You should generally be concerned with seven types of IT Security: network, data, internet, data, cloud, application, and physical. Keep in mind that as networks and systems continue to integrate with the cloud and other emerging technologies, they will likely accommodate emerging threats.
Network
Network relates to protecting the interaction of your company’s network and your devices through the use of a firewall, ideally a next-generation firewall. Protect your network from unauthorized access, unexpected malfunctions, misuse, destruction, modification, and improper disclosure of information.
Data
Data relates to protecting the files, data, and databases that house your company information. Commonly used practices include encryption, tokenization, hashing, and key management.
Internet
The purpose of this is to ensure that malicious web entities aren’t allowed entry to the network. Internet security measures can be established inside and outside the network to accommodate employees that are roaming, traveling, or remote.
Endpoint
This is protecting the endpoint device at your company workstations, although it can also include mobile devices. This stops your company devices from being accessible to malicious networks that might compromise data safety. Anti-virus software and device management software are standard practices of endpoint security.
Cloud
This relates to protecting your company applications, data, and identities on the public cloud.
Best practices involve using a cloud access security broker (CASB), a secure internet gateway (SIG), and cloud-based unified threat management (UTM) as a way of limiting who has access to your company cloud networks.
Application
Application security refers to protecting applications that your company is running, whether they be on-premise or in the cloud.
It makes sure that the data inside your company applications is secure and not open to unauthorized personnel. The goal is to limit access to your applications to relevant personnel. Even then, making sure that said person only has access to what they need, no more, no less.
Physical
Physical security involves setting up proper measures to protect against theft of company data, devices, hard drives, servers, etc. Ensuring that server rooms are locked, giving authorized keycards, and watching for intruders goes a long way.
Protecting Your Organization From IT Security Threats
Remote Work Policies
Make sure your company implements and educates your employees on remote work policies.
- Avoid public wifi-networks or encrypting your web connection.
- Make sure not to conduct work on personal computers.
- Remember to check that no one can see your screen if working with sensitive data.
- As an extra precautionary measure, using a USB data blocker when charging at public phone charging stations.
Data Redundancy
Data redundancy technically relates more to business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR).
In these situations, the criminal has control of your data, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be getting it back–but if your company implements data redundancy and has a backup or copy of the stolen data, you won’t need to worry so much about the ransom.
The next step would be to find out if compromised and to patch up the hole so that this incident doesn’t happen again.
Internet & Hardware
Use a VPN to connect to your business network to reinforce business internet security. For hardware, remember to keep all company devices password-protected and set them to lock after an amount of inactivity. To keep unauthorized users from bypassing your password protection, make sure to enable two-step verification.
Keep Up with Updates
Keeping relevant software applications updated means the applications run without issue and security is up to date. Older applications are more susceptible to hacking.
Audit Your IT Security
Regular audits track which strategies and practices are working and which need to be improved or removed from your policies. The audits help you assess your company’s level of risk in a measurable way.
Policy Best Practices
Having policies that are too specific can end up needlessly restrictive, the secret is finding the right balance that fits your unique company’s needs.
Restricting the sharing of passwords both inside and outside your organization, group policies in the IT department related to server access, and similar protocols are all things to keep in mind when developing or reviewing your policies.
The main thing is to specify that all employees comply with your stated rules and guidelines. Business managers typically achieve this by setting up acceptable use policies (AUPs) that employees must agree to.
Having your entire business on the internet makes it more easily accessible and scalable. Still, it also runs the risk of a hacker breaching and gaining access to critical information. IT Security is what keeps your business safe as it continues to adapt to the modern era. To ensure that your own business stays prepared for potential threats, keep the lessons and best practices covered here in mind.
Maintaining Your Business’s IT Security
With everything that needs to be done, it can feel like one too many things to deal with on top of standard business operations.
Spend less time worrying about your security and more time running your business by taking advantage of our Managed Security Services, which come with preventative IT Security measures on top of our advanced threat detection and remediation solutions