Risk Management

Risk Management is a business practice that protects physical, logical and human resources. Risk management is very often applied in banking and finance sector, but all industries need a "risk managment" function. Risks that need to be managed include losses from natural causes such as disasters or fires, accidents, lawsuits, etc. Risk is an issue which could impact your ability to meet your objectives

Do you need the Risk Acceptance Forms? They may be found here.


What is "Risk"?


  • verb: expose to a chance of loss or damage
  • noun: a source of danger
  • noun: a venture undertaken without regard to possible loss or injury
  • verb: take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome

Terms


  • Acceptable risk - A term used to describe the minimum acceptable risk that an organization is willing to take.
  • Countermeasure or safeguards - Controls, processes, procedures, or security systems that help to mitigate potential risk.
  • Exposure - When an asset is vulnerable to damage or losses from a threat.
  • Exposure factor - A value calculated by determining the percentage of loss to a specific asset because of a specific threat.
  • Residual risk - The risk that remains after security controls and security countermeasures have been implemented.
  • Risk management - The process of reducing risk to assets by identifying and eliminating threats through the deployment of security controls and security countermeasures.
  • Risk analysis - The process of identifying the severity of potential risks, identifying vulnerabilities, and assigning a priority to each.This may be done in preparation for the implementation of security countermeasures designed to mitigate high-priority risks.

Criticality Matrix


  Most Critical
Highest Level of Sensitivity		 Critical
Moderate level of sensitivity 		Least Critical
Very low, but still requiring some protection
Legal Requirements Protection of data is required by law (e.g., HIPAA and FERPA data elements and other personal identifying information protected by law) The institution has a contractual obligation to protect the data (e.g., bibliographic citation data, bulk licensed software)  
Reputation Risk High Medium Low
Other Institutional Risks Information that provides access to resources, physical or virtual Smaller subsets of Most Critical data from a school, large part of a school, or department  
Data Examples
  • Medical
  • Student
  • Prospective student
  • Personnel
  • Donor or prospect
  • Financial
  • Contracts
  • Physical plant detail
  • Credit card numbers
  • Certain management information
  • Information resources with access to Most Critical data
  • Research detail or results that are not Most Critical
  • Library transactions (e.g., catalog, circulation, acquisitions)
  • Financial transactions that do not include Most Critical data (e.g., telephone billing)
  • Very small subsets of Most Critical data
  • Campus maps
  • Personal directory data (e.g., contact information)
  • E-mail
  • Institutionally published public data

The Risk Matrix


To determine the degree of urgency attached to a given situation, refer to this table.

The Risk Matrix Impact
    High Medium Low
Probability High A B C
Medium A B C
Low B C C

Risk Assessment


The UC Office of Information Security will assist with Risk Assessment upon request.

Our Controls Self-Assessment process will help you understand more about the risk profile of your organization. It helps internal business personnel evaluate informal or subjective controls in 62 important Information Security Areas. More information can be found here

Risk Acceptance Forms

Acceptance of Risk Policy

Risk acceptance forms should be filled out electronically and emailed to the Information Security Department