January is upon us and I wish you all a very happy new year and thank you for following my blog. Everyone has resolutions and mine is to accept gratitude whole heartedly and embark on a 90 day complaint free (to start off with) plan.
“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.” -T.S Elliot
RISKercize is all about exercising your mind on all things risk related. To kick off this new year I looked back and thought about what risk trends got me thinking and which ones will still continue onto 2014 and beyond.
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Security Risk.
Information is safe right?...Wrong!
Remember the over serge on info security and data breeches? Well what about all the Whistle blowing leaks? This wasn't just a thing that happened behind closed doors. Looking at Snowden and Manning's stories for leaking data and exposing what companies were really doing were seen as key events for our history.
Cyber regulations? A big attack on cyber crime meant the EU and US were considering introducing regulations. Obama wanted the US intelligence to list suspects of cyber attacks and with a need and demand for legislations to be introduced the overall control of this had been dire received. I blogged about this issue and need for insurance back in April and still believe that every organisation should consider these risks and get covered. Read about it here
📷 Social Risk.
As technology enhances we are all becoming socially savy. A buzz word which I suspect will still continue well into 2014/15. With the rise of companies (Fortune 100 companies having presence in at least one form of social media site ), the risks associated with this is paramount.
Has your organisation got a social media policy? Or even an E-safety policy? Do you you need one? Yes. Let's not wait until the risk get's out of hand and start thinking about pro-actively managing a big trend and taking accountability and ownership.
We have all seen celebs for example may tweet a controversial messages, then issue an apology after. What about when companies are interacting with their customers via this? These things need to be considered and I will write about them in another blog.
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Business Continuity/Disaster Risk.
Global risks, natural hazards, terrorist risks, political risks all summed up a mixture of what the world saw in 2013. This one is more a trend I feel will follow in 2014/15 with the need for BCP to be heavily considered in the midst of what the world face. e.g. political risks of each country, their regulatory risks, legal requirements and things like political violence etc. It is essential that organisations , not just the government look at contingency and the risks and see how the risks can be minimised.
Of course, not every business continuity event will be as big as I just mentioned and there are things like supply/production issues which may alter the risks of your organisation and damage reputation. Remember the horse meat scandal? Read my post of this and reputation risk here
Risks change, but what doesn't is learning. Those are a few of my highlights and I await the year eagerly to see what the world shows me and you, so this time next year we can reflect.