SECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES MONTREAL, QUEBEC
PO7 Security has the experience to tailor the right response to your security needs. Prevention is often the best tactic to securing your business and ensuring risks are evident and well managed. Preventing a situation at risk or being prepared for a disaster proves that you're taking care of your people and customers. Otherwise, it can damage your reputation and possibly cause legal issues.
Possible threats that can impact the security of your organization and assets may include:
- Natural catastrophe (violent storms, lightening, earthquakes, extreme weather temperature, floods)
- Infrastructure disaster (structural damage, explosion, fire, chemical spill, water damage)
- Man-made disaster (labor violence, bomb threats, sabotage, war, nuclear accident)
- International and domestic Terrorism acts
- Criminality (industrial espionage, internal & external theft, embezzlement, hijacking)
- Conflict of interest (unethical business practices, kickbacks)
What is a security risk assessment?
A security risk assessment is an evaluation conducted by security professionals that includes identifying and analyzing potential present and future events that may harmfully impact your business. It is also the exercise of taking an inventory of the assets to be protected, as well as recommendations on how best to protect them. This approach is critical to any organization, commercial or industrial, corporate offices, manufacturing, school, hospitals, governmental and municipalities etc., and will guide the risk management officer to be well informed of the tools they have access to or must engage within their budget for the proposed plan.
The proposed security risk management plan must support the organizations key objectives, keeping in mind the business perspective instead of just concentrating on security issues.
Security risk management services that include asset protection are increasingly in demand for both conventional and cyber security within the public and private sector. Assessing the cost of safety measures and the value of the assets they protect, is the primary objective in an effective plan.
The 5 steps of a successful security risk assessment model
Identify: Identifying and documenting all potential assets and key events that may harm the organization by department, that have a critical role in the success of the plan. Critical areas of an organization assets such as company servers, customer information, organization website etc. Identify potential outcomes should the organization suffer because they are stalled or paralyzed in data loss, system downtime, or costly legal consequences.
Assess: Evaluate and estimate the nature, ability and quality of assets, threats, vulnerabilities, and mitigating controls. Determine what does the company own, lease, operate, and what are they responsible for in terms of purchases, design, service, manufacture, or support. Assess the risk accordingly and assign it a value of High, Moderate or Low. Develop a solution for every level usually with based on the value identified and estimate a cost related to that risk.
Mitigate: Define a qualification approach and implement security controls for each risk. Define what is the company exposed to that could cause damage such as, theft, loss of assets and property. Also determine what can cause personal injury to the company’s employees or its reputation.
Prevent: Create a security risk management plan using the data collected. Implement tools and processes to minimize threats and vulnerabilities, protecting your firm's resources. Have a strategy on hand for every risk in your organization and highlight the most important vulnerabilities.
Event Report: Have a report system in place to record each event that occurs. Keep in mind 3 important steps to follow for each event: Respond-Analyze-Mitigate. What happened & where did it happen, what is my plan to solve the issue, why did it occur and how can I fix it.
What problems does a security risk assessment plan solve?
A risk assessment plan provides management with a clear view of information to help guide their decisions. A well defined and documented plan can provide answers to many questions such as, What if this happens to us and what should we do? One can not imagine a business management team regrouping after a disaster to think about brainstorming what do we do next? Consider the time lost, the financial effects and negative reputation towards the employees and public image.
- A well written security risk assessment plan will have many benefits such as:
- Illustrating the current security position of the business
- Level of risks (High, Moderate, Low) and the attention needed for each
- Evaluation of costs if the plan needs to be developed further
- Increased security awareness in the organization, suppliers, and customers
- Reporting strengths and weakness to the organization’s management
A security risk assessment is not a one-time task to be accomplished once and for all, it must be performed and reviewed periodically. Annual assessments are recommended with a close eye on High level risks. A plan that is several years old does not account for the current reality of risk and solutions. What worked in the past may not be sufficient for today or tomorrow.
How does a security risk assessment work?
A security risk assessment can take many forms, depending on the business, culture, and level of complexity. It must identify a team of people responsible for the execution of the plan, that understand the importance and that are ready to take action when needed. The plan must be implemented, followed, and reviewed in every level of the company from the CEO, to the newest manager.
The plan must be simple to follow and logical for each department lead. It must contain sufficient information that is complete, but not too detailed. It must contain steps and procedures that are easy to follow in case of a crisis.
The risk security plan will be tested by regrouping the team in a drill format. Setting up scenarios and evaluating the outcome while adjusting the plan and its members.
Our goal is to understand, define and build with you, a realistic action plan based on your needs. We will identify with you, the risks that your company is exposed to and then define and set up the appropriate preventive measures, in order to remove or mitigate the consequences of these risks.
- Contingency and Recovery Plan
- Emergency Evacuation Plan
- Security Risk Assessment
Our Services include: Security Guard | Security Risk Management | Loss Prevention | Security Training
We serve clients across Montreal, South-Shore & Sorel-Tracy, Quebec.
