4 Steps Your Company Can Take to Improve IT Security

Featured article by Emily Roberts, Independent Technology Author

We live in an era now where basic virus protection software isn’t going to cut it in terms of protecting your IT infrastructure. Many other problems can now arise and it isn’t just cyber-attacks we need to be wary of – it’s also physical access to our computers and servers. If you’re looking to step up your game and secure your IT practices, consider following the below steps.

1. Have a Security Procedure in Place & Follow It

Planning for security issues is the best way to bypass them and prevent them from happening in the future. If you have a small IT department in your office, ensure they have the right security clearances to be in the area. If you need to hire an outside contractor to come into the office to service printers or other electricals, ensure you all know who they are and make sure they have the right clearances. When it comes to preventing online cyber attacks, ensure your employees change their passwords regularly and have different passwords for different logins. Always teach good practices and ensure all your employees stick to the basic procedures.

2. Invest in IT Security Courses for Your Employees

If you have multiple employees who aren’t tech-savvy, send them on a course to broaden their horizons. Make sure they understand the problems the IT department faces on a daily basis and ensure they know what they must do to avoid making common mistakes that can sometimes prove fatal. When it comes to your IT department, send them on f5 big ip courses so they can help prevent HTTP attacks. Simple courses like these can be the difference in preventing severe attacks that can sometimes be the downfall to many businesses.

3. Regularly Test Your Security

If you really want to tighten your security in every aspect, it’s important you regularly test the security you already have in place. Walk around the office and you’ll be surprised by who’s not following the simple security practices you put in place. Look in the bin and you’ll find pieces of paper that haven’t been shredded. Look on desks and you’ll find employees have written their passwords down. Go outside of the office and look through the window to see what information can be found by simply looking straight at a computer monitor. When it comes to online security, organise a security audit from a local firm to see what they can come up with. Better yet, look online at some of the test hacks you can deploy to test your network security. All the small things that are often overlooked are usually the biggest security risks.

4. Update Your Systems Periodically

Hackers are always looking for new ways to spoil the fun for businesses, so it’s important you always stay ahead and don’t give them easy access. When it comes to the latest virus software, ensure it is updated as often as possible. When it comes to web browsers, plugins, and other computer software, ensure that is regularly updated so bugs and other security issues are fixed. Hackers will find a loophole in anything, don’t let that loophole be a simple security issue that you forgot to update via Mozilla Firefox.

There’s plenty you can do to protect your IT infrastructure – the above steps are just some of the steps you need to take care of so that everyone knows how damaging security flaws can be. Don’t leave it until later. Implement new security software today, keep it updated periodically, and you won’t fall victim to a hack that could prove costly to your business.