IT Security
As businesses are relying more and more on IT to support their processes, IT security is of paramount importance. Protecting your systems from threats such as viruses, hackers, or even your own employees can mean the difference between success and failure for your company.
A breach in your security resulting in the loss of important and sensitive information can damage your company’s reputation as well as affect your cash flow and competitiveness. As well as protecting information stored on your systems, it also needs to be secure when sent and shared with others.
Information that can be affected by hackers and viruses includes employee records, patient or client information, price lists, and intellectual property. If this information were to be accessed by the wrong people it could be copied, altered, or even destroyed. Hackers can even access your website and make damaging changes.
Financial information is another significant area of your business that needs protecting, as not only does this include sensitive details about your employees and customers but also it could be used to commit fraud. Click here to learn more about how you can protect your accounts payable information.
There are many possible ways that unauthorised people from both inside and out the business can gain access to your company’s private information. One of the most common causes is also one of the simplest, passwords and other login details not being properly protected by employees. Many people will often write down their system passwords so as not to forget them and not make an effort to change them regularly. Employees will also often share their details with others without thinking of the consequences this could have.
Viruses are one of the other biggest reasons for a security breach, and the most common way they get into a system is through emails. They tend to be sent as an attachment and will infect your computer and your systems with worms, Trojans, or other viruses if opened. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that all staff exercise extreme vigilance upon receipt of emails from an unknown source.
The increasing use of the internet within small to medium sized businesses has also seen a dramatic increase in scams and fraud. An internet policy within your company is a good idea, in order to reduce the risk of viruses being picked up from malicious websites that at first may seem harmless. Social networking sites are increasingly responsible, with hackers postings links to popular websites and events that turn out to be phishing sites. Most often, these are used to install software on the user’s computer that records anything typed on the keyboard therefore making it possible to steal personal details.
The effect a virus can have varies widely from a minor disruption to the deletion of files and data and even identity fraud, so any potential risk must be taken seriously in order to protect your business. Risk management can help you to analyse possible threats and develop an action plan should they occur.
This process typically involves first using research to identify and understand threats to your business, and then deciding which parts of the business are susceptible to the different threats. Statistical research can help you determine how likely each threat is to occur so you can understand how much a security breach is likely to cost the company.
Once you have an understanding of the different scenarios you could be faced with, an action plan needs to be created to minimise the possibility of the threat occurring, prevent it altogether, and decide what to do in the case that it should occur.
Iron Mountain can help prepare you for a possible breach of your financial information with their Accounts Payable Enablement service. Not only does this make your accounts payable system faster and more accurate, but also increases the security of your sensitive data.
More information on Iron Mountain business process management will show you how factoring a service such as this into your risk management will help to protect some of your business’s most sensitive data and greatly reduce the risk of threats such as identity fraud and theft.
There are also many other measures you can take to help counter threats to your business. Reduce the risk of unauthorised access by ensuring a firewall is installed as well as content scanners for email attachments, viruses, and spyware. Be sure to update your systems regularly with hot fixes, service packs, and patches, as intrusion techniques are constantly changing and evolving.
Minimise the possibility of viruses attacking your systems by encouraging vigilance within the workplace. Staff should treat email attachments that look suspicious, or that are from an unknown source, with caution. USB flash drives are also a common carrier used for viruses, so their use should be restricted and security measures put in place. Installing effective antivirus software on all office computers as well as laptops will again help to reduce risk.
Once the risk management process is complete, an information security policy document detailing the company’s plan for protecting its IT assets should be formulated. This document needs to be continuously updated and should include the scope and objective as well as a statement of intent. This should then be followed by an outline of the minimum procedures, objectives, and requirements that are important to the business. Roles and responsibilities also need to be defined in the quest for information security, as do details of the process that needs to take place should a security breach happen.
Other things that need to be made clear in the document include the possible threats to the business through the use of the internet, what can and can’t be used on the internet by employees, the person or persons responsible for security, and the overall practices and guidelines that should be followed.
