Situational awareness – from the battlefield to the corporation

Tips to get real-time risk Giving senior management a real-time view of business risk at any time, seems like the stuff of dreams, but standard technical processes can be used in a clever way to know what the impactable threats are at anytime. Andrew Miller of Siemens Insight Consulting recommends six variables to be measured to give situational awareness of risk. These emphasise the importance of never standing still – responding to the continuing changes of the business – depending on the time of year, and so on. For example, a number of profiles should be created for an organization that take account key times in the annual fiscal cycle. For example, at paytime each month, the payroll system becomes more important. The six variables to monitor to get a real-time view of risk are as follows: • Network mapping. • Network & host monitoring. • Vulnerability analysis. • Business process to computer information systems mapping. • Business impact analysis. • Current operational environment. For any organization the key to successful risk management is having an accurate understanding of exactly what is happening at any given point in time. This helps to ensure that heads of business are making well informed decisions, providing effective planning and accurately formulating future goals for the organization.