Every company needs to undertake a certain amount of planning if it wants to grow. This includes not only strategic planning to expand operations and increase profits; executives also need to plan for risks they might encounter so they can anticipate and avoid threats. It makes sense, therefore, to integrate this planning throughout your organization so that no business function goes overlooked.

The phrase “governance, risk, and compliance” (GRC) was first introduced in the early 2000s by the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG). Since then, the concept has fundamentally changed how businesses operate. Although GRC is not a revolutionary idea by any means, it is integral to assuring that organizations can achieve, and maintain, optimal business continuity.

A supply chain is the ecosystem of processes, systems, and entities that work together to transform an idea into a final product and customer-ready offering. That lifecycle consists of multiple moving parts. As global supply chain complexity increases, organizations in every industry require robust and reliable supply chain management (SCM) tools, processes, and people. Coordination of the supply chain is critical for efficiency and optimization.

Often it's not a question of if your business will experience a data breach, but when. Hackers are always looking for new ways to take advantage of weak networks or trick employees into falling prey to their schemes. And if your business operates computer systems or handles sensitive data regularly, you are at risk. Having the right insurance coverage to provide aid in the event of a cyber attack can save your business from expensive lawsuits and reputational damage.

BSIMM12 reports increased attention on software security due to recent supply chain disruptions. Get recommendations for managing supply chain risks. As the global pandemic disrupted the way business is conducted, the workforce became more dispersed and moved far from the traditional secure enterprise environments.

With so many threats facing modern companies, it can be difficult to know which threats should be addressed first. Risk quantification is a method that provides you with a numeric representation of your risks, which in turn allows you to prioritize those that are the most likely to happen or could cause the most damage.

The first nine months of 2020 saw 2,953 publicly reported breaches — 51 percent more than the same period in 2019; by the end of 2020, another 1,000 breaches pushed the total to 3,950. On average, security professionals took 228 days to identify a security breach and 80 days to contain it.

If there’s one thing you can expect from cybercriminals, it’s that they’re always looking for new ways to locate and exploit your organization’s vulnerabilities. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines a vulnerability as a “weakness in an information system, system security procedures, internal controls, or implementation that could be exploited or triggered by a threat source.”

It doesn’t matter which industry you work in or how large your business is: every company with a desire to stay competitive and relevant needs a cybersecurity risk management plan. New information technology comes online at a breakneck speed, making our business transactions and processes easier, smoother and faster.