What is security compliant? Simply put, it is maintaining IT protocols that follow industry standards and any laws that may apply. For example, if you record your customers’ personal details, part of remaining security complaining means following local privacy and security of personal information laws.
These standards are not meant to only keep you on the right side of the law; they help ensure that your organization keeps its information assets secure.
Small and Medium Businesses are at risk
The biggest consequence of a data security breach is monetary loss. Small and medium businesses, who don’t often have the human and financial resources to handle such a breach, are most at risk. Unfortunately, the growing nature of cybercrime makes IT security therefore a larger challenge for smaller organizations to handle.
There are certainly many large businesses that have experienced hacks (i.e. Yahoo, Sony, etc.), but that doesn’t mean that cybercriminals target only the larger companies. You should not assume that your company is small enough to slip between the cracks.
Five-step security compliance checklist
If you want to remain security compliant, we recommend following the following five steps:
Set up security protocol
If you don’t have a security protocol already, you should create one immediately.
Back up data regularly
Be sure to back up all your data and store it securely on a regular basis. Preferably you should back it up off-site and in the cloud.
Patch up operating systems
Because hackers often use your applications to target your computer network, be sure to patch all them, specifically your operating systems.
Whitelist applications
To ensure that only approved software can operate on your network, you should also whitelist your applications.
Manage admin privileges
You should manage your admin privileges discriminately; you only want your IT team installing software and security patches.
As a business owner, it is ultimately up to you to identify potential threats and make sure you have taken all of the appropriate steps to ensure you are security compliant. At the end of the day, it is less expensive to prevent a security breach rather than to fix one.
If you have any questions regarding business phone systems, please contact Advanced Communication Systems today at 800-750-3624. You can also follow us on Facebook.
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