NU Online News Service, Feb. 6, 3:02 p.m. EST

With both public and private sector organizations reeling in the wake of the hacking of VeriSign and other security companies, risk managers are more aware than ever of cyber risk and the need for best practices in managing it, according to the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Data risk is best managed through enterprise risk management (ERM) because the discipline prepares organizations to actively deal with events that could directly affect their operations, RIMS says in an executive report, “ERM Best Practices in the Cyber World.”

According to the report, released jointly by RIMS, Identity Theft 911 (IDT911) and USLAW NETWORK, risk managers should consider three reasons to use ERM to improve their company's position with digital risk:

Data risks may hold unrecognized implications for the organization's strategy.
Unifying the organization's internal functions in a comprehensive data risk and controls gap assessment creates efficiencies and protects the findings.
Managing data risk well gives an advantage over competitors that do not, and protects the organization's standing within its market.

RIMS points to a separate study, the 2010 U.S. Cost of a Data Breach study, sponsored by Symantec Corp. and presented by the Ponemon Institute, which finds that the average organizational cost of a data breach was $7.2 million, or $214 per compromised record.

Added to the cost of detection, escalation, notification and response are possible legal, investigative, administrative and reparation expenses. These are compounded by potential customer defections, opportunity loss, reputation management and reduction in shareholder value, which can skyrocket costs, Symantec concludes.

In conjunction with the release of its study, RIMS and Identity Theft 911 are hosting a “Cyber Risk: Privacy and Data Security Risk Management” workshop four times throughout the year. Dates and locations are:

March 5 -6,New York.

June 20-21,San Francisco.

Aug. 13-14,Winnipeg.

Sept. 20-21,Washington,D.C.

Special Reports /

RIMS Report Examines Cyber Management through ERM

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