Small Charities: How to Carry Out Your Own Cyber Security Risk Assessment

Small charities can often put off risk assessment, due to perceived levels of cost and difficulty. But these charities are at the greatest risk from cyber attack.

Risk is an everyday part of charitable activity and managing it effectively is essential if the trustees are to achieve their key objectives and safeguard their charity’s funds and assets, according to the Charity Commission. For that reason, it recommends that all charity leaders regularly assess the risks faced by their charities in all areas of its work.

A cyber security risk assessment can be particularly helpful because, amongst other benefits, it will enable your charity to:

• Identify any areas of your operations which pose unacceptable cyber security risks
• Prioritise areas that need cyber security improvements
• Reduce the chances of cyber-security breaches
• Reduce the likely financial and reputational costs of cyber security breaches
• Reduce the impact of cyber security breaches on service delivery and fundraising

A cyber security assessment may also be a prerequisite for compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Source: Charity Digital News