What Happens If you Don’t
By not performing cybersecurity risk assessments, you allow your system to become vulnerable to digital threats and could risk:
Destroying Client Trust: If you let your customer’s personal information get into the wrong hands, you could harm their company’s reputation. A cyber breach could cause your customers to go running to competitors who are less vulnerable.
Huge Costs: If your system is breached, it could cost thousands to repair and patch up the system.
Wasting Time: Knowing the risks means knowing the holes. Without performing a risk assessment, it could take hours of precious time looking for the risks and solutions.
What Industries Need Security Risk Assessments?
Every industry can benefit from having better cybersecurity, however, there are four industries that have more specific cybersecurity requirements:
Healthcare: Because health facilities hold private information about both their employees and patients, protocols have been established by HIPAA and to penalize any healthcare organizations that do not comply with protecting this information.
Government: All governing agencies and contractors have to protect any information that they gather about the projects they work on or citizens.
Financial Services: Banks and other financial institutions could arguably be the industry with the greatest need for a cybersecurity risk assessment. They hold some of the most valuable information about their clients. Many institutions have mandated cybersecurity protocols for banks.
Why You Need a Professional
You should never perform a cybersecurity risk assessment on your own. First, there is too much for one person to do alone or even for a small IT team to tackle. It would also take too much time. If the vulnerabilities do exist, a breach could occur before you ever knew it was there, resulting in potential financial and reputational damage.
It’s best to work with a cybersecurity firm to ensure that you are aware of all digital cyber threats to your systems.