You would think it unwise to leave your front door open when you go out or leave your car unlocked. Yet every day millions of internet users secure their online accounts with easy-to-crack passwords or are careless with what they share about themselves online, leaving themselves open to identity theft.
In business, just like in our personal lives, IT security is just as important as the security of the premises, but all too often corners are cut on prevention. Whether it’s ensuring your operating system is fully supported or that all systems and files are regularly backed up, preventing cyber attacks on your business can prove to be a time-consuming, expensive headache. But the problem associated with investing in any sort of prevention is that its success is invisible – you only know it’s working effectively when nothing happens. This invisibility makes IT security an easy target when there’s a need to cut costs.
Vulnerability
The Wannacry ransomware attack that recently affected businesses in over 100 countries around the world has shown what can happen if IT security isn’t well maintained. Among the most high profile of the victims was the NHS, where it was revealed that one in 20 of their computers were still running on Windows XP – an outdated OS that Microsoft no longer supports, meaning that machines running it were vulnerable. The NHS has been ordered to upgrade their systems.
Endpoint Security Management
Since IT protection and maintenance can be a complex task, many businesses are turning to solutions that help their IT managers gather data and monitor and make changes to machines across their whole network quickly and efficiently. Providers like https://www.promisec.com/ give businesses the tools to enable them to avoid potential attacks, and should they fall victim, be able to identify the attacks, deal with them and recover their IT operations quickly.
For individuals, it can’t be stressed enough how important it is to keep your antivirus software up to date and to ensure you have strong passwords. For businesses, protection against cybercrime and contingency planning are essential. Just by keeping regular back-ups that are unconnected from your main system, you are safeguarding your business against the effects of ransomware, but an effective security management tool will ensure complete control over how you protect your systems.
