Risk Registers: Your First Line of Defense

Posted by Ken Reiher

What Is a Risk Register?

  • What is a risk register? A risk register can be simply defined as a document listing identified risks with vital information about them. While the definition may be simple, risk registers play a crucial role in the protection and success of your organization.
  • Does your organization have a risk register? If not, your organization’s risks could become a hacker’s opportunity.
  • The information organized in the risk register includes:
    • An inventory of all identified risks
    • Grading the risks based on likelihood and/or impact
    • The best course of action to address each risk (e.g., avoid, control, transfer, or accept)
    • Following the controls that are documented, the risk register will pinpoint which risks need additional attention to manage
    • From there, you have a comprehensive view of enterprise-wide risks organized by prioritization which you can then assign to members of your team

What Are Risks?

Risks can look different for every organization but most often include the following:

  • Cybersecurity
  • Regulatory
  • Revenue
  • Emerging technology
  • Service disruption
  • Breach
  • Third-party

What Are the Benefits?

  • Provide vital information in case of an audit
  • Allows organizations to keep an updated inventory of all risks that could impact their business
  • Helps organizations to determine the severity of risk (low, medium, high)
  • Holds people within the organization accountable for assessing the risk
  • Pinpoints the residual risk once the controls are documented
  • Puts plans into action and gives your team an autonomous roadmap from start to finish

ComplyAssistant’s Risk Register Services Include:

Partnership with ComplyAssistant will provide your organization with a comprehensive and customizable risk register to protect the well-being of your patients, staff, and data.

ComplyAssistant offers organized risks and associated controls for an enterprise-wide risk management profile.

Once the onboarding is complete, ComplyAssistant’s software puts you in the driver’s seat, with the ability to customize your organization’s top risks and controls.

Our services include:

  • An industry standard risk library
    • With the option to add custom risks
  • Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) control library with assigned likelihood reduction values
    • With the option to add custom controls
  • Add inherent risk levels to all risks
  • Add the likelihood reduction for all controls.
  •  Inherent risk is adjusted by the overall likelihood reduction from its associated control(s)
  • Assign owners, status, and plans to risks and controls.
  • Assign action items for gaps and follow-up.
  • Automatically populated Risk Map (Heat Map) with impact and residual likelihood.

So, what is a risk register? It is a tool that allows your organization to prepare and protect itself against risk using an organized approach. Contact us today to see the software in action!

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