Keeping Security & GRC at the Forefront: Practical Guide

In today’s dynamic threat landscape — where cloud adoption, remote work, AI-driven attacks and stringent regulations are the norm — organisations must embed Security and GRC (Governance-Risk-Compliance) into every layer of business operations. This guide offers a comprehensive yet practical roadmap to help you design, deploy and sustain a resilient security posture combining rigorous governance, risk-based controls, and audit readiness.

Conclusion

Building a comprehensive GRC and security program isn’t just about ticking boxes — it’s about embedding resilience into your organization’s DNA. By combining strong governance, dynamic risk management, compliance, security controls, continuous monitoring, and a security-first culture, you build robust cyber resilience. In a world where cloud, remote operations, AI-driven threats, and evolving regulations define the landscape, this integrated approach becomes the backbone of sustainable business growth.

Start today: map your critical assets, classify risk levels, assign control owners, and define basic security & compliance processes. Even small steps taken consistently are better than large efforts done occasionally.

The Strategic Value of Audit Management

Audit management is often perceived merely as a regulatory necessity, but in reality, it is a cornerstone of organizational health and strategic growth. While compliance with standards—whether ISO 27001, ISO 9001, or internal policies—is the baseline, the true value of a robust audit management system lies in its ability to transform raw data into actionable business intelligence.

The Lifecycle: From Opening to Closure

The journey from the opening meeting to the closing meeting is where the integrity of the audit is established. This structured lifecycle ensures that there are no surprises and that the audit concludes with a clear roadmap for the future.

Risk Mitigation and Proactive Defense

In today’s volatile digital landscape, waiting for a breach or a failure to occur is not an option. Audit management serves as an organization’s "early warning system." By systematically reviewing controls and processes, auditors identify vulnerabilities and latent risks that might otherwise go unnoticed until they cause significant damage.

Driving Continuous Improvement

Perhaps the most critical aspect of audit management is its contribution to Continuous Improvement (CI). An audit that ends with a report filing is a wasted opportunity. By identifying non-conformities and opportunities for improvement (OFIs), audits force organizations to analyze the root causes of their problems, moving away from temporary "band-aid" fixes toward sustainable solutions.

What Is GRC and How AI Governance Is Transforming It in 2026

The world of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is evolving faster than ever. With enterprises adopting AI-powered tools across all departments, organisations are realising that effective AI governance is no longer optional. It is now a core pillar of modern GRC.

This article explains what GRC means today, how AI governance fits inside GRC, the global frameworks shaping AI adoption, the maturity models, the Responsible AI skills companies expect, and why mastering AI governance creates a competitive advantage for professionals entering or growing in GRC.

1. What Is GRC? (Simple Definition)

GRC stands for Governance, Risk, and Compliance. It is a structured approach that ensures an organization:

• Governance: Makes decisions responsibly and ethically
• Risk Management: Identifies, assesses, and reduces risks
• Compliance: Meets laws, standards, and regulatory requirements

In 2026, GRC is no longer just about audits or documentation. It is a strategic capability that helps companies scale, respond to cyber threats, maintain trust, and prevent legal problems.

Traditional GRC Pillars

• Policies & Governance Models
• Risk Management Frameworks
• Compliance Requirements
• Internal Controls & Testing
• Audit Management
• Reporting & Continuous Monitoring

2. Why AI Governance Is Becoming the Heart of GRC

AI systems now influence major business decisions across finance, HR, cybersecurity, fraud detection, privacy, and more. Because AI models can make mistakes, show bias, or act unpredictably, companies need clear processes to govern them.

AI Governance means:

• Ensuring AI is used ethically and responsibly
• Managing AI-specific risks (bias, drift, transparency)
• Protecting privacy and sensitive data
• Building explainable and trustworthy AI models
• Implementing continuous monitoring and audits

In simple words: AI Governance adds a new risk category → “AI Risk”.

3. Global AI Governance Standards and Frameworks

AI governance is becoming increasingly standardized. These are the most influential frameworks globally:

1. ISO/IEC 42001:2023 – AI Management System (AIMS)

The world’s first certifiable AI governance standard. It focuses on:

• AI risk management
• AI lifecycle controls
• Transparency and accountability
• Model and data governance
• Ethical requirements

2. NIST AI Risk Management Framework

Includes four core functions:

• Govern
• Map
• Measure
• Manage

3. EU AI Act

The strongest AI regulation, classifying AI into:

• Unacceptable risk
• High risk
• Limited risk
• Minimal risk

4. OECD AI Principles

Focus on fairness, human-centered design, transparency, and accountability.

5. India’s Emerging AI Governance Approach

India is steadily moving toward Responsible AI policies aligned with global frameworks.

4. AI Governance Adoption Approach

Organizations follow a structured approach when integrating AI governance:

1. Establish governance structure: AI committees, ethics boards
2. Identify AI use cases: especially high-risk systems
3. Perform AI risk assessments: data, model, fairness, privacy
4. Implement Responsible AI controls: explainability, bias checks
5. Continuous monitoring: real-time model behavior tracking
6. Compliance alignment: ISO 42001, NIST, EU AI Act, DPDP

5. Responsible AI Training – A Mandatory Skill

Companies now require employees to complete:

• Responsible AI training
• Bias detection & prevention courses
• AI risk assessment workshops
• Privacy & data protection training

This makes AI safer, fair, and accountable—and increases the value of GRC professionals.

6. AI Governance Maturity Assessment

Organizations measure their AI readiness through the following levels:

• Level 1 – Initial: No structure; ad-hoc AI use
• Level 2 – Repeatable: Basic AI policies
• Level 3 – Defined: Governance framework established
• Level 4 – Managed: Formal monitoring and AI audits
• Level 5 – Optimized: Fully integrated AI governance

Most organizations in 2026 fall between Level 2 and 3.

7. Why AI Governance Matters for Your GRC Career

AI governance is the fastest-growing discipline within GRC. Here’s why:

• New AI regulations require expert interpreters
• AI introduces new risk categories
• AI audits are becoming mandatory
• There is a huge skill gap in the industry
• AI governance intersects with all GRC functions

Learning AI governance immediately boosts long-term career value.

8. Key Takeaways

• AI governance is transforming modern GRC
• ISO 42001 and NIST are leading global frameworks
• Responsible AI is now a requirement
• AI maturity models help organizations evolve
• Professionals with AI governance knowledge are in high demand

FAQs

What is an assessment of security risks?

The process of identifying and evaluating risks for assets that could be affected by cyberattacks is known as cybersecurity risk assessment. In essence, you identify threats from both within and without; examine how they might affect things like the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of data; and figure out how much it would cost to suffer a cybersecurity incident. Using this data, you can fine-tune your cybersecurity and data protection measures to your company's actual risk tolerance.

You must respond to three crucial questions in order to begin an IT security risk assessment:

1.       What are the data that, in the event of loss or exposure, would have a significant impact on your company's operations? These are your organization's critical information technology assets.

2.       What essential business procedures call for or make use of this data?

3.       What threats might make it harder for those business functions to function?

You are able to begin design strategies once you are aware of what you need to safeguard. But before you spend a penny or an hour of your time implementing a risk-reduction strategy, think about the type of risk you're dealing with, how important it is to you, and whether your approach is the most cost-effective.

The significance of conducting comprehensive IT security assessments on a regular basis developing a solid foundation for business success is aided by conducting comprehensive IT security assessments on a regular basis.

In particular, it gives them the ability to:

Assess potential security partners, Evaluate potential security partners, Establish, maintain, and demonstrate compliance with regulations Accurately forecast future needs.

 Explanation of cyber risk (IT risk) definition

According to the Institute of Risk Management, a cyber risk is “any risk of financial loss, disruption, or damage to the reputation of an organization from some sort of failure of its information technology systems.”

Prevent data breaches, choose appropriate protocols and controls to mitigate risks.

Cybersecurity risks include:

When taking stock of cyber risks, it is essential to detail the specific financial damage they could cause to the organization, such as legal fees, operational downtime and related profit loss, and lost business due to customer distrust. Hardware damage and subsequent data loss Malware and viruses Compromised credentials Company website failure.

The four essential components of an IT risk assessment

In a moment, we'll talk about how to evaluate each one, but first, a brief definition for each:

Threat: Anything that has the potential to harm an organization's people or assets is a threat. Natural disasters, website failures, and corporate espionage are examples.

A vulnerability is any potential flaw that would permit a threat to cause harm. A vulnerability that can make it possible for a malware attack to succeed, for instance, is out-of-date antivirus software. A vulnerability that increases the likelihood of equipment damage and downtime in the event of a hurricane or flood is a server room in the basement. Disgruntled employees and outdated hardware are two additional examples of vulnerabilities. A list of specific, code-based vulnerabilities is kept up to date in the NIST National Vulnerability Database.

The total damage an organization would suffer if a vulnerability were exploited by a threat is referred to as the impact. A successful ransomware attack, for instance, could result in not only lost productivity and costs associated with data recovery but also the disclosure of customer data or trade secrets, which could result in lost business as well as legal costs and penalties for compliance.

Probability — This is the likelihood that a danger will happen. Usually, it's a range rather than a single number.

Risk = Threat x Vulnerability x Asset. The following equation can be used to understand risk: Despite the fact that risk is represented here as a mathematical formula, it is not about numbers; It is a well-thought-out plan. Take, for instance, the scenario in which you want to determine the level of danger posed by the possibility of a system being hacked. Your risk is high if the asset is crucial and your network is extremely vulnerable (perhaps due to the absence of an antivirus solution and firewall). However, even though the asset is still critical, your risk will be medium if you have strong perimeter defences and a low vulnerability.

There is more to this than just a mathematical formula; It is a model for comprehending the connections among the factors that contribute to determining risk:

Threat is an abbreviation for "threat frequency," which is the anticipated frequency of an adverse event. One in one million people will, for instance, be struck by lightning in any given year.

The term "the likelihood that a weakness or exposure will be exploited and a threat will succeed against an organization's defences" is abbreviated as "vulnerability."

What is the organization's security environment like? If a breach does occur, how quickly can it be mitigated to avoid disaster? How likely is it that any given employee will pose an internal threat to security control, and how many of them are there?

A security incident's total financial impact is measured by its cost. Hard costs like hardware damage and soft costs like lost business and consumer confidence are included. Other expenses include:

Data loss: The theft of trade secrets could result in your competitors taking your business. Loss of trust and customer attrition could result from the theft of customer information.

System or application downtime: Customers may be unable to place orders, employees may be unable to perform their duties or communicate, and so on if a system fails to perform its primary function.

Legal repercussions: If someone steals data from one of your databases, even if the data isn't particularly valuable, you could be hit with fines and other legal fees because you didn't follow HIPAA, PCI DSS, or other data security regulations.

How to conduct a security risk assessment Now, let's go over how to conduct an IT risk assessment.

1.       Identify and prioritize assets- Servers, client contact information, confidential documents from partners, trade secrets, and so on are all examples of assets. Keep in mind that what you consider valuable as a technician may not actually be the most valuable for the company. As a result, you must collaborate with management and business users to compile a list of all valuable assets. Collect, if necessary, the following data for each asset:

• ·         Software

• ·         Hardware

• ·         Data

• ·         Interfaces

• ·         Users

• ·         Support Personnel

• ·         Mission or Purpose

• ·         Criticality

• ·         Functional requirements

• ·         IT security policies

• ·         IT security architecture

• ·         Network topology

• ·         Information storage protection

• ·         Information flow

• ·         Technical security controls

• ·         Physical security environment

• ·         Environmental security

Since most businesses only have a small budget for risk assessment, you will probably only need to cover mission-critical assets for the remaining steps. As a result, you must establish a standard for assessing each asset's significance. The asset's monetary value, legal status, and significance to the organization are common criteria. Use the standard to classify each asset as critical, major, or minor after it has been approved by management and formally incorporated into the risk assessment security policy.

2.       Identify Threats- Anything that has the potential to harm your business is a threat. While malware and hackers are probably the first to come to mind, there are many other kinds of threats as well.

Natural catastrophes. Fire, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have the potential to destroy not only data but also servers and appliances. Consider the likelihood of various natural disasters when choosing a location for your servers. For instance, there might be a low chance of tornadoes but a high risk of flooding in your area.

Absence of hardware. The quality and age of the server or other machine determine the likelihood of hardware failure. The likelihood of failure is low for equipment of high quality that is relatively new. However, the likelihood of failure is significantly increased if the equipment is old or comes from a "no-name" vendor. No matter what industry you operate in, you should put this threat on your watch list. It is possible for people to accidentally delete important files, click on a malicious link in an email, or spill coffee on critical systems-hosting equipment.

There are three types of wrongdoing:

When someone damages your business by physically stealing a computer or server, engineering a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against your website, or deleting data, they are committing interference.

Your data is stolen through interception.

Impersonation is the misuse of another person's credentials, which are typically obtained through social engineering, brute force, or the dark web.

3.       Identify Vulnerabilities- A weakness that could allow a threat to harm your business is a vulnerability. Analysis, audit reports, the NIST vulnerability database, vendor data, information security test and evaluation (ST&E) procedures, penetration testing, and automated vulnerability scanning tools are all methods by which vulnerabilities can be identified.

Don't confine your thinking to software flaws; Additionally, there are human and physical vulnerabilities. Having your server room in the basement, for instance, increases your vulnerability to flooding, and not informing employees about the dangers of clicking on links in emails increases your vulnerability to malware.

4.    Controls- To reduce or eliminate the likelihood that a threat will exploit a vulnerability, analyse the controls that are either in place or in the planning stage. Encryption, methods for detecting intrusions, and solutions for identification and authentication are all examples of technical controls. Security policies, administrative actions, and physical and environmental mechanisms are examples of nontechnical controls.

Nontechnical and technical controls can be further divided into preventive and detective categories. Preventive controls, as the name suggests, attempt to anticipate and avert attacks; Devices for authentication and encryption are two examples. Detective controls are used to find threats that have already happened or are about to happen; They include intrusion detection systems and audit trails.

5.        Determine the Likelihood of an Incident- Consider the type of vulnerability, the capability and motivation of the threat source, and the effectiveness of your controls to determine the likelihood that a vulnerability will actually be exploited. When determining the likelihood of an attack or other adverse event, many organizations use the categories high, medium, and low rather than a numerical score. 

The asset's mission and any processes that are dependent on it; the asset's value to the organization; and the asset's sensitivity. A business impact analysis (BIA) or mission impact analysis report can provide this information. The impact of harm to the organization's information assets, such as loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, is quantified or qualitatively assessed in this document. The impact on the system can be graded as high, medium, or low qualitatively.

6.        Determine the Level of Risk to the IT System for Each Threat/Vulnerability Pair Prioritize the Information Security Risks

The risk-level matrix is a useful tool for estimating risk in this manner. The likelihood that the threat will exploit the vulnerability. The approximate cost of each of these occurrences. The suitability of the planned or existing information system security controls for eliminating or reducing the risk. A probability of 1.0 indicates that the threat will be met; A value of 0.5 is assigned to a medium likelihood; and a 0.1 rating for a low likelihood of occurrence. In a similar vein, the values for a high impact level are 100, a medium impact level is 50, and a low impact level is 10. Risks are categorized as high, medium, or low based on the result of multiplying the threat likelihood value by the impact value.

7.        Recommend Controls - Determine the necessary steps to reduce the risk using the risk level as a foundation. For each level of risk, the following are some general guidelines:

High: As soon as possible, a plan for corrective action should be created.

Medium: Within a reasonable amount of time, a plan for corrective measures should be developed.

Low: The group must decide whether to take the risk or do something about it.

Be sure to take into account the following when evaluating controls to reduce each risk:

Policies of the organization Cost-benefit analysis Operational impact Feasibility Regulatory requirements in effect.

The recommended controls' overall effectiveness, Safety and reliability of the  Document ,the Results ,The development of a risk assessment report is the final step in the risk assessment process. 

This report will help management make good decisions about the budget, policies, procedures, and other things. The report ought to provide a description of the vulnerabilities that correspond to each threat, the assets that are in danger, the impact on your IT infrastructure, the likelihood of occurrence, and the control recommendations.

Report on the IT risk assessment- The risk assessment report can point to important steps that can be taken to reduce multiple risks. For instance, taking regular backups and storing them off-site will reduce the likelihood of flooding and accidental file deletion. The associated costs and business justifications for making the investment should be explained in detail at each step.

Always keep in mind that the core of cybersecurity are the enterprise risk management and information security risk assessment processes. The information security management strategy as a whole is built on these processes, which answer questions about which threats and vulnerabilities can cost the company money and how to reduce them.

 👉Identity theft definition 

Identity theft is the use of someone else's personal information without permission, typically to conduct financial transactions. By personal information, we mean data that institutions use to recognize any individual associated with the institutions. Examples are social security number, bank account number, address history, and soon and so forth.

These types of valuable information are in theory private and should be treated as SPII, but in practice can often be discovered in a variety of ways by a dedicated identity thief, who can then either access individual’s own accounts or open new ones in your name. The latter practice can be particularly having a harmful effect,  with just your social security number, identity thieves can take out loans or credit cards that they never pay off — and the resulting damage to your credit rating can be very difficult to undo.

While identity theft is a very old crime, in many ways it is a defining problem of our modern digital age, in which your personal information can easily be exposed online due to your own negligence or the poor security practices of companies you do business with, and so much of your financial life rides on the accuracy of your credit rating. The damage can be mitigated, but it's better to prevent the theft in the first place.

Impact of identity theft on business

Identity theft is most often associated with the act of stealing an individual's identity.

Here we are talking about an identity thief pretending to be someone within a company who has the authority to make financial transactions, just like they might pretend to be another individual.

The consequences can be dire, particularly for small businesses where the founder's or owner's finances are deeply entangled with the company's.

How is identity theft committed?

·     

Identity theft examples

Once identity thieves have identifying information about you or your company, there's a lot of different techniques they can use to profit from it.

•    Accessing existing financial accounts. This is probably the most straightforward way to profit from identity theft-- by simply stealing your money. With a credit card or bank account number, identity thieves can make purchases until the fraud is noticed and the accounts frozen. Businesses, which may have large amounts of cash or credit for day-to-day operations, are a particularly tempting target.

•    Opening a fraudulent credit card or other line of credit. This can be achieved with as little data as a name and a social security number. Once the credit is available to the identity thief, money can be withdrawn and spent or charges made to the card — and of course they'll make no attempt to pay off the loan. Since the debt is attached to the victim's social security number, there are little or no consequences for the identity thief. Again, businesses are a particularly tempting victim of these scams, as they can often acquire bigger lines of credit than individuals can.

 Identity theft protection

There's a wealth of information out there on how to protect yourself from identity theft, from outlets ranging from credit agencies to government websites to personal finance publications. While the details differ, there are some bits of advice that almost everyone seems to agree on, and they apply to individuals and businesses alike.

Following are the points we can practice to our confidential data safe from theft.

1.    Don't share personal information (birthdate, Social Security number, or bank account number) because someone asks for it.

2.    Pay attention to your billing cycles. If bills or financial statements are late, contact the sender.

3.    Secure your Social Security number (SSN). Don't carry your Social Security card in your wallet. Only give out your SSN when necessary.

4.    Collect mail every day. Place a hold on your mail when you are away from home for several days.

5.    Store personal information in a safe place.

6.    Install firewalls and virus-detection software on your home computer.

7. Create complex passwords that identity thieves cannot guess. Change your passwords if a company that you do business with has a breach of its databases

8.  Update sharing and firewall settings when you're on a public wi-fi network. Use a virtual private network (VPN), if you use public wi-fi.

How to report identity theft

That's a long list of precautions you need to take, and while many people make strong efforts to meet all of them, it's hard to do it all perfectly — and an identity thief only needs to get lucky once. And as we've noted, many identity thieves get personal data derived from hacks of corporate systems, so even if you've been completely vigilant about your data, you can still find yourself a victim of identity theft if some company you've done business with lets down its guard.

If you think, you have been hacked or your confidential information are compromised, here are few tips you can follow.

1.    Pull your credit report. Every year, you’re entitled to one free credit report from each of the main credit card company You can access these reports from the respective credit card issuer company’s website as well.

2.    File a police report and fraud affidavit. These can be obtained from your creditor(s) recovery department, and provide copies of these documents and any additional necessary paperwork to creditors’ fraud departments.

3.  Create an Identity Theft Report. Do inform the credit card issuer about the fraud online .The online report asks a few questions about your situation, then devises a personal recovery plan.

4.    Place an extended fraud alert on your credit file. This alert lasts seven years and is available only to identity theft victims. To get an extended fraud alert, you’ll first need to fill out an Identity Theft Report.

5.    Make a list of suspicious  activity. Applications to open new accounts, as well as the accounts that have already been fraudulently opened in your name, must be noted and forwarded to the three credit bureaus and listed on your Identity Theft Report.

6.    Provide creditors’ fraud departments with the details and contacts. It will take up to 90 days to conduct a full investigation.

7.    Obtain letters from your creditors. These letters should state that the fraudulence on your account has been confirmed, resolved and removed from your account. Then make sure that your creditors have expunged this negative reporting on your account and that a letter stating this has been sent to all three credit reporting bureaus. (As a backup, you should personally send a copy of these letters to the credit reporting agencies as well.) Be sure to call afterward to make sure that they have received this information.

Conclusion

Identity theft not only impacts you financially but emotionally as well. The emotional stress can disrupt your sleeping and eating and lead to depression. If such things happens then giving yourself room to breathe and allowing some time to pass to repair the damage, noting that recovering from identity theft can be a process that takes weeks or even months.

Identity Guard

👉With reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, where in one hand staying healthy is a big issue and on the other hand  the abnormal becomes our new normal, Business houses and especially the SMBs need to approach remote work by using a combination of cloud-based services, e.g GCS, AWS, MS Azure and on-premises solutions to keep employees and systems safe and ensure business productivity.

SMBs are proactively putting tools in place to combat attacks and limit their vulnerabilities even though they continue grappling with limited security budgets and resource constraints. SMBs are coordinating with vendors and engaging in-house experts to incorporate multi-layered network security tools and a hybrid network infrastructure, such as SD-WAN, to avoid large-scale network vulnerabilities, regardless of budget and resource size.

SD-WAN allows opportunity to small businesses who are operating in multiple physical locations and using bandwidth intensive applications, such as Voice over IP tools, Zoom, or Salesforce, to take advantage of this technology. SMBs can increase branch office network security, increase Internet efficiency, and decrease IT spending. 

 However, dealing with these challenges during a work-from-home shift has created gaping vulnerabilities within an organization's networks and adds another challenge to an already overburdened IT department to maintain the deliverables on time.

If you go through the forum and articles related to IT security, you will notice that many companies/SMBs haven't had the time or resources to ensure an adequate security policy for their workforce. They are, continuing business operations against lower levels of protection due to lack of IT security framework, policies and guidelines.

In addition to framing a general security check policy, SMB leaders should remind employees of security best practices for end users, review and update disaster recovery plans, and establish strong lines of communication among all remote teams.

Security and IT professionals also suggests the same for the SMB leaders to strengthen their overall business continuity strategy

There’s enough room of opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to tighten their IT security infrastructure — and no lack of reasons they should.

We’ve prepared list of an IT security checklist for small businesses — the core practices moving IT teams off the hamster wheel and into proactive, not reactive, IT enterprise security.

Business IT security checklists should be potent enough to address these top malicious cybersecurity incidents and attacks before they become mission-critical, non-recoverable breaches.

Here is a simple guide on how to perform a basic IT security audit for a small to medium business.

👉Identify the Business Assets

The first and foremost task for an organization is to identify the various assets a business maintains and owns. During the audit this makes it easier to map out the scope of the audit and ensure that nothing is overlooked.

Asset details creation

The IT auditor or the person conducting the audit should list down all the valuable assets by taking help of asset and inventory management team of the company that requires protection. Items to be included in the master list are framed below:

·  Hardware and Equipment including but not limited to computers, laptops, servers, hard drives, modems, printers, phone systems, mobile devices, etc.

·  Software, online tools, and apps including email servers, cloud storage, data management systems, financial accounting systems, payment gateways, websites, social media accounts, etc.

· Files and data storage systems including company finance details, customer databases, product information, confidential documents, intellectual property, etc.

·  Existing IT Security Software and Procedures

Asset classification based on importance

Once the asset master list is created, the next step should be to prioritize the assets based on how essential they are to the business. One of the criteria to decide what should be on top of the list is to consider how big an impact the business could experience should a problem occur to these assets.

Schedule the audit

Based on the asset classification based on the importance list, the audit should be scheduled accordingly. Managers and employees should be informed of the scheduled dates in case access and operations would need to be interrupted.

Customers and clients who use certain assets such as websites or apps should also be informed in advance for any downtime during the audit window.

Recognize Risks and Threats

After generating the list of assets and identifying the scope of the review, the IT auditor should pre-identify the potential risk and threats the business could face. These risks and threats are the factors the audit should be testing against to ensure that security measures are well-implemented.

These risks and threats can include:

·         Hardware and equipment failure

·         PC viruses, malware, phishing, ransomware and hacking attacks

·         Natural disasters such as fire, flood, and earthquake

·         Theft of physical property or equipment

·         Theft of data whether external and internal

·         Loss of Data

·         Unofficial access

Audit Techniques

Before performing the on-site evaluation, the IT auditor should set audit techniques that will be utilised to do the review. These techniques can include:

·  Technical examinations including physical performance testing, monitoring and scanning through software

·  Visual inspection of location, placement, and physical condition of the hardware

·   Observation and analysis of assets in relation to threats and risks

·  Questionnaires and in-person interviews to determine compliance to security protocols, password practises, and access control to data and accounts

Perform On-site Evaluation

This is when the actual audit takes place. All the previous steps that were taken into account should prepare the IT auditor to effectively conduct the  review of the assets. It is important to also assess existing security procedures, if any, during this time.

The IT auditor should use a uniform evaluation scheme during his appraisal. This does not need to be complicated and should be easy for the business managers and stakeholders  to understand.

An example of an evaluation scheme is below:

·  Highly Secure, no further actions needed

·  IT Security Deficiency Identified, actions implemented

·  IT Security Deficiency Identified, with recommended actions for further implementation.

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While the audit is ongoing, the IT auditor should use his preferred evaluation scheme to note down the results of the tests, all the actions taken during the audit, as well as what further actions need to be implemented after the audit.

There are times when straightforward resolutions can be executed immediately such as re-installing an outdated antivirus software or limiting access controls. However, there are also solutions that may be more time-consuming such as data backup or may involve purchase of new assets to be implemented.

Diligently noting down his findings will make it easier for him to remember these details when creating the post-audit report. This is the next step of the process.

Observations, Reports and Recommendations

The final yet most important part of the IT security audit is the preparation of the audit report. This will include the details of the testing, findings as well as the recommended action plans to be taken. This report must conclude what needs to be resolved, revised and upgraded to meet industry IT security standards.

In creating the report, the IT auditor should note down the security gaps that were identified during the system checks, with probable cause and state clear recommendations on how to resolve the issue. It should also indicate the potential impacts the problem will further create if not immediately rectified.

For example, if a business is suffering from no AV updates and windows security patch updates  his recommendation report should specify this issue as the problem.

Potential causes can be unexpected electric surges or out-of-date equipment not compatible with the existing office network. He should then list down the business consequences caused by this IT issue such as loss of productivity and project delays.

Lastly, he should research and specify an actionable recommendation such as employing remote diagnostics as an immediate troubleshooting method to prevent long downtime periods or maybe purchasing new equipment altogether.

Better Secure than Sorry

Any Business house , big or small, is vulnerable to the hazardous threats and cyber-attacks that can disrupt the  business operations. The survival of SMB’s will depend on how fast they can adapt to the digital landscape that is constantly transforming the face of business.

Having a security-first mentality through the performance of regular audits is a smart way to establish a secure IT environment and will keep SMB’s equipped and ready to meet the challenges head-on.

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