IT Risk to the Organization

As IT is a department within an organization with the goal of typically servicing other departments, there is a set of risks that IT poses to the organization. What I am talking about is different from the risks within an IT project execution or the day to day functioning of the IT department. I am focusing on the risks the IT department as a whole poses to the organization that it services.

The risks can be divided into the following main groups:

• Consequences of failure of services provided by IT


• Security risks


• Outsourcing and Partners failure risks


• Governmental and Legislative Risks

The IT head as well as senior management within the organization should consider these risks and work in tandem to manage them. This can be accomplished in the following ways:

• Create a risk management strategy and monitor and act on it regularly


• Engage outside auditors to analyze the risks from a new perspective


• Always be on the lookout to transfer risks


• And strengthen the quality of IT processes within the organization

In this way, organizations can get a proactive handle on the potential risks and manage them before they become a critical issue. It all really boils down to taking the effort and making it happen. There exist endless possible excuses to not do it, but in the end you have to consider that the competition is doing it so can you take the risk of not managing your risks?