.png)
Think that Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is a boring, stodgy topic reserved for accountants and federal regulatory bodies? Think again!
GRC is a living framework used to support IT security and the economic viability of organizations. GRC protects operational functionality in the face of sophisticated, evolving, and targeted cyberattacks. Don't ignore GRC--instead, incorporate GRC into the depths of your IT environment.
What is GRC?
GRC is the system by which an organization directs and controls security governance, specifies accountability roles, defines risk mitigation processes, and provides operational oversight for risk mitigation. GRC focuses on how an organization's people, processes, and technologies can mitigate risk and increase security maturity. GRC structures the need for IT services like Endpoint Detection and Response, Data Backups, Disaster Recovery, Cybersecurity, Vulnerability Management, extended Threat Detection and Response, IT Service Intelligence, and IT Service Management.
Why does GRC matter?
Risk exposure is increasing, and criminal tactics are evolving at a pace that is hard to beat. The tools that worked last year are no longer sufficient to protect this year's revenue. Your GRC model must be dynamic, your tools scalable, and your processes flexible to manage risk.
If you have siloed knowledge bases, security protocols, and risk management activities by department, now is the time to focus on the entire company's health. Stakeholders and business leaders must take ownership of their security architecture and build resilience under the GRC umbrella. Overarching compliance and governance must align with risk management and policies created to protect assets, systems, data, people, processes, tools, configuration and patching procedures, and IT infrastructure.
Dynamic GRC Integration
GRC is not valuable in isolation. GRC must be integrated deeply into business processes, asset classification, access management, IT service management, and data backups to build resilience. But you don't want GRC-focused policies to be so stringent that they impede agility. GRC must be viewed as a framework instead of a set of hard and fast rules.
Risk tolerance is different for every organization. Your customized GRC framework can be developed after a thorough security assessment and business impact analysis of your organization. Only after your risk analysis is complete can your people, processes, and technologies be aligned with the leadership's enterprise goals aimed at maturing your organization's security posture.
|
|
Once you develop the GRC standards, policies, and regulations to control and mitigate your risk, use automation and data analytics to drive efficiency into enterprise operations and risk management. Part of understanding your security maturity is knowing your risk tolerance.
Business leaders need real-time data harvested from IT service intelligence and analytics from all data points across the company to inform business decisions and prepare for audits. The GRC framework supports this cross-functional integration of data intelligence to optimize business operations and make risk-averse decisions.
Audits become less threatening if you have already implemented governance across your IT environment with access controls, automation to collect data-based evidence, consistent reporting, and risk mitigation policies in place.
GRC Strategy supports IT Security Maturity with:
Connect GRC to Security to inform Business Decisions
GRC is the policy that frames the best technical processes and tools and aligns them to business objectives within compliance standards. It’s about balancing security with convenience and understanding that the same cloud accessibility and technology that powers your interconnectedness is the same technology that increases your risk along those same paths.
Becoming risk-averse is just good business. Identifying the right level of restrictions and establishing a policy hierarchy will allow you to address, respond to, and contain new vulnerabilities in your environment. The road to security maturity and making informed business decisions can be simple if you establish continuous process improvement across the cybersecurity lifecycle.
Decision makers may need a mindset shift—from using GRC as basic compliance requirements to using it to execute a risk management strategy that permeates the organization. Establishing a risk management framework enables leaders to make risk-informed decisions and prioritize IT budget spend.
GRC as a Service
Leery of implementing GRC on your own? TBC, an IT Solutions Provider headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers Governance, Risk, and Compliance as a Service (GRCaaS). Our GRCaaS facilitates a disciplined and structured approach to tracking risk mitigation activities and prioritizing security.
Discovery and assessments of the client’s environment inform the scope of the solution. GRC priorities vary depending on the client’s size, industry, business focus, revenue, risk tolerance, and IT budget.
The value of GRCaaS for SMBs and enterprises is that security architecture and risk management services help align decision-makers with IT capabilities and operational functionality. Increasingly sophisticated threats amplify the need for a security strategy and GRC framework to stay safe and relevant.
As a trusted partner, TBC’s GRCaaS solution includes a complete analysis of security controls, including all management, operational, and technical implementations, to find unacceptable weaknesses or deficiencies. TBC can bring your organization up to necessary compliance standards and implement a GRC framework with consistent guidance and risk management on par with your industry’s regulatory requirements.
Security maturity is a journey, not a trip. There’s no end to the evolution of risk, so consistent realignment and value-based decisions must be made to address ongoing risk. Stakeholders, business visionaries, and IT leaders need to be aligned, and TBC can help you develop that strategic and operational alignment.
 |
 |
 |
/SOC2_2023.svg)
