Managing information risks is essential for organisations aiming to safeguard sensitive data, ensure compliance, and maintain operational continuity. While corporate and health and safety risks are often prioritised, information risks can be overlooked due to challenges in identifying intangible risks, low organisational maturity in information management, or limited oversight of information assets. As investment in intangible assets such as data, software and AI technologies grows so do the risks to organisation. Reassessing risk and addressing gaps is crucial for building a robust information risk management framework.
Establishing Information Asset Oversight
The foundation of managing information risks is gaining clear oversight of your organisation’s information assets. Without knowing what assets exist, it’s impossible to assess or mitigate associated risks. At Recordkeeping Innovation, we recommend implementing an Information Asset Register (IAR) to provide a high-level view of your organisation’s information assets, including descriptions, storage locations, asset formats, owners, access requirements, and retention needs.
The IAR enables organisations to assign risk and value ratings to their information assets. For instance, a dataset containing personally identifiable information (PII) may be classified as high-risk/high value because of its importance to service delivery and the potential consequences of a breach or loss.
Understanding Information Governance Requirements
Proper risk management begins with identifying your organisation’s obligations regarding the creation, use, and storage of information. This includes:
- Statutory and contractual requirements for information management.
- Applicable industry standards for managing information systems.
- Business and stakeholder expectations for handling sensitive information responsibly.
By defining these requirements, your organisation can better identify compliance gaps and address vulnerabilities.
Assessing Information Risks
With your information assets and governance requirements documented, the next critical step is to conduct a comprehensive risk analysis. This process involves:
- Establishing clear criteria for assessing risks, including defining acceptable risk thresholds.
- Identifying potential risks, evaluating their likelihood, and understanding their potential consequences.
- Prioritising high-risk or high-value assets for immediate attention and mitigation.
As your organisation’s information management program evolves, it is essential to periodically review and update risk thresholds and mitigation strategies to ensure they remain effective and aligned with organisational objectives.
Consequences of Not Identifying and Managing Information Risks
Failing to identify and manage information risks can expose organisations to significant threats, compromising data security, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Without a proactive approach to information risk management, the following consequences may arise:
1. Data Breaches and Loss of Sensitive Information
Without adequate controls, organisations are vulnerable to data breaches, where sensitive information such as personal data or intellectual property is exposed. This can result in:
- Legal penalties and fines, particularly under regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or local privacy laws.
- Significant negative media scrutiny with extensive or sustained coverage.
- Loss of customer trust and reputational damage, which can take years to rebuild.
- A direct financial impact to the organisation and viability of the organisation ongoing.
- Considerable disruption or distress to sectors of the community.
2. Regulatory Non-Compliance
Failure to align with regulatory requirements and industry standards can result in:
- Audits identifying gaps in compliance, leading to fines or sanctions.
- Increased scrutiny from regulators, impacting your organisation’s ability to operate effectively.
3. Operational Inefficiencies
Poor information governance often leads to:
- Ineffective processes for locating, accessing, or managing records.
- Duplication of effort and increased storage costs due to over-retention of unnecessary data.
- Delays in decision-making due to lack of accurate, up-to-date information.
4. Business Continuity Risks
When critical information assets are not managed properly or the identification of information management rights, sustainability, integrity issues are not addressed organisations face:
- Increased risk of losing access to essential data during system outages or disasters.
- Challenges in recovering lost or corrupted data due to inadequate backup and recovery processes.
- significant impact or total failure in meeting obligations to staff and clients.
5. Legal and Financial Liabilities
Inadequate oversight of information assets can result in:
- Exposure to lawsuits or legal claims due to improper handling of sensitive data.
- Financial losses stemming from penalties, inefficiencies, or compensations required for impacted stakeholders.
6. Erosion of Organisational Knowledge
Without clear governance, organisations risk losing valuable institutional knowledge due to:
- Inadequate documentation of processes and decisions.
- Lack of proper systems for retaining critical business records and data.
- Employee turnover.
By not prioritising the identification and management of information risks, organisations expose themselves to avoidable threats that can have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. Implementing robust information risk management practices is essential to safeguard data, maintain compliance, and ensure the ongoing success of the organisation and operational continuity.
Strengthening Your Approach to Informational Risks
Effective information risk management involves identifying vulnerabilities, assessing potential impacts, and implementing strategies to protect sensitive information and sensitive data stored in your information systems.
To truly minimise data risk, organisations must adopt a proactive and systematic approach. This includes:
- Periodic Risk Analysis: Regularly revisiting your risk assessment criteria ensures that your strategy evolves alongside changes in technology, business priorities, and regulatory requirements. This process helps maintain the relevance and effectiveness of your information risk management practices.
- Staff Training: Equip your team with the knowledge and tools to manage sensitive data responsibly, understand risks, and adhere to governance policies. Awareness training also reduces risks associated with human error.
- Audits and Reviews: Conduct routine audits of information systems, processes, and storage environments to identify vulnerabilities before they escalate into significant data risks.
- Collaboration Across Teams: Foster communication between IT, Legal, Risk, Privacy, Cyber Security and operational departments to develop a cohesive and effective strategy for addressing information risks.
Managing Informational Risks for Long-Term Success
Effectively managing informational risks requires more than just addressing immediate concerns—it is about building a culture of governance and responsibility around your organisation’s information assets. By conducting thorough risk analysis, prioritising high-risk areas, and implementing structured mitigations, your organisation can safeguard sensitive information, enhance operational efficiency, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
As the risks to information assets increase more sustained attention and effort is required to ensure risks are addressed. Organisations can use the identification of high risk/high value information assets identified in the IAR to guide their attention to those resources most needing attention.
A brief outline of steps assisting organisations to address this issue:
- Ensuring that the organisation has visibility of all its information assets, regardless of the technology used to create and maintain them
- Link information risk into the organisational risk management framework, including risk assessments, mitigation, integration with risk registers
- Ensure that responsibility for managing information and records is embedded into the business of the organisation within the information governance framework
- Identify high risk/high value information and its multiple locations
- Assign ownership and responsibility for the information – not just the systems, but also the content and its quality
- Ensure appropriate safeguards and controls around high risk, high value information
- Focus on identifying business benefits from creating opportunities for information re-use.
At Recordkeeping Innovation, we specialise in helping organisations develop robust frameworks for managing information risks. Our tailored solutions address data risks across all types of information systems, ensuring your organisation can securely manage its sensitive data while meeting compliance obligations. Contact us today to learn how we can help you future proof your information governance strategy.
