Risk Assessment - Part of Documenting Critical Applications

Post Date: May 26, 2025

Why Risk Assessment is Part of Documenting Critical Applications

We’ve talked before about why identifying your critical applications is essential for business continuity.

Another reason we ask for an inventory of your critical applications is for risk assessment purposes.

Without documenting your critical applications, you might not realize what’s at risk until it’s too late.

Essentially, you need to know what applications you have before you know what security vulnerabilities are going to affect your organization.

Additionally, we need to know if your applications have compatibility issues with other software or hardware. For example, if you need to upgrade your server, you need to know what applications you are running and if they are supported by the new operating system you are moving to.

Data Classification

Once you identify your critical applications, you should document five key attributes for each.

Service Location: Cloud, on-premises server, on-premises workstation
Importance: Critical, high, low
Application Champion: Employee(s) who can make decisions about how this should work
Number of Users: How many employees typically use this application day to day
Description: Something friendly to quickly understand what this is used for at a high level

For risk assessment purposes, you’ll also want to identify what type of data is stored or transferred through each application.

Some applications will touch sensitive information, while others will touch not-so-sensitive information.

There are three types of data:

Public: Data that is fine to be shared with the public (marketing material)
Internal: Not meant for the public (organization chart, sales playbook, etc.)
Restricted: Protected or sensitive information (PII, PHI, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc.)

Classifying data in your applications speeds up cybersecurity incident response. By documenting which systems handle restricted, internal and public data, you can quickly determine if a breach involves sensitive information.

This eliminates the need to treat every incident as critical, saving time and resources during investigations. For example, if a breach only involves public data, you can avoid unnecessary reporting.

“Without this level of insight, your organization is more exposed to risks, ranging from prolonged downtime to compliance failures during a cybersecurity incident.”

Business Impact Analysis

Part of a risk assessment is conducting a business impact analysis.

In short, a business impact analysis attempts to determine the potential impacts of an interruption to critical operations. It attempts to answer these questions:

How long can your critical applications be down before you feel pain?
What is that operational impact?
What is the financial impact?

For example, many businesses use redundant internet. If their main internet goes out, they have a backup so business operations are not halted.

For an organization with more than 200 employees, redundant internet is easy to justify, as no internet means you’re losing 200 hours of work if the internet is down for a single real-world hour.

On the contrary, buying redundant internet for six employees is a bit excessive, as you’re only losing six hours of work but paying for a second internet connection you probably won’t utilize very often.

Why Documenting Critical Applications is Essential

Documenting your critical applications isn’t just a task for IT; it’s a strategic step to protect your business. By understanding which applications are vital to your operations, what data they handle and how they interact with your infrastructure, you gain the ability to:

Identify and address vulnerabilities before they cause downtime or security breaches.
Avoid compatibility issues during upgrades, saving time and money.
Streamline incident response by knowing whether sensitive data is involved, reducing the time and effort spent on investigations.
Quantify business impact to prioritize investments, like redundant internet or backup systems, where they matter most.

Without this level of insight, your organization is more exposed to risks, ranging from prolonged downtime to compliance failures during a cybersecurity incident.

By taking these steps now, you’re not just improving IT efficiency, you’re ensuring business continuity, protecting your sensitive data and making smarter, more informed decisions about your technology.