Risk Mapping in Risk Management. Welcome to the Risk Management of Everything channel. On this channel, you will find videos on risk management and the application of risk management to diverse areas and sectors. If you are new here, please consider subscribing to our channel and press the notification button so you can be notified when we upload new videos. Thank you. Risk mapping in risk management is discussed in this video. In this video, we'll discuss how a risk map can be used by an organization to manage its risks in an easy-to-understand way. Now, let us start. Meaning of a Risk. Risk is the uncertainty of a financial loss. A risk exists where there is an opportunity for a profit or a loss. In terms of losses, we commonly refer to the risks as exposures to loss, or simply exposures. Fire is an exposure. Defective products or defamation are liability exposures. The loss of business that results from a damaged building or tarnished reputation is also an exposure. Risks can come from various sources including uncertainty in international markets, threats from project failures (at any phase in design development, production, or sustaining of life-cycles), legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters, deliberate attack from an adversary, or events of uncertain or unpredictable root-cause. There are two types of events which are: (1) negative events which can be classified as risks or threats; and (2) positive events that may be classified as opportunities. What is Risk Management? Risk management is the process of identification, analysis, and acceptance or mitigation of uncertainty in investment decisions. Organizations face many risks and they must decide where to focus their mitigation resources. To handle or manage risks, organizations usually have the options to avoid, control, accept, or transfer risk. The adverse effects of risk can be objective or quantifiable like insurance premiums and claims costs, or subjective and difficult to quantify such as damage to reputation or decreased productivity. By focusing attention on risk and committing the necessary resources to control and mitigate risk, a business will protect itself from uncertainty, reduce costs, and increase the likelihood of business continuity and success. Meanwhile, a risk map can be used as a tool to improve the risk management system of an organization. What is a Risk Map? A risk map, also known as a risk heat map, is a data visualization tool for communicating specific risks an organization faces. A risk map is a graphical depiction of a select number of a company's risks designed to illustrate the impact or significance of risks on one axis and the likelihood or frequency on the other. Risk mapping is used to assist in identifying, prioritizing, and quantifying (at a macro level) risks to an organization. This representation often takes the form of a two-dimensional grid with frequency (or likelihood of occurrence) on one axis and severity (or degree of financial impact) on the other axis; the risks that fall in the high-frequency/high-severity quadrant are given priority risk management attention. A risk map helps companies identify and prioritize the risks associated with their business. The goal of a risk map is to improve an organization's understanding of its risk profile and appetite, clarify thinking on the nature and impact of risks, and improve the organization's risk assessment model. In the enterprise, a risk map is often presented as a two-dimensional matrix. For example, the likelihood a risk will occur may be plotted on the x-axis, while the impact of the same risk is plotted on the y-axis. A risk map is considered a critical component of enterprise risk management because it helps identify risks that need more attention. Identified risks that fall in the high-frequency and high-severity section can then be made a priority by organizations. If the organization is disbursed geographically and certain risks are associated with certain geographical areas, risks might be illustrated with a heat map, using color to illustrate the levels of risk to which individual branch offices are exposed. Why it's Important to Create a Risk Map? A risk map offers a visualized, comprehensive view of the likelihood and impact of an organization's risks. This helps the organization improve risk management and risk governance by prioritizing risk management efforts. This risk prioritization enables them to focus time and money on the most potentially damaging risks identified in a heat map chart. A risk map also facilitates interdepartmental dialogues about an organization's inherent risks and promotes communication about risks throughout the organization. It helps organizations visualize risks in relation to each other, and it guides the development of a control assessment of how to deal with the risks and the consequence of those risks. Benefits of Using Risk Heat Maps. Risk heat maps can offer significant benefits to organizations. Here are some of the benefits of using risk heat maps by an organization: A visual, big picture, holistic view that can be shared to make strategic decisions; Improved management of risks and governance of the risk management process; Increased focus on risk appetite and the risk tolerance of the company; More precision in the risk assessment and mitigation process; and Greater integration of risk management actions across the enterprise. The Importance of Risk Mapping Business Organizations. Why should your organization be using risk maps? Building a risk map brings valuable benefits. You will have a thorough understanding of your risk environment and how individual risks compare to one another. You can use this to strategically prioritize your risks and determine where to use your limited resources. The map can help the company visualize how risks in one part of the organization can affect operations of another business unit within the organization. A risk map also adds precision to an organization's risk assessment strategy and identifies gaps in an organization's risk management processes. A risk map is built by plotting the frequency of a risk on the y-axis of the chart and the severity on the x-axis. Frequency is how likely the risk is or how often you think it will occur; severity is how much of an impact it would have if it did occur. The higher risk ranks for these qualities, the more threatening it is to your organization. The most severe and frequent risks, your primary risks, are critical and would hinder your ability to conduct business. Risks that are severe but unlikely, that is your "detect and monitor" risks, are those risks that should be watched but don't require heavy mitigation strategies. Risks that are highly likely but insignificant, your monitor risks, will not impact your ability to continue operations. Finally, the risks that are low in both frequency and severity, your low control risks, can be revisited on a yearly basis to ensure the risk remains low. Risk maps are a valuable tool as they assist organizations to: 1. Understand the risk environment. Risk management begins with building a list of all risks your organization faces. Depending on your industry, this number could range from a handful to hundreds. Risk mapping is beneficial because it requires you to assess each risk and its causes and consequences individually. It also allows you to look at your risk environment as a whole and understand how frequencies and severities compare. Finally, a risk map is a visual that anyone in your organization can use to see the big picture of risks most prominent in your industry or workplace. 2. Prioritize mitigation strategies. With limited resources, it's important to be strategic about mitigation techniques. Risk mapping allows you to determine what steps to take first: implement prevention tactics for the most frequent and severe risks before moving onto others. This prioritization method ensures that you address the risk that have the most potential to cause harm to your organization. 3. Allocate limited resources. Whether your organization consists of 2 employees or 2,000, risk managers have limited resources. Risk mapping allows you to use them to prevent primary risks. D&M risks should be revisited several times a year to ensure appropriate management. Similarly, monitor risks typically only need to be checked yearly to ensure their potential impact hasn't grown. Finally, by figuring out which risks are low control, you will know where not to spend time and money. However, keep in mind that no risk can be completely ignored: make sure you still consider these in future assessments and ensure that the low-risk status has not changed. 4. Receive better insurance premiums. Risk maps can also help your organization in becoming an international standard organization (ISO) certified, as it shows that you have an understanding of your risk environment and a strategic plan for moving forward. This can also help you receive competitive insurance premiums. Insurers are looking for good risk, or companies they believe will have minimal losses. Key Considerations for Risk Heat Maps. To develop an effective cybersecurity risk heat map, consider these critical elements: What are your most critical systems and information assets (those you want to map)? How accurate is the data and where is it coming from? What is your organization's appetite for risk? What categories and levels of impact would be considered material, for example, monetary, brand reputation, and other related impacts? What is the range of acceptable variance from your key performance and operating metrics? And how will you define terms to integrate potential risk events with your heat map? How to Build a Risk Map. A risk map is built by plotting the frequency of a risk on the y-axis of the chart and the severity on the x-axis. Frequency is how likely the risk is or how often you think it will occur. Severity is how much of an impact it would have if it did happen. The higher risk ranks for these qualities, the more threatening it is to your organization. Let us discuss tips on how to build a risk map. Here are four tips on how to build a risk map: 1. Involve people from all parts of your organization. Risk mapping is not a process that should be conducted by one person. Every person in your business, from the CEO to the intern, will have different ideas about what risks are most prevalent to your industry. You cannot involve everyone, but ask multiple people from various departments and levels of authority to ensure you are getting unique viewpoints. This will also allow you to discover risks that you may not have previously considered and gain new perspectives on how frequent or severe a risk really is. 2. Understand each risk. Simply naming your risks does not allow you to build an effective risk map. You must assess each scenario with a strong understanding of the business and how the risks can impact your ability to continue operations. Think about what is likely to cause the risk and the consequences it will have if it occurs. It is also important to be consistent in how you rank each risk in terms of frequency and severity so that the final product is a clear depiction of how the risks compare to each other. 3. Seek guidance. If consulting those within your organization isn't providing a sufficient understanding, look elsewhere. You can try to determine how likely and impactful a risk will be based on your experience and past losses, but what if you're a start-up company? You can ask an expert: many insurance providers are able to assist with risk management tools, and if not, they can likely suggest someone who can. You can also look at similar organizations and industry statistics to help guide your risk ranking. 4. Revisit and modify. You've built your risk map and are now using it to help manage and mitigate- great! But it's important to remember that your risk landscape is constantly changing. Revisit your rankings with the risk management team at least quarterly, to discuss if the status of any existing risks has changed or if any new risks should be placed on the map. Doing so will ensure that your risk map is a consistently helpful tool that will help you reduce incidents and costs. Major Ways to Use Risk Heat Maps by Organizations. Where charts have to be interpreted and tables have to be understood, heat maps are self-explanatory and intuitive. Because they are tailor-made for putting massive data sets into a context that's easy to understand, they are increasingly valued as a superior data visualization tool in cybersecurity for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating risks. Here are three major ways to use risk heat maps by organizations: 1. Risk impact heat map to show the likelihood of a risk event happening vs. business impact of such that event. Risk is the product of breach likelihood and breach impact. In this type of heat map, the horizontal axis shows the likelihood of a cybersecurity breach. The vertical axis shows the business impact of a breach. The colors are risk areas, for example, green colored boxes indicate no action needed and red boxes indicating immediate action needed. The individual risk items are then plotted on the heat map based upon the Business Impact and Likelihood of breach happening. This can be computed as follows: Risk is equal to impact times likelihood. 2. Comparing breach likelihood across different business areas. Risk heat maps can be used by an organization to comparing breach likelihood across different business areas. Here is an example of a heat map that IT can use to compare breach likelihood across different areas or groups. Such charts can be created for multiple types of risk groups- asset types, locations, business units, and more. 3. Mapping information technology (IT) asset inventory by type and risk associated with each of those categories. Risk heat maps can be used by an organization for mapping IT asset inventory based on the type of IT asset inventory and risk associated with each of those categories. Here is an example of a heat map that IT can use to map IT asset inventory by type and risk associated with each of those categories. How to Create or Build a Risk Map. For the heat map to be insightful and comprehensive, it should be created using accurate, and complete information. Identification of inherent risks is the first step in creating a risk map. Risks can be broadly categorized into strategic risk, compliance risk, operational risk, financial risk, and reputational risk, but organizations should aim to chart their own lists by taking into consideration specific factors that might affect them financially. Once the risks have been identified, it is necessary to understand what kind of internal or external events are driving the risks. The next step in risk mapping is evaluating the risks: estimating the frequency, the potential impact and possible control processes to offset the risks. The risks should then be prioritized. The most impactful risks can be managed by applying control processes to help lessen their potential occurrence. As threats evolve and vulnerabilities change, a risk map must be re-evaluated periodically. Organizations also must review their risk maps regularly to ensure key risks are being managed effectively. For example, let us briefly consider how a firm can build a cyber risk heat map. Cybersecurity heat maps involve an extensive and disciplined assessment process at the back end, in order to present a simple visualization of risks and recommended actions at the front end. The heat map is an essential and useful output of your overall cybersecurity assessment and vulnerability management process. With a rapidly increasing attack surface, the first step is to accurately measure a cyber risk attack surface. This means getting complete visibility into all your IT assets (devices, apps, and users) and then continuously monitoring them across all 200+ attack vectors in adversaries' arsenals. The company, therefore, need to regularly analyze the observations to derive risk insights. This is a layered calculation that involves incorporating information about threats, vulnerabilities, mitigating actions, business criticality, impact elasticity, and time-to-repair. Conclusion. Risk mapping in risk management has been discussed in this video. A risk map (or risk heat map) is a graphical representation of cyber risk data where the individual values contained in a matrix are represented as colors that connote meaning. Risk heat maps are used to present cyber risk assessment results in an easy to understand, visually attractive and concise format. Risk maps can be used by an organization to improve its risk management culture. Risk maps can, therefore, assist to enhance understanding and prioritization of a firm's risk management system. In short, heat maps present a very complex set of facts in an easily digestible way. This helps organizations to enhance their resilience in the highly challenging business environment. Hope the video is educative and beneficial to you? Which aspect of the risk mapping in risk management discussed in this video do you consider to be more relevant in your organization? Please post your answer to this question in the comment section below. If this video has been helpful and beneficial to you; then, give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends. Thank you for watching the Risk Management of Everything videos. We love to hear from you. Please post your comments and questions in the comment section down below. If you are new here, please subscribe to our channel Risk Management of Everything and press the notification button so you can be notified when we upload new videos. 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