For any modern business, large or small, a solid IT infrastructure is now a necessity rather than an option. Web presence, digital marketing and IT support are all parts of a modern-day business whether you operate online via e-commerce or not.
However, some businesses might not be utilizing the correct IT solutions for their business and usually adopt a general IT approach using generic software and systems. This can pose cybersecurity risks and potentially cost more money than it should if the following systems not properly considered:
- Software
- User accounts
- Multi-authorization security
By streamlining your IT systems you can essentially create a focused solution for your very specific needs. These practices can apply to any business type or size and are geographically independent.
Using Specialized Software
Using generic systems pose security vulnerabilities, which apart from being easy to exploit by malicious hackers, can completely damage your reputation should confidential data be stolen.
Inefficient and poorly maintained IT infrastructure can be a costly mistake for any organization, but many specialized industries such as Law, Medical and Corporate could suffer the most where rules, regulations and compliance procedures need to be met and fines, lawsuits or even criminal charges could be filed if these are not met.
Industry-specific solutions have been specially developed by companies such as myhealthyit.com whereby personally tailored IT plans can greatly reduce risk and deliver optimized performance. By fine-tuning your system, high performance can be delivered through specific industry-based software vs. generic software.
A lot of generic software is exploited due to security issues which remain accessible until the relevant software manufacturer updates their product by providing patches. This makes them a large target for hackers while lesser-known and industry-specific software remains largely untouched.
Configuring Relevant User Accounts
Appointments, inventory, confidential records, etc. can all be managed securely and confidently on specific applications rather than with a standard spreadsheet for example, as a lot of businesses still do.
Generic user authorization across your business can also pose a high-security risk. Specific and restricted user accounts should be created on your business’s operating system so that only individuals with the correct clearance can access records, drives and/or files that they need to.
User authorization can usually be maintained inside your chosen operating system, but implementing this properly requires professional knowledge and should only be performed by an IT specialist.
Also, should you use generic authorization then there is no accountability should unauthorized actions take place on a system. That is to say, auditing would be almost impossible.
Implementing Multi-Factor Security
Providing employees with a username and login is the tried and tested approach to basic network or system security, and for the most part, it works. But this is a very generic process and doesn’t entail much security. Usernames can be stolen, employees can create simple passwords and social engineering is still a common occurrence.
These days, more and more businesses are adopting a multi-factor authorization approach that requires further checks than just logging into a system.
This could include special keyboards that require a chip and pin card when logging into a system, biometric fingerprint or eye scanning devices or SMS code verification similar to that now used by Google and PayPal.
By adding just one of these multi-factor authentication systems to the standard log in technique, the chance of unauthorized access is greatly reduced or even made impossible.
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