Governance Risk and compliance (GRC) management is a good way for organizations to collect essential risk data, reporting results to the top management and also to legalize compliance. GRC covers activities like enterprise risk management, corporate governance and corporate compliant with rules and regulations. A good GRC framework should allow institutions and organizations to incorporate and organize risk and compliance activities with business process hence providing a whole observation of an organizations compliance and risk position hence aiding the top management to come up with informed decision making on resource allocation and risk mitigation.
How Technology Can Support Organizational Leaders As They Attempt To Implement Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) Activities in Cyber Security
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Technology helps in the provision of data that is used in Cyber Security. Data is extremely vital for organizational management, but at the time it can prove to be devastating, particularly when it is communicated with limited context. Automation can enhance possibility, particularly for bigger organizations, in collection and usage of data in means that increase prediction analysis more possible. Systems that are home-grown only help in collection and usage of data, nonetheless they seldom help as purpose-built, and they are never effective when it comes to real-time dashboards and analysis. Organizational leaders can, therefore, use automation to effectively implement Governance, Risk Management, and compliance activities in cyber-security.
Technology can facilitate in analyzing and consolidation of processed data that is linked to control and control procedures and also risks associated with governance such as cyber insecurity. Technology that uses innovation such as cloud-based solutions, integrated streamline workflow, and open source code, increases transparency and advance control to complete GRC program. I addition, adoption of technology efficiently, makes the management to easily identify where more resources should be concentrated regarding places that are critically affected and status processes. Through this, managers will easily identify cyber-security threat and therefore direct more resources to it which may eliminate or reduce the threat. The threat may also be detected in time before it poses a greater threat to the organization.
The best decisions that have ever been made are the decisions made when all the information is available. When managers are faced with problems such as cyber-security, they have too much information to process effectively. Technology may thus help them to organize the information they have to make more informed decisions even though this may not come from technology alone. Managers still have to design technology that will help them to filter and organize information and adopt that technology in their organization's structure and realities that may help them to implement GRC program comprehensively. Technology in general plays several key roles ranging from record keeping to improve the way decisions are made by analyzing information and identifying relevant risky trends such as cyber-security that impact the organization.
A philosophy of simplicity can and must be supported by technology. All organizations use Big Data obtained from it being connected to the global database and also from the real-time information that it obtains from its connection to the cloud equipment (Andrews 2017). Big Data is always smart data from this assumption from Andrew and also from statistical methods. Based on this assumption, current overload information is reduced to a manageable size that human employees can internalize. Technology helps in understanding the organization's processes and risks such as cyber-security. Transparency created by technology helps the employees to analyze the actual risk of cyber-security and to envision long-term solutions to the cyber-security. This helps in effectively implementing GRC program by the leaders in an organization.
Technology is used and mitigates potential risks such as the cybersecurity threat that an organization may experience. This is even realistic when the managers and employees are very experienced and knowledgeable. Through efficiently collecting, analyzing, and presenting information for assessment, technology streamlines GRC processes. Without overwhelming the managers with the larger data that may create the possibility of analysis, technology introduces metrics to centralize and visualization of actionable data in a distinctive way that aids evaluation of GRC (Tadewald, James 2014). Technology expedites tracking and identification of sources of cyber-security threats. This is beneficial to a holistic GRC process which in return can help in early identification and timely deployment of resources across the organization to areas that are prone and can be an easy target to the threats from cyber-security.
Using new technologies adds value to the organization and thus making organizations even more creative and innovative in implementing GRC program. Leaders of organizations should, therefore, opt to use technology especially to the department that experiences the cyber-attack. Taking the step of adopting new technology will make the organizations more effective and innovative hence reducing their vulnerability to the threat imposed by cyber-attacks while enhancing their cyber-security.
Having a good GRC system should mainly emphasis on identification of risk, and mitigation and containment. Organizational leaders should, therefore, focus on deploying new technology for effective implementation of GRC programs and improved risk management. It will help in identification of risks imposed to cyber-security early enough hence coming with ways to mitigate against these threats imposed. Proper implementation of technology on GRC guarantees an organization of cyber-security safety. Reliable technology that is integrated into the implementation of GRC makes employees comply, and it helps in identifying individuals who are highly skilled and can help with cyber-security issues.
Technology is not only used in to store and capture information but also supports the efficient usage of the information gathered, and this helps in implementing GRC program in an organization by the top leaders. Most top leaders’ likes to see the risks faced both from the subject matter and geographical perspective. The managers like identifying risk easily, through color codes or risk-ranking method. Use of technology, therefore, helps the managers to access all the available information hence makes them be in full control of the organization. By being in full control of the organization, the managers can efficiently and easily check on the cyber-security system and the current trends associated with it.
Technology and data can be extracted, and analysis for mitigation activities so long as gap analysis and risk assessment is established. GRC experts can often use third-party automation to affirm that great consideration is given and documented carrying out any contract for every third party. Doing this proves an auditable trail that shows that the established policies and rules of the organizations set GRC practices are duly followed by the third party engagements. Because most organizations manage a lot of third party's money, using manual process in handling them will require a lot of investment staff members to treat them effectively. Technology can handle this more efficiently and at a reduced cost. Use of technology therefore saves time.
Technology is an easy way and an essential tool for collection and aggregation of data from various sources and delivering these data in a more customized and efficient manner. Technology can help organizations to manage risks in several ways although this is only attainable when it is appropriately implemented by people who are highly knowledgeable. For technology to be useful and more efficient, people using the technology must be able to point out and interpret important data elements. It can assist in condensing and aggregating large volumes of data more efficiently, and it can also report potential abnormalities or identifying pattern interferences. In detecting these anomalies recorded by technology, skilled personnel must be needed to correctly interpret the information and suggest appropriately the measures to be taken to correct the anomalies.
Technologies allow organizations to analyze better the importance of current trends in the market and regulations and unearth patterns in the everyday news about activities that can affect an organization. A good implementation of GRC is putting into consideration in text analytics and expanding ultimately into artificial intelligence or machine learning. Analytics used in important web pages, social media platforms allows a firm to single out activities that are discussed and mentioned. Identifying and prioritizing issues systematically early enough, allows the management of the organization to give attention to what is important, and propose effective methods, hence simultaneously addressing several potentially contradicting requirements. Not only do GRC "enhanced" with analytics gives the means to automatically collection of data but also but also discussion and establishment of best practices across the organization.
For organizations to compete globally, they need innovation. That is why many big organizations have invested in large innovative teams to come up with innovative ideas. Technology can support innovation in a better way although innovation is not only about technological advancement. GRC environment must promote innovation as a way of thinking and technology as a facilitator. Technology facilitates more quickly and initiates more informed decision making. This, therefore, allows risks to be identified at an early stage before they materialize and they also aid communication within different groups of people in the organization to address compliance issues immediately they arise.
Provide A Framework of Key Capabilities and Functions A GRC Technical Solution Would Provide and How Those Functions Would Support GRC Requirements
GRC plays a role in vendor management. Vendor management helps in identification of cybersecurity risks. All regulators, top management, and clients need surety that firms that are regulated pre-screen vendors carefully and assess their suitability regularly. Vendor management requirements are supported by with GRC-Maestro in Maestro solution with schedules incidents and Maestro templates. Through vendor management, organizations can identify risk-based on cybersecurity.
GRC plays a role policy management. GRC helps in the formulation of cybersecurity policies that may help in curbing cybersecurity risks. GRC helps policy managers in identifying, managing updating and finally reporting on the policy status. Policy managers ensure that policies are well written that the intended outcome is matched by the results. A flexible GRC framework facilitates the origin and management of the policies and enhanced accountability, communication improvement and also serious reporting on the analytics. In general policy, management enhances documentation, policy lifecycle from inception to review, workflow, policy changes and archiving and mapping to respected policy sources.
Risk and Compliance Management is also one of the roles of GRC. This helps in monitoring and managing cybersecurity risks.GRC supports risk management specialists with workflow, documentation, analysis and assessment, remediation and reporting of risks. It allows organizations to realize their position on risks purposefully, and take the appropriate measures that are cost-effective to manage the risk. Moreover, GRC makes the organization to monitor their status on compliance by conducting remediation and tests, self-assessment and surveys, and some attestation. Above all, it helps the organization to respond positively to the regulation changes regarding cybersecurity.
GRC supports Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Management (DR). This support is realized especially when there is cybersecurity threat.It supports crisis management, business continuity and disaster recovery both combined. This is done by assessing the criticality of business technologies and processes and after that develops a disaster recovery and business continuity plan by use of automatic workflow for testing and approving. Moreover, it encourages a Business Impact Analysis to be conducted by the organization to help it understand better the value of the people and the business processes applications and the processes supported systems.
GRC plays a role in facilitating Audit Services to the cybersecurity. By allowing auditors and consultants to track, manage, and design their audit activities, it improves the performance of the audit lifecycle. It provides auditing and consulting firms a structure that their best practices and also manages them on a daily basis on a web portal that is easy to use. The software of audit services manages the entire lifecycle of the audit ranging from client definition to ethical practices, to the documentation of the findings and finally to reporting. In other words, GRC supports Audit Services by supporting internal auditors in handling work papers and arranging audit tasks, time management, and reporting. This helps in detecting cybersecurity threat detection in good time
GRC plays a role in supporting Incident, Threat and Vulnerability Management. This helps in managing cybersecurity threat management. GRC endorses this through events recording, investigations tracking and reporting on causes n incidents. Also, GRC records regional, or country threats merge susceptibility, malicious code and patch information from security intelligence providers, and captures vulnerability results from scan technologies (Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) White Paper, 2014).
Asset Management (CMDB) is also a role played by GRC. This helps in critically assessing the need of cybersecurity in the organization through managing, recognizing and plotting applications, systems, infrastructural assets, databases, to essential businesses processes for effective compliance, continuity of business and cyber-attack recovery tasks.
GRC also facilitates governance in cybersecurity. It makes the leaders of the organization to govern the facility effectively. The leaders can disseminate information easily to their juniors who then implement them. This eases their work of passing important information within and outside the organization. They are also able to identify risk early enough and assess their impact on the organization. Early identification aids in governance since the top management can determine the departments within the organization that is susceptible to the risk hence allocating resources to those organizations. Through GRC, the managers can implement the policies of the organization.
GRC helps in monitoring and evaluating how organizations cybersecurity policies are implemented by the organization, through this, they identify the challenges that are hindering implementation of the policies.
The current world is full of cybersecurity information. With a lot of information, the managers cannot come with quick decision making, a vital part of governance. GRC, therefore, comes in to compress this information into a small volume that the managers can easily decide out of it. Most organizations are also needed to comply with the international standards to be able to compete into the global market and for the management to be able to monitor the level of progress towards achieving the compliance; they must use a GRC tool.
Conduct Research to Identify A Commercial Product (One or More Products) That
Supports GRC
Some of the commercial GRC tools are mainly GRC software tools. There are varieties of software tools that are generated. The company should adopt the following software:
Practical Threat Analysis tool (PTA). This is a software tool and a methodology that is designed to evaluate threats to the security and risks associated with the operation of the company. PTA has got different capabilities such:
Risk factors identification and vulnerabilities
Definition of threat scenarios probable damages and costs associated with them
Mapping of architectural structure and system assets.
It can use risk optimization algorithm to develop a very effective risk mitigation plan.
This product is easy to use, and it can be applied in several other contexts. It is a free product in the market hence the company will save a lot in using it since it has got several functions that will help the company grow and reduce its expenditure. According to Polecat, “It can be used to define the financial value of the assets, products, and contracts with the suppliers," (Polecat, 2016).
Open Risk and Compliance Framework and Tool (ORICO). This is a tool that has been developed specifically for IT GRC, and it is partly the Security Officers Management and Analysis project. It can be personalized with one’s code hence is suitable for companies with technical capabilities. This tool is designed for general risk management teams in that it can be used to conduct a full assessment of risk on whichever type of asset thus providing managers with a view of levels of compliance for the organization.
STREAM. STREAM is purposely designed to manage ISO and cybersecurity compliance. It is an enterprise GRC software tool that is designed for Acuity Risk Management. It helps in the inventory of the assets conducting risk factors and metrics, and also project management. It is effective in linking the company's cybersecurity GRC to larger enterprise risk management, supply chain risk analysis, and business continuity. This is a free GRC tool on the market. When the company engages STREAM which is a free GRC tool in the market, it will be able to perform its GRC programmes without spending more on complex software. It is flexible, configurable, efficient, and cost-effective (Acuity Risk Management 2013)
Imagine You Are An Employee, And You Are Convincing Your CEO That Why Should He Buy That GRC (Product) Tool And How It Is Helpful For Your Company. Is It Affordable For Your Company To Buy That Tool? You Should Fully Describe How Well That Product Fits Your Framework. Currency and Relevance: Particularly As It Relates To Commercial Product Applicability
Adopting GRC in the company is beneficial for the company in that it facilitates efficiency and production environment in that company by making all the elements of that particular firm work together to achieve a common goal of preventing any compliance break down. According to McClean, “Regardless of industry or geography, few companies would shy away from strategies to improve their oversight, more effectively manage their risks, and reduce their costs of compliance,” (McClean 2009).Reputational protection, customer attraction, and efficient revenue collection are just but a few other benefits that an organization enjoys when GRC tools are adopted in the various departments. In general GRC tools are tools that any organization that is longing to compete in the current local market and the international market must adapt to achieve that goal. They help companies to confidently venture into more risky activities that have got high returns to the organization since the decisions made by the organization are more informed and detailed. The following reasons suggest why the CEO should adopt the GRC software tools and how the software will be helpful to the organization:
PTA, ORICO and STREAM GRC tools will enhance quality information in the company. Management will make more informed decisions more quickly due to integrated GRC information. There is lots of information currently that influences the decision making of individuals. These lots of information may mislead the decision maker in that they may not be able to make good information that is well thought off. Limited time has also led to poor decision making since the decision maker is not able to cover all the information available to come up with a sound decision. Using these tools will, therefore, compress the lots of information available into a small size that becomes easy for the decision maker to go through them. They, therefore, provides the decision with easy and detailed information which then leads to coming up with informed decisions by the management. Good decision making leads to the growth of an organization and also helps eliminate or solve conflicts that may arise due to poor decision making. Quality information in a company reduces the cost that may be used to correct activities that occurred due to poor decision making.
Use of PTA, ORICO and STREAM GRC tools in the company will lead to process optimization. The tools streamline the value-added activities of an organization while eliminating the non-value added activities. Doing this reduces unnecessary variations and time wasting that causes the company to lag behind. This helps the company to focus its resources towards departments and areas that steers it to growth. It also puts the management and employees on toes are they are always reminded of their chief objects and their position towards achieving the company's goal. The employees also become ethical in their work, since these tools are there to remind them of what is expected of them constantly. Adopting these tools also helps in reducing the expenses of the company since resources that may be directed to activities that are not necessary are eliminate since they are identified in time. These resources are then directed towards activities that are useful to the company and can spearhead its growth. PTA and STREAM help in locating areas that do not add value to the organization but consumes a lot of resources. These identified loopholes can then be sealed by the organizational management, hence making the organization to only concentrate on activities that add value to the organization.
PTA, ORICO and STREAM GRC tools will help in better capital allocation. This is because they help in identification of areas of redundancy and inefficiency thus allowing human and financial resources to be allocated effectively. Excess in the company makes the company spend so much on activities that do not yield production. The redundancy and inefficiency also make the company to lose focus on its primary goals and objectives since the company puts most of its activities on things that do not matter. Identifying these redundancies in time by the organization will make the company focus more on its goals and also improve the company's efficiency. This helps the company in saving a lot of money especially those that may have been used in redundant activities in the company. The good capital allocation also makes the company identify its strengths and weaknesses, hence working tirelessly to improve on its shortcomings. Improvement on the failings of an organization brings improved drastically on the entire organizational system since every employ tries to work on the shortcomings of the organization. The good capital allocation also helps the organization to identify new opportunities and threat that affects the company both internally and externally. New opportunities make the company to grow and also identify new strategies to adapt to tap the opportunities while identification of threats to the organization helps the company to embrace new strategies to help it tackle the threats or be prepared for them hence allocating adequate resources towards its course.
PTA, ORICO and STREAM GRC tools will improve effectiveness in the company. These tools will ensure that all activities in a company are geared towards the appropriate people and departments. This helps in risk identification, mitigation strategies and containment of risks. It also helps in developing an appropriate framework for the overall operation of a company including the laid procedures and all the communication strategies. It ensures that all the systems and structure are functioning efficiently and effectively towards the course they are developed. It provides a proactive and mitigation strategy that is clear actions and accountability put in place for the risks an organization may experience as it operates. PTA and STREAM, in other words, helps in collection of relevant data and analysis, to come up with a decision that helps in the effectiveness of the operation of the company. It is therefore useful for the company, and the CEO should consider investing in either of them. With the efficacy realized in the company, the company is saved from time wasting and on activities that are not useful and resource wasteful.
Using PTA, ORICO or STREAM GRC tools will help in company's reputation protection . According to Biskup “When risks are managed more effectively, company reputation is enhanced," (Biskup 2014).With this statement from Biskup, one can, therefore, conclude that companies need to invest intensively in risk management to protect the reputation of the company. These tools are therefore some of the mechanisms a company can involve in risk management. These tools can identify risks associated with the company even before the dangers are experienced. They identify, record provide a solution and also provide a mitigation measure to be adopted by the company. They offer an effective way of managing risks in a company and therefore restoring the company’s reputation. Clients will have a good attitude towards the company hence investing even more in the company's products. The good reputation of the company will also lead to attracting more people into the company. The employees of the company also become motivated working in the company due to the good reputation the company has. The employees' motivation leads to good results in production activities of the company. Due to good reputation created, PTA and STREAM GRC tools, therefore, saves the company a lot of money that may have been used to advertise the company.
Adopting PTA, or STREAM GRC tool will help in reducing costs in a company . Reduced costs lead to increased Return on Investment (ROI) as a result of engaging this software which is also free in the market. ROI calculations may not show on the current financial performance results, (because the implementation of the GRC solutions and organizations maturity occurs over a period). Nonetheless, understanding and getting to know decision making and budget of the corporates, Metrics of ROI turn out to be essential to calculate and present to the executive. ROI metrics are categorized in the following ways:
Decreasing time = increasing efficiency: It helps managers in recording the current duration it helps in completing a GRC task. From this, the managers can reflect on the future estimate of the time that will be used to achieve the specific task after implementation of the GRC solution. With these, the CEO can compare the efficiency before execution of the GRC solution and after deployment.
Effective Vendor Management = Reduced Duplication of Vendors: Consolidating vendor solutions into a single managed GRC enables the company to identify duplication of vendor relationships, inclusive of managed vendor risks of the same technology.
Decreasing Risks = Cost Reductions: A PTA or STREAM database enables provision of risk information database from the entire areas of a company and after that produces a comprehensive report on areas susceptible to risk and the impact caused. Strategies of most companies mainly target the remediation of higher risk activities or efficiently addressing incidents. This kind of strategy leads fewer audit findings, minimal charges for breaches in security, and faster solution for risks as a result of the minimal risks experienced currently by the company.
Decreasing Silos = Strategic Performance: The more a company changes to GRC integrated point of view from the GRC point of view, the more the organization is prepared to comprehensively utilize GRC information for making better and informed decisions across the company's structure. This helps in the faster dissemination of information in the organization. Administration information security is also guaranteed since information is only delivered to relevant persons in the company. This enhances the performance of the company, and the performance of the company drastically improves. Even though big companies are not well equipped with the importance of integrated GRC strategy (Racz, Panitz, Amberg, Weippl, Seufert 2010)
PTA Software Tool Will Ensure There Is Timely Risk Identification. The tool can identify the risk that may affect the company. Through identification of risks, the company can focus on areas that may be an easy target by the threat. More resources and skills are then deployed to these departments hence developing activities that can help in mitigating the risks. Risk identification leads to saving by an organization since the company is aware of the type of risk they are facing hence it uses the appropriate, cost-effective methods to handle the threat. This is much cheaper compared to where an organization does not have an idea of what type of risk they are facing. The company may end up spending a lot of resources on areas that are least affected or regions that are not affected at all. These results in a waste of resources as the areas that need the funds end up not being addressed or inadequately addressed. Risk identification provides expertise with adequate time to analyze, the effect of the risk and eventually provides a solution to the threat. Doing this helps in saving time and money for the organization. GRC helps mostly in reducing risk and enhance reliability (Schreiber, Thieme, Wong 2008).
Either PTA or STREAM Software GRC Tool will Enhance Compliance of the Company . Organizations are working towards complying with both the local and international regulations and standards. With the aid of these tools, a company can monitor its performance. The tools help the company in assessing and tracking every step it tales towards achieving the goal of compliance. The management and the employees are therefore encouraged by this type of regular assessment and there work hard in over to comply with these standards and regulations. The tool helps the organization to know how far they are from reaching the level of full compliance; this also helps the organization to invest in areas that are lagging behind and derailing it from achieving the full compliance level. The company that complies fully often attracts more customers and experienced employees. Hence the organization can end up generating a lot of revenue.
In conclusion, GRC software tools lead to improved communication, improved risk management, improved compliance, and improved governance and increased Return on Investment. It is, therefore, a good opportunity for the CEO to take a fresh look at the current approach deployed by the organization. The manager should accept these current trends witnessed and adjust accordingly for the betterment of the company. The CEO should evolve a way of working that helps the top leaders of the company in running the company better.
References
Andrews. (2017). Innovation and technology for GRC. Financier Worldwide Magazine. page 4. www.financierworldwide.com
McClean, C. (2009). The GRC Technology Puzzle: Getting All The Pieces To Fit. Making Leaders Successful Every Day. page 2. www.forrester.com
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) White Paper,(2014).page6. www.securedigitalsolutions.com
Polecat, (2016). Five free tools for governance, risk management, and complince.www.polecat.com
Biskup, R.(2014). The Benefits of Integrating Governance, Risk, and Compliance. The wall street journal. http://www.deloitte.com
Tadewald, James,(2014). GRC integration: a conceptual foundation model for success. Management Accounting Quarterly. Volume: 15. Issue: 3page 10
Acuity Risk Managers, (2013). Stream integrated risk management. What is STREAM? Page 1.
Schreiber, J., Thieme, L., And Wong, W.(2008).Supporting technology at GRC to mitigate risk as Stirling power conversion transitions to flight. 6 th international energy conversion engineering conference. page1 .
Racz, N., Panitz, J., Amberg, M., Weipp, E. And Seufert, A.(2010). Governance, risk & compliance (GRC) status quo and software use. Results from a Survey among Large Enterprises. doi=10.1.1.458.8647
