Skip to main content

Two places where you need risk management planning

Two places where you need risk management planning

If you started your small business with an inheritance, great news! Congratulations. But most likely you have a board ofdirectors; initial investors whose focus is on the long term success of the company, on strategies for future growth andprotection of their investment. Part of their concern will be threats and risks to the present business. Here are twofinal topics that you, and they should be focussing on when making strategic risk management plans.

Brand damage and reputational loss.

If your company is the victim of a cyberattack, you will need to inform any customer whose data may have beencompromised. This will definitely not endear you to your clients. If word gets out, this can damage your ability toattract and convert new prospects into customers. This issue of brand damage could likely be the most severe, long-termrisk to the success of the business.Adding to this is the competitive disadvantage it places you in. Competing firms may use an event like this to highlighttheir own improved ability to protect customer data.

It isn't just you–Supply chains issues

One last area that you will need to advise your board about is your vulnerability to your supplier’s risks. Just as youcan be attacked, so can every business and agent along the entire supply chain that feeds your business. As the pandemichas shown, supply chain issues can be serious and an internal disruption. US vehicle production has been severelyinhibited due to the unavailability of computer chips. If a major US automaker such as Ford can be hurt, what about asmall business like yours? Every business should address the plans of its suppliers to handle a cyber attack, and haveplans in place for alternative sources of inventory.

In summary, it is important that you outline to your board their areas of vulnerability. Without this information, you,and they, cannot make the strategic and tactical plans to protect the business in the case of a cyber attack.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Migrate to the Cloud

Why Migrate to the Cloud If you haven't already considered migrating your data storage to the cloud, you are probably in the minority of businesses. While it may seem intuitive that somehow your data is safer if it is stored “ at home,” on location at the site of your business, that probably is not correct. Given the ability of skilled cloud service providers to provide redundancy and a level of security unattainable by a small business, storing all your crucial business data on site using in-house support is probably akin to keeping your money under the mattress instead of a bank. In this blog, we’ll explain what cloud data storage means, and some reasons why it may be a good business decision. In addition, we’ll quickly note some reasons some people get nervous about the security of cloud storage. What is cloud data storage? In an earlier time, a business would store all of its data on-site. Individual employees might keep all of their Word and Excel documents filed on their PC. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Protecting Your Data on the Cloud

Protecting Your Data on the Cloud Cloud storage has transformed the way businesses store and manage data, but for some, it also raises concerns about data protection. This blog post discusses a few security measures that can be deployed when using cloud storage. Data Encryption One of the fundamental security features of cloud storage is encryption. It ensures that your data remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access. Cloud storage providers use encryption algorithms to protect data both during transit and when stored in their servers. This means that even if an attacker intercepts the data in transit or gains access to the storage servers, the information remains unreadable. Encryption adds an extra layer of security, ensuring that your data remains confidential and secure. Access Controls and Identity Management Concerned about access to data? Cloud storage providers offer access controls and other mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to your data. These feature...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leveraging your business data to drive better business outcomes

Leveraging your business data to drive better business outcomes Smaller firms may hear about AI and how data is driving the big corporations of the world, but they often don’t realize that they can do the same. The size and age of your business doesn’t have to be a limiting factor in whether you use data. Today’s blog is a quick look at data management for the small firm. The first lesson is: don’t take your data for granted. The basic business model for some large IT companies is monetizing the data that they collect. While this may not be your goal, you probably collect a great deal of data about your customers, prospects, and operations. An MSP can help you make better use of that data. Here are just three examples: Marketing Data tells you who is interested, when they're interested, and in what they are interested. Data can tell you where each individual prospect sits in the sales funnel, so your marketing messages reach them exactly where they are. It can also track the...
Post a Comment
Read more