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A great boon for business owners and entrepreneurs around the world has been the rapid development of specialised Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The barriers to entry have perhaps never been lower, costs have been driven down, and functionality such as cloud storage, interoperability across web-accessible devices, and more. All of these are helpful, but they present a new problem: a massive amount of choice, with some software being lacklustre and other, better software packages having their voices drowned out amidst the competition. Risk management professionals and anyone engaged in the day-to-day risk and incident management within an organisation should always have access to robust software such as Risk Wizard. When choosing amongst various packages, consider the following three critical factors: 1. Customisable Forms & Reporting Functionality Everything (just about) has gone digital, and so too should your incident report forms. Any good modern incident management software must have a means of creating, filling out, and submitting incident report forms just the way you want them. Generic incident forms may work for some businesses, but chances are you’d rather have fully customisable forms tailored to the needs of your business operations and the incident types and categories common within your industry. Risk Wizard enables users to create custom reports and forms through multiple filters, so you can only show fields relevant to your organisation as well as design reports that more accurately depict what is happening and where it’s happening. 2. Real-Time Alerts and Email Reminders It’s crucial that organisations have the ability to act and react immediately to areas of concern when it comes to incident management. That’s why you should never settle for less than real-time incident alerts and easy email reminders and summaries for key stakeholders within the organisation. Furthermore, automatic email triggers for overdue notices on assigned action plans remove much of the manual work that used to take up so much precious time. You can even allow the emails to be sent according to various escalation stages depending on urgency or importance. Don’t skip a beat and keep everyone involved in the project or organisation updated with accurate, real-time information. 3. Free Incident Log Reporting for All Stakeholders Last but not least, it is essential that your desired incident management software has the ability to grant access to incident logs quickly, for free, and easily. All stakeholders, from employees to key clients involved in a project or the organisation’s day-to-day business must be able to intuitively log incidents without a hassle. Risk Wizard allows any permitted stakeholders to log incidents for free, and we also make it quick and easy to do so across a wide range of web-accessible devices (desktop or portable devices, such as mobile phones or tablets). By making the process quick and easy, it’s far more likely that the incident will be recorded accurately rather than perhaps hours after it has occurred and when the memory of certain events may have faded. Record hazards, near-misses, or accidents quickly and without undue delay using Risk Wizard incident management software. Risk Wizard Want to experience the best in incident management software for the modern business world? See Risk Wizard in action today.

The risk management industry is ever-evolving, having to adapt to new trends, new threats, and new risks. So too, cyber crime is on the rise everywhere. With employees working from home more than ever before, robust IT systems need to be put in place. This also opens up many vulnerabilities and risks that must be assessed, including ransomware, a prevalent tool used by cyber criminals around the world. What is Ransomware and Is it a Real Threat? According to the FBI, ransomware is malicious software, or malware, that is disseminated through various means to a recipient’s computer or through their network which either restricts access or encrypts files or data to make them irretrievable, in return for a ransom. In the past few years, WannaCry was one infamous ransomware protocol that crippled many governmental institutions and businesses by locking out everyone in the organisation from accessing the network. Ransomware is a real threat, and while it’s possible to avoid or minimise the threat of ransomware attacks, what makes it so pernicious is that it is relatively easy for anyone to inadvertently download ransomware onto their computer. There are two main ways of spreading ransomware, with the first being through email phishing scams and the latter being through networks themselves. The former often comes across as authentic-looking emails with a link or attachment, which, if clicked, downloads the ransomware and executes the program to lock the user out from accessing the computer. The latter is more complex and can be a trial-and-error process for cyber criminals whereby they attempt to gain access to organisations’ networks through vulnerabilities in their IT infrastructure. How to Mitigate Ransomware Risks in an Organisation Prevention is key for many cybersecurity threats, and the same can be said about ransomware. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as it’s often said. Nevertheless, ransomware attacks can occur even with a well-prepared IT cybersecurity strategy in place, so it’s essential to know how to proactively contain and deal with any breaches as well. Regularly back up critical data and store offline if possible so that it is more difficult to impact by an attack. Maintain strong system patching and updating protocols by keeping everything up to date. Implement robust user identification and authentication processes, including two factor authentication and tiered access for different segments of the organisation. Ensure your organisation is using a strong antivirus and email spam filters are in place that can better detect spam emails and ransomware in advance. The less you need to use, the better. Although this doesn’t mean you need to switch off all devices and cripple your business, of course, it does mean that unused devices, in particular Remote Desktop Protocols (RDPs) should be turned off and disabled when not in use. Create whitelists that prevent the usage or downloading of non-business approved applications. Keep tabs on all threats with a well-trained IT team, and ensure all employees are aware of the risks of phishing and ransomware as well. Review workplace IT protocols vis-a-vis remote work and adapt them to the ‘new way of working’ by implementing VPNs and training staff on the proper use of corporate IT assets (e.g. no mixing and matching private laptops with business laptops for work purposes). Risk Wizard Take your cybersecurity risk management to the next level with robust software from Risk Wizard.

There are dozens of great reasons why individuals and organisations working in risk management should be using dedicated software, but below we’ve compiled five great and practical reasons that stand out: 1. Keep Everyone Updated Regularly Working as a project manager or risk compliance officer in a busy office poses unique challenges which are only exacerbated with more employees working remotely. Who is showing up to meetings and who is on maternity leave or paid time off, for example? Without risk management software, you’ll have to remember all of these incidents so that you can provide relevant meeting notes or project updates to get everyone on the same page. That’s a lot of administrative work and it often goes awry, so why bother when risk management software can keep track of all of this and update all users with relevant information at the click of a button? 2. Superior Reliability Sharing spreadsheets by email and ensuring that everyone who needs access has it can be awfully cumbersome. Does everyone have the same version of the file? Are new employees being added to the permissions list of the relevant file(s)? Perhaps someone is editing an older version of the file only to find out that now you’ve got to integrate their work into the current version. Risk management software consolidates all of this under one easy roof. No more sending out emails asking for the latest version of a file. Give everyone access and they can find out exactly what up-to-date information they need at the click of a button. 3. Organise Information Better When staff go into retirement, they take all of their knowledge of the business with them. Handover notes and transition notes can certainly help the rest of the team, but having everything under one roof is far better. Risk management software keeps a digital history of all projects, including business information passed down by staff who may be leaving or retiring from the organisation so that it isn’t lost and instead kept for future reference. 4. Collaborative By Nature Every good piece of software nowadays tends to be going towards collaboration, and it makes good sense. Even decades-old Microsoft has made the switch to collaborative Microsoft 365, but Risk Wizard was truly designed with collaboration in mind. Connect all key stakeholders to your projects so that anyone can see and work on individual records in real time. Better communications, better teams. 5. Safety & Security Data security is big business, with the cost of data breaches nowadays costing in the area of around $3.86 million. What makes matters more complex is the growing number of jurisdictions such as the European Union’s GDPR which applies to Australians, too, provided that they operate in a commercial capacity with citizens of the EU. With Risk Wizard, you can safely add permissions to current key stakeholders and revoke editing permissions at any time, such as in the case of retired employees. Furthermore, you can track and edit changes to key variables such as formulae and records containing sensitive data to ensure that data integrity is in place. Get a Demo Experience quality risk management software by giving Risk Wizard a go today. Our comprehensive software suite is ideal for risk management, compliance, and incidence reporting and has all of the features you need to manage organisational risk. Visit riskwizard.com/demo or email to: sales@riskwizard.com

Taking steps to protect ourselves against foreseeable harmful events makes sense. However, when it comes to protecting key risk management data, often those in charge are unaware of how vulnerable their information is and are perplexed when information is suddenly compromised or lost. Recovering important data can be time consuming and costly particularly if data needs to be re-entered because of inadequate data security procedures. Smart risk managers understand the importance of a security blanket to protect their risk information. Getting to know the many facets of data security, even first principles, is a great knowledge investment that risk managers find effective to challenge the IT policies and procedures used to manage their risk data. Although every organisation operates within a unique IT environment, there is a range of basic checks that can be made to bolster confidence that data protection measures are working and robust. Some areas to consider include: Avoid ‘death by spreadsheet’! If your risk data is being held on spreadsheets, here are some of the pitfalls to be aware of: · Spreadsheets can be prone to errors compromising data integrity. · Multiple versions of same spreadsheet mean data can be hard to rely upon. · Password protected spreadsheets can be easily hacked. · Confidential data cannot be encrypted. · Data is easily changed and there is no audit trail. Use a secure risk management database. Some basic information security features to look for include: · Only authenticated users can access the system. · Confidential data can be segregated between users. · Individual records can be locked down to a group/person. · Automatic change logs can be easily viewed and exported. · Data views can be configured based on security permissions. Compare data security in the cloud v internal operations. Some basic comparisons to consider include: · Is my data safe? - compare SLAs, past outages, data downtimes, reportable incidents. · How much is data costing? - compare hosting costs to internal infrastructure maintenance. · What level of data security? - compare data security standards/compliance attained. Improve working from home protocols. Some basic security protocols to consider for team members include: · Never use public/free wi-fi – only trust home or mobile internet services. · Allow automatic updates on all devices so security is up to date. · Adopt strong, unique passphrases that are complex and unpredictable. · Ensure staff connect to the office via a VPN (Virtual Private Network). · Don’t transport data using portable devices. · When online, exercise caution, stay vigilant and beware of scams. Risk Wizard knows security and is expert at protecting your risk data. Our risk management database is a ‘’fit for purpose’’ platform providing proper security over risk information. Comprehensive access permissions ensure data is segregated and restricted to authorised users. Information is held at highly secure data centres run by Amazon Web Services and these offer the highest levels of security. Employees working from home can access their private data according to their security level and be confident that sensitive data is always safeguarded. To see how it works, simply sign up for a free trial. We will provide an online demo of the software so you can see it in action before you try out the software in a free, private, and secure cloud environment. Get a demo: Visit riskwizard.com/demo or email to: sales@riskwizard.com