied in the security management of organizations today are, firstly, the training and awareness of employees, known as major vulnerable gateways to intrusions and data leaks.
Other techniques, just as important, are platform vulnerability scans, constant phishing tests, endpoint security – such as technological access control and cautious use of pen drives – and corporate governance, which exposes a view of the danger and helps in expansion of organizational and technological maturity.
Finally, investing in an incident management process, which goes from recording it to communicating with the customer, is essential to understand the impacts and ways to handle any dangerous situation, consolidating the mitigation of security risks in the company and contributing to greater gains in business reliability and scalability.
