Bringing Risk Management Home

This week, we have been discussing risk management and working to identify assets and their associated vulnerabilities. This got me thinking about my life here at home and how these concepts could be realized at home. Therefore, I wanted to take a look at my assets and how I would rank their value.

First of all, I have a DSL modem hooked up to a wireless router as my connection to the Internet. My desktop computer is hardwired into the router for optimal speed and, to be honest, the location just worked better for that. I also have my home printer connected into the router and set up on the WiFi so the rest of my network can see it.

Next, my network branches off into two wireless access points. One access point allows my children's computer to connect to the network. That particular computer also doubles as my Web server, music server, file server, and sends the data from my weather sensor out to the rest of the world. The other access point is connected to our Wii, Blu-ray player, and DirecTV system to allow each of these to connect to the Internet.

Lastly, on the network, I have my cell phone, tablet, and my wife's Nook. These all connect to the Internet over the WiFi from the router. The network also allows me to move files anywhere and access just about any device I own quickly and easily. I can even set up my DVR to record from my phone, even when I am not on the network. So, how do I value these items and any risks?

Personally, my highest valued risk would be my Internet connection. Without it, there is very little that I can do. My ability to work on homework, balance my checkbook, pay my bills, or anything else requiring a data connection comes to a halt. Now, I certainly could use my cell phone as a backup, but my Internet hardware is the most important asset on my network. Next, I would have to rank the computer with my Web server, music server, and file storage as second. If this computer crashed, I would lose just about everything. However, I do have the information backed up onto drives. Therefore, those drives would rank third. I would rank my desktop computer fourth, because I do a lot of work on it, but it is all backed up on the aforementioned hard drives. Lastly, I would rank my access points as fifth. They are not extremely important, as I have other ways to navigate around an outage with them. As you can see, it gets interesting when you start looking at risk management from the home perspective.

Have you ever sat down and thought about your information assets at home? How would you function without them? What is the most important? Do you have a plan in place in case you lose an asset or it is compromised through your Internet connection? We look at these things from a business standpoint, but our personal data is just as critical to us as those balance sheets are to the business. Just something to keep in mind while you are surfing the Web or balancing your checkbook!