We are in unprecedented times – poor worldwide economy, tightening budgets, fast moving technology developments and an increase in network security threats.  IT departments therefore need to stay on top of their network security but with tighter budgets this could seem difficult as it normally requires investment.

Here are our 5 top tips to help you increase network security with a limited budget:

1.       Share the workload
All areas of your business will have access to your data. To rely just on your IT department to manage security is a poor strategy. Train everyone in your business to handle data effectively and securely.  Ensure that they understand the importance of security and how to deal with data effectively.

2.      Contract an IT Partner, not just a vendor

IT vendors deploy products that will operate on your network to secure any holes you might have.  However this tends to cover your security issues at the time of deployment and not protect you against future IT developments and therefore future security issues.  Hiring an IT Partner is a great way of outsourcing your IT security to someone that will maintain and monitor your systems and make ad-hoc improvements to security as and when required.  This is a far cheaper option than going down the vendor channel.

3.       Key Stakeholders

As well as sharing the workload with all people within your business it is a good idea to have internal IT Champions within each department.  These are people that are trained to a certain level of IT proficiency that will monitor systems and data on a regular basis.  If they notice any potential issues they can inform your IT Partner who will then action this in an effective manner and very quickly.  Your IT Champions will be able to disseminate what is classed a security risk and pass on factual information to your Partner which will be an effective use of man power and resources.

4.       Take regular backups

Believe it or not we notice that the majority of businesses still do not have an effective backup solution.  Data can be held on various PC’s throughout the business that may not be backed up by your IT Department as they are not aware of it.  A classic example is spread sheets – your workforce may create ad-hoc spread sheets to handle their operational requirements and hold these on their PC’s.  If these are not backed up and their terminal goes down they effectively become redundant until this can be re-built.  Determine your backup strategy with your IT Department, staff and your IT Partner to ensure it is effective for your business requirements today and moving forward – it will save you a fortune in downtime.

5.       Software Updates

You may think that your internal software is secure and take for granted that it is up to date.  However you will find that security patches, software updates and firmware are normally out of date very quickly.  By working with your IT Department and IT Partner you should add this to the weekly and monthly checks you should be performing on your network.  It will greatly increase your protection internally and allow for system uptime to be greatly increased.

For more information on IT Security, Network Security and how D2NA can become your IT Partner visit www.d2na.com today.