With 2018 fast approaching, can you say your company is ready for all the cyber security threats the New Year may bring? Partnering with a third-party provider of I.T. services in Tulsa is a good first step, but that’s not enough. You should have these essentials to ensure your company is as safe as it can be:
Regular Training
Your employees should be trained on how to protect against threats whether they’re using their own devices or company-issued ones for work. Even sophisticated security systems can be hacked because of simple human negligence like using the same password for all logins, leaving unlocked devices unattended, clicking on phishing links, etc. These are avoidable, yet many people still fail to practice basic security measures. Thus, regular training is necessary to emphasize the importance of vigilance, and also to update them on any new threat.
Security Strategy
You can’t always take a reactive stance when it comes to threats. It’s not sustainable in the long run. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, even in cyber security. To mitigate risks, develop a proactive security strategy that’s designed to fight threats before they can cause any damage to begin with. Because once the damage is done, you can’t tell how much your company will be affected. You’ll pay fines and legal fees, lose reputation and customers. The key here is to implement preventive— not just curative— measures.
Updated Systems
Patches and upgrades are your systems’ first defense, but only if you install and apply them in a timely manner! If you have data in the cloud handled by a provider of I.T. services in Tulsa, they can perform patch management for you given how time-consuming it can be. So, there’s really no excuse for not updating. As for any on-premise systems that are still in use, give these a check, too. They most likely need to be updated as well.
Cloud-Based Backups
Are you prepared for any emergency, like natural disasters that can wipe away your local data center? Think of how fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes can bring whole cities down to their knees. You don’t want to lose all your company’s data if that happens. You need to have backups in other locations to ensure you can retrieve any lost information. But building multiple physical data centers in different places is expensive, so the cloud is your best bet. Cloud data centers are housed in many locations, so if one site goes down, the other sites still have copies of your company’s backups.
Access Control
Adopt a need-to-know policy when it comes to granting access to different systems, or to different parts of the same system. Fine-grained permissions control lets you select the specific roles and rights to be assigned to individuals. You can change these anytime, so that your employees have access only for as long as they need to. To enforce security, the default setting is no access to anyone except administrators.
Make sure you all have these essentials in 2018. And of course, don’t forget to choose a trusted provider of I.T. services in Tulsa for cloud-based services like us at JMARK Business Solutions. Contact us today to learn more.
