The only thing predictable in any business is unforeseen risk. Risks come in many types. Manufacturing companies stay exposed to supply chain risks, while financial institutions are vulnerable to regulatory changes and wide gyrations in markets. Besides, risks emanating from social and political upheavals, terror attacks, and natural disasters also keep managements on tenterhooks.
That’s why, one of the key roles of top management is to foresee risk and asses how it will impact their organization. The idea is to create a robust organization that can withstand external shocks.
From an economic slowdown in China to political risks, management at multinational companies are apt at managing all kinds of risks.
However, organizations in the 21st century face another major risk, cyber threat. Given the recent high profile cases of data breach at some of the biggest companies in the world, top management are least prepared for this new type of risk.
Indeed, insurance firm Allianz even noted this. In a recent research, it said that cyber risk was the most likely risk for which managements remain least prepared.
Today, the nature of cyber-attacks are highly advanced. Cyber-assaults are no more confined to defacing websites and denial-of-services (DOS) attacks.
Instead, they are more technologically sophisticated and ‘commercially’ motivated. As a result, we are witnessing more and more data- breach incidents, corporate espionage, cyber heist cases and theft of intellectual property.
And as the Edward Snowden episode shows, organizations are more at risk from within than outside. This is because ‘trusted insiders’ are privy to vital information. They have access to privileged accounts— accounts authorized to use data base servers, email servers, and other critical IT asset servers. So if, ‘trusted insider/s’ turn malicious against an organization, it can wreak havoc. The fact that cyber-crime from insiders typically gets detected after a long time make them doubly dangerous. Moreover, sensitive data has become a hot commodity. It incentivizes compromised employees to take advantage of their positions.
In this backdrop, a fire-walled IT system today is inadequate to safeguard against growing cybercrime. Managements would do well if they could cut risks by adopting IT risk solution like Privileged Access Management (PAM) also known as Privileged Identity Management (PIM), which provides constant monitoring, auditing, and recording of all privileged sessions.
ARCON provides state-of-the-art technology aimed at mitigating information systems related risks thereby enabling organizations to comply with Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) requirements. The company, in particular, is known for its unique Privileged Identity Management/Privileged Access Management solution, which helps deter the misuse of ‘privileged identities’.
Learn more about us at www.arconnet.com