How Secure Are Your IT Systems?

Modern day businesses have more reliance on IT than ever before, many simply would cease to function without it. If you asked a selection of business owners and managers what they would consider to be the main causes of downtime to their IT systems they might mention things like a failed hard disc, failed power supply or a failed motherboard. These are all issues that are easily resolved with reliable hardware support and hopefully minimal downtime but perhaps the biggest threat to organisations IT systems is one of security.

Securing your organisations network perimeter is no longer adequate on its own as most businesses have remote workers and employees who connect to internal systems when out of the office or at home. Business data is in a constant state of flux, often leaving the secured network perimeter via laptops, PDAs, email and storage devices.

The security threat is an ever growing one and requires a broad view considering not only outside threats but also internal threats from untrustworthy staff members. This therefore makes the job of any IT Administrator an unenviable one when it comes to security. A dual pronged approach is required, not only should measures be taken to tighten and secure business critical applications and systems but thorough testing should be performed to ensure the measures that have been implemented are working and continue to function in different circumstances. Regular security audits should be performed to test the security integrity on a continual basis.

Any organisation that is serious about its IT security should engage an external IT support company to offer additional advice and carry out an independent security audit to ensure internal IT staff are taking the issue seriously and have the necessary expertise to secure the organisation to the highest level.

PDQ Computers Ltd, based in Essex (UK), have been providing outsourced IT support in London for SME and Corporate clients since 1995.