The global village is increasingly becoming digitized with computing power doubling every year since the 70s. This rise has further been fuelled by a drop in digital tool costs. It is estimated that over five billion people will have access to smartphones by the year 2019, gadgets that can create at least 2.5 exabytes of data daily.
Customers now have access to more information than ever before, and this has bequeathed them a high experience expectation from your digital business. There is a demand for near instantaneous service and a highly personalized purchase experience.
This has pushed many organizations from their analog comfort zones to a highly digitized business method with an unfortunate lack of digital risk management.
The enormous costs of cybercrime
The move to infuse digital technology with business environments has enabled organizations to do more for their customers with less. But as more and more forward facing companies embrace digital technology, new threats have also come up to challenge this new frontier in business enterprise.
A case in point is the global ruckus the ransomware “WannaCry” caused when it crippled Windows run digital systems in over 150 countries in May 2017, affecting over 200,000 computers. The damages reported are estimated to be in the billion dollar range.
Did you know that over 67% of the world’s global organizations have at one point or the other have had their digital security breached? A 36% of people in this global village have suffered an individual but similar fate. The IC3 or Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported a collective loss of $12 billion from business email compromise scams that target individuals or businesses.
How can digital risk management curb this trend?
Most businesses are in the dark on the evil nature of these security threats. Digital risk management will assist business entities to identify, assess and reduce external digital risks and dangers to a manageable level.
Its processes ensure that measures are put in place to prevent criminals from using digital technology to access networks, exploit and steal data or funds. With it, an organization can focus on the significant digital business risks that business is exposed to from digital components like mobile gadgets, the cloud, third-party providers, big data and IoT technology.
Failure to initiate digital risk management systems in many organizations has brought about a substantial negative impact on the market value, reputation, and operations of significant enterprises, even forcing smaller companies out of business.
Online risk management targets three main pillars that include;
- Data leakage and loss
- Cybercrime
- Brand defamation
To prevent data leakage and loss the risk management process will put measures in place that will curb the;
- sharing of private encryption keys and sensitive code
- compromise of employee credentials through third-party breaches
- leakage of confidential business documents
- stolen sharing of intellectual property
- social media oversharing by employees
- exposure of customers’ personally identifiable information
To enhance cyber security, the process should also install protocols that prevent exploitation from system breaches or incidents. And finally, to mitigate reputation risks, the online risk management process can work to curb incidents related to;
- Phishing
- Domain infringement
- Spoofed profiles
- Brand defamation
- Technical app issues