Walkthroughs · 3.10

Treat, approve and monitor a risk

Choose the treatment, link the measures that carry it, rate what remains, then have it approved and set the review.

Steps

Treatment is stated as an outcome, not a stage number. The record moves through the same lifecycle as every other register.

  1. 01Choose the treatmentOpen the risk, click the Assessment tab and set Treatment strategy to reduced, avoided, shared or retained, then give Reasons for the treatment decision. Retaining a risk is a legitimate answer, provided it is authorised and recorded.
  2. 02Link the measuresClick Link an existing technical or organisational measure to attach a measure that carries the treatment, or click Create a new one instead. Where the measure does not exist yet, click New record and choose Privacy action instead, so the work has an owner and a date.
  3. 03Rate what remainsOnce the measures operate, set the residual likelihood and both residual consequences on the Assessment tab, with Evidence of effectiveness. A residual rating recorded before the measure operates is a forecast, not a result.
  4. 04Name the owner and the approverOn the Accountability tab set Owner and Approver. A risk carried without an owner, or retained without an approver, is raised as a gap. Where the residual risk to data subjects remains high, the approver has to be authorised at the level that can carry it.
  5. 05Take the record through approvalSelect each state in turn on the lifecycle bar and click Record as [state]. Each step becomes available when the answers it depends upon are present, so the order is the order of the work.
  6. 06Set the reviewOn the Lifecycle tab, set Review date and note the trigger that would bring the risk back earlier: a change to the processing, a new supplier, an incident or a change of measure.
  7. 07Monitor from the heatmapClick Risk and security in the left menu. The matrix shows where the population of risks sits before and after treatment; click a cell to filter the register below it, which is how a monthly review is run without a separate report.
Treatment recorded against a risk, with the measures that carry it and the residual rating.
Treatment recorded against a risk, with the measures that carry it and the residual rating.

When an assessment stops being current

The context an assessment was made in is held with it. Where the processing, the categories of data or the measures move on, the assessment is marked as no longer current and the risk returns for reassessment. Earlier assessments are retained as written.

Where a judgement can reasonably go either way

A measure can be linked to the risk or raised as a privacy action first. Link it when the control already operates and you can evidence it. Raise an action when it does not, so the register reports the gap honestly rather than showing a treatment that is only intended.