5 Questions To Ask Your IT Team To Ensure You Are Secure

Most companies believe that they are in complete control of their security online and that they could never be the target of a cyber criminal. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but cyber attacks aren’t just for the big companies. Symantec, a leading security software company, states that 36 percent of all targeted attacks were made against businesses with under 250 employees. In this blog post, we’ll discuss 5 questions you should ask to make sure you are secure.

Are your passwords good enough?

The backbone of IT cybersecurity is a solid password strategy. Without good passwords, everything else is basically irrelevant. It’s important to use both strong and unique passwords. Did you know that 81% of hacking-related breaches involved stolen and weak passwords? It’s important to never recycle passwords and to use complex, strong passwords. For more detail, check out “Why is it bad to reuse passwords?” and “What makes a strong password?”

How’s your firewall?

Firewalls are the hardware and software systems that keep you protected from unwanted traffic on the Internet. Firewalls check the incoming data and decide to forward or toss the traffic based on its content. They are essentially the gatekeeper between your network and the outside world (internet). For a deeper dive on a firewall and how your business can benefit from one, check out “What Is a Firewall And Why Do I Need One?”

How’s Your Update Process?

Believe it or not, according to Kaspersky, almost half of all organizations have some form of out of date or unpatched software on their systems. With the sheer number of patches, it can be overwhelming to make sure everything gets patched. Luckily, there’s a simple solution. Patch Management Software does an inventory on what software is installed on which PC’s and servers throughout your business. From there, you can easily tell which machines need updates installed and push updates to those devices. It’s really a game changer when it comes to organizing those pesky patches.

How’s Your Backup Situation?

If you can’t answer this question with confidence, you need to take action. Having a solid backup strategy is a key component of your infrastructure. There are so many threats to your data, ranging from ransomware to natural disasters, including fire. Having an offsite backup of your data can literally be a life-saver for your business.

A good rule-of-thumb is the 3-2-1 rule: 3 Copies of the Data: Two local (on different devices) and one off-site. This could look something like: The original data on the computer/server, a backup on a NAS/External Drive and then a cloud backup of the data. This protects against many scenarios, including fire, theft, and possibly even ransomware (depending on the cloud provider/setup).

For a more in-depth post about backups, check out “Backups: Is my data safe when EVERYTHING goes wrong?”. This will shed additional light on the subject of backups.

How is your team’s cybersecurity knowledge?

A team is only as strong as its weakest link. This is also true with your business, especially in regards to cybersecurity. A well-trained and educated team is a must, making it infinitely more difficult for attackers to cause damage to your business. As said in our blog post from a few weeks ago, “You can spend countless dollars on sophisticated anti-malware & firewall systems, but the weakest link will always be the human mind. It’s much easier to trick a human to reveal information than trying to force a computer system into doing it”.

Basically, it doesn’t matter if you spend untold dollars on the latest and greatest firewall and advanced technology if the person in the mailroom allows an attacker to remote into her PC because they claimed they were with “Windows Support”.

Based on those questions, how do you feel?

Obviously, there’s much more to cybersecurity than these 5 basic topics. Just answering these may give you a good indication on where you stand. In the event you wanted a deeper view into where your business stands, we can have a discussion to pinpoint and assess how to get you from where you currently are to where you need to be.

At SandStorm IT, we’ve made it our mission to ensure that businesses can survive whatever IT issues come their way. We love partnering with businesses in the Greater Memphis area on their IT. Schedule a call to discuss how we help you with all of your IT needs.