Risk Management Strategy in Australia †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Risk Management Strategy in Australia. Answer: Introduction Information security refers to the protection of data or information in order to prevent any kinds of unauthorized access of that information. The electronic data are more prone to security threats and thus proper measures are to be implemented in order to protect that data.Risk management is the process of forecasting and evaluation of risk associated with a project or an organization (Peltier 2013).Risk management aims at preventing or minimizing the impact of risk in an organization. The effective information security andrisk management strategy for medium and small enterprises in Australia, for example Atlassian Australia are elaborated in the following paragraphs. Critical Analysis Effective Information security and Risk Management Strategy in Atlassian Information security is a critical issue in organizational management specially for enterprises like Atlassian that works with software development. Information security management is the process of handling the information security risk and security threats present in an organization. Effective information security management is necessary for an effective management of the risks that any organization can face due to the information security risk. The major Information security an organization may face is the loss of confidential data leading to the huge financial loss of the company. Therefore, effective information security is needed in an organization to prevent this type of security risk. Risk management is a primary key of an organization to protect its information assets (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015). However, it is essential for organization to identity the risk in the first place. If an organization fails to identify a risk it will never be able to implement any proper risk management strategy to deal with the problem. The risk Management process of Atlassian Australia is elaborated in the following flowchart- Figure 1: Representing the risk management processes of Atlassian (Source: Atlassian, 2017) The components involved in risk management strategy of Atlassian is mainly the risk management principal (chosen and followed by the organization), Risk management framework (followed by the organization) and risk management process. The risk management generally follows the processes of understanding the risk tolerance, knowledge of likely risks and threats and addressing the identified vulnerabilities. An effective risk management program can be ascertained by the diligence of every people associated with an organization and is authenticated to access the confidential information within an enterprise. Every medium and small enterprise should possess an effective managerial cognition, judgment and ability of effective decision-making for an effective risk management. Furthermore, to deal with the information security risk lingering over the company, the organization should ensure risk based policies and standards in the organization (Behnia, Rashid and Chaudhry 2012). Risk Management Strategy for Small and Medium Enterprises The risk management strategies for managing the risks related to information security are as follows (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015)- 1) In order to deal with the risk Atlassian might face, the organization should at first, develop a proper risk management plan. Not every company needs to follow the same risk management plan. For small and medium sized enterprises generally have a small spreadsheet of risk management plan focusing on the main items or cause of information security risk. However, few essential items are needed to be included in the risk management plan irrespective of the size of the company such as, a complete list of individual risks, rating of those risks based on its likelihood and impact, an overall assessment of the controls of the organization and a proper plan of action to face and manage the risk. The actions mentioned in the risk management plan should be effective, adequate and strong. The primary plan of risk management is preventing the risk to occur (Hopkin 2017). 2) Another primary strategy of risk management after identifying the risk associated within an organization is to decide how to handle those risks. The strategies involved in dealing with the risk include risk avoidance, risk reduction, transferring the risk or accepting the risk. These strategies has their own pros and cons. For medium and small sized enterprise, sometimes it becomes necessary to avoid a risk in order to prevent any sort of economic risk associated with the organization. Risk avoidance is done by eliminating the activity that is prone to common risks. This disadvantage of this particular strategy is that, the activity discarded in order to avoid the risk that might be profitable or beneficial for the company (Lam 2014). For example, not using the cloud storage in order to avoid the security risk associated with the storage of data in cloud may incur more expenses to the organization in storing and securing the data elsewhere. The next strategy that is also the most commonly used strategy of risk management is reducing the impact of a risk or its occurrence by ascertaining certain risk management methodologies. Transferring the risk strategy mainly deals safeguarding the company by ensuring proper insurance. Risk acceptance can beneficial at times when the expected risks are minor and risk assessment 3) Another important risk management strategy is monitoring the business in regular basis for proper identification of the risks. This is necessary for properly dealing with the risk. An assessment of the risks likelihood and its impact helps in laying out a proper risk management plan. A proper risk management plan should necessarily be a living document referred and updated with new identified risk regularly. This helps in proper risk management. 4) Every decision taken in the enterprise should investigate the risks associated with a system. This further helps in effective decision-making. The risk management plan should explicitly address the uncertainty and assumptions in decision-making. 5) Proper risk assessment is one of the primary strategies of risk management. Proper risk assessment is necessary treating the potential risks associated with the small and medium enterprise (Kaplan and Mikes 2012). Critical Reflection (Review) Information security is essential for managing the risks associated with the security of information in a company. This is same for small or medium enterprises like Atlassian as well. The confidential information of the company can be secured by ensuring data protection using up to date software. Data can be further protected with the help of a robust security system. Moreover, establishing and maintaining a relevant security policy is necessary for Atlassian for effective data protection. Cryptography is an effective method of ensuring data protection and maintaining the data integrity (Stallings and Tahiliani 2014). Ineffective security measures increases the risk related to the information security. Proper risk management is necessary for ensuring the smooth workflow within an organization. There are different strategies of risk management but for medium and small enterprises, the strategy of risk management should be effectively chosen. This is in order to save the company from t he financial losses. The most effective strategy that a small or medium enterprise can undertake is to develop a proper risk management plan and effectively work according to the plan. The major risk related with the information system of an enterprise can be the failure of maintaining the data confidentiality, integrity and availability. Failure of proper risk management and safeguarding the system may lead to data loss resulting in severe loss for the company. Furthermore, the risk management is necessary for identifying and acknowledging the risk that might be hovering over the said enterprise. Every phase of risk management process is necessarily considered for an effective risk management. Protection of the assets of a company is necessary to ensure the profit in business. Information asset is one of the primary assets of a company that can be used by the competitors for their benefit. Thus, protecting or securing the information in relation to an organization is very essential . However, the risk management strategies should be properly chosen in accordance to the impact the risk has upon the enterprise. It is better to develop a risk classification chart for analyzing and evaluating the impact of the risk accordingly. The major step of risk management is proper analysis of the impact of the risk over an organization and risk evaluation. The information security risk can be avoided by protecting the data by proper security means. The strategies discussed in this essay are effective enough to manage the risk associated with the enterprise Atlassian Australia (Marcelino-Sdaba et al., 2014). I believe that the risk avoidance is possible by properly securing the information or data along with a proper risk management plan. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the risk management is an essential requirement for a small and medium enterprise. Data or information security is an important aspect of any organization as data loss may lead to huge financial loss for the company (Feng, Wang and Li 2014). Therefore, risk management becomes increasingly essential. There are different strategies of risk management and identifying a proper risk management strategy is another major challenge for medium and small enterprises like Atlassian. Accessing and analyzing the risk is the first step of risk management followed by identifying a proper strategy to deal with the risk. Risk avoidance or risk transfer is two temporary methods of risk management. However, for Atlassian, risk transfer is not a cost efficient solution. Risk transfer mainly deals with protecting the assets by proper insurance. However, Atlassian enterprise may not be able to dedicate money for expensive insurance premium. 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McNeil, A.J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P., 2015.Quantitative risk management: Concepts, techniques and tools. Princeton university press. Peltier, T.R., 2013.Information security fundamentals. CRC Press. Stallings, W. and Tahiliani, M.P., 2014.Cryptography and network security: principles and practice(Vol. 6). London: Pearson.