Your Business May Not Be as Secure as You Think It Is

If you’ve spent any time at all reading our blog—or even looking at the topics we cover, for that matter—you’ve seen how often we talk about the importance of your business’s cybersecurity. The fact that we have to is frankly a little depressing. Trust me, I’d love to be able to spend all my time bringing your technology to the next level, instead of keeping ne'er-do-wells from undermining it. However, the reality is that every organization needs to focus on its cybersecurity, and this is becoming more and more the case all the time.

This is Why You Need Your Cybersecurity Awareness to Be On Point

Your cybersecurity needs just can’t be overlooked, primarily because the cybercriminals that your cybersecurity is meant to stop aren’t going to overlook your business. Generally speaking, every business is beholden to some level of cybersecurity compliance through regulations and other requirements. Some come from the state, others are based on a specific industry, and others can even come from a business insurance provider.

I’ve seen so many business owners and C-level executives make the same mistake, time and time again: they assume that they are secure with what they have. Based on my experience, the opposite is more often true—and I say this meaning no offense to these business owners. It’s just that efficiency tends to top their priority list, and most feel that cybersecurity practices present an obstacle to this efficiency.

I’ve been guilty of it myself. For all I push the security benefits of multi-factor authentication and sincerely hope that all of our clients use it to the fullest, even I occasionally wish I could just turn it off and save those few extra moments.

Regardless, nobody in your organization—especially you—can short-change your security. You actually need to set the tone for everyone else in your business.

Compliance is Another Non-Negotiable Factor

As we’ve mentioned, there are various regulations and requirements that different businesses may be held to, all of which require different tasks and processes to be carried out annually, or even quarterly. Many businesses and organizations may have to undergo a regular penetration test as a part of these processes.

A penetration test is a process where an ethical hacker follows a set procedure to break into your business’ network and IT infrastructure, with the intention of identifying and recording any vulnerabilities or weaknesses they see there. They’ll reconnoiter, looking for vulnerabilities that could be used to infiltrate your business, alter, steal, and/or delete your data, all the while lurking on the network and attempting social engineering and other low-tech ways to attack.

This isn’t something to shake a stick at—it’s a much larger process than a network audit or port sniffer scan. It isn’t something that just any technician will do if you request them to investigate an issue.

I cannot emphasize enough that these small security measures are not on the same level as a penetration test. I can’t tell you how many business owners I’ve talked to who ran a network audit through a third party, updating what the audit told them to and calling it a day. This is something that needs to be done, and is something we do on a regular basis, but it falls far short of what a true penetration test offers.

We Can Help You Make Sense of Your Cybersecurity

The challenges of modern-day threats and the regulations meant to protect you from them are a lot for your—or any business—to handle. We can offer a helping hand as your outsourced IT resource and partner. Learn more about our services and get started by giving us a call at (206) 895-5595.