Keeping abreast of the ever-evolving IT cyber world is a constant battle that IT professionals must take seriously. The practice can be time-consuming and challenging, but it is imperative for the well-being and security of workplace network infrastructure.
The Canadian Center of Cyber Security released its annual Cyber Security Threat Assessment, which outlines that over 800 million Canadian dollars have been lost via online fraud, cyber attacks, and ransomware breaches.
The report outlines that critical infrastructure within government establishments and medical facilities is a specific target for attacks.
Fortunately, most of the steps to ensure that computer network security remains effective and secure involve updating critical practices that are likely already in place – ensuring that these remain modern enough to address new cyber strategies and threat models.
Regular Risk and Threat Assessments
Frequent risk assessments carried out by IT departments must be considered the baseline of good IT cyber-security practice.
Regular security risk assessments are imperative to identify potential network weaknesses and mitigate these vulnerabilities before they become targets for malicious infiltration.
Similarly, regular assessments can ensure that your IT department complies with protecting critical and customer data.
The results of the assessments can not only support departments in identifying critical issues but can also help with budget planning for upgrading or replacing critical software, hardware, and other infrastructure.
Update Security Protocols
Another critical factor in ensuring security and threat detection are maintained within the enterprise space is continually evaluating and updating business security protocols.
It makes sense to ensure that these guidelines are rooted in best industry practices and are both clear and comprehensive.
The importance and effectiveness of this practice benefits companies in multiple ways. It is essential to keep network security policies clear and up to date to ensure that employees are aware of any updates in employee guidelines.
Staff Training
This point goes hand in hand with updating security protocols – staff training is essential every time a policy is updated.
It is estimated that 17% of Canadian cyber attacks are a result of phishing. Phishing is executed effectively when employees willingly hand off critical data or passwords into a forum that acts as an official link or document.
As the phishing landscape continuously evolves and becomes much smarter, it becomes much more challenging for these cyber threats to be identified easily.
Staff training is a continuous investment for information technology departments and must be maintained and updated – especially when changes occur to a remote access policy, network security policy, or information security policy.
Access Controls and Hierarchy
Within organizations, only allowing access controls to certain vital individuals is so important. Those identified individuals must be assessed frequently to ensure that critical data and infrastructure are only accessible to those who require it.
This practice ensures that unauthorized access and breaches remain limited.
Network Segmentation
Another practice to roll out or keep up to date is the network security strategy of segmenting networks. This practice is a damage-control methodology in case of an actual malware breach.
Once an unauthorized user is within your network, data segmenting ensures that their lateral moves within your data organization are controlled. This limits the amount of critical data that could be accessed and extracted.
Endpoint Security
One of the most challenging aspects of an IT professional’s job is the realization of just how far their network extends.
Employees might utilize hybrid work structures in the modern workplace, so IT departments become responsible for home network set-ups and multiple endpoint devices such as phones and tablets. All of these networks and devices are targets for malware and cyber thieves.
With such an array of endpoint devices, IT departments need robust EPD and Mobile Management policies.
Phishing attempts are notoriously more challenging when read on a mobile device – and users accessing on the move are more likely to enter critical data without their typical checks and balances via their laptops or desktops.
Encryption
Encrypting data – both when it is stored and in transit is essential for good information technology practice.
This practice adds an additional level and layer of data security, especially if one of those aforementioned mobile devices is misplaced or stolen.
Encryption is a simple yet effective method that alters data into an unreadable format that cannot be decoded without an encryption key. This method reduces the risk of compromised data from internal and external network security threats.
Continuous Network Monitoring
Alongside frequent security audits and assessments, deploying a continuous network monitoring tool is another critical factor in maintaining a secure IT environment.
This tool can be used to identify any anomalies or suspicious activity in real time, and the software can immediately mitigate daily risks.
Collaboration with Industry Peers and Networking Events
Like most professions and industries, allocating some budget for your team to network with other industry peers and attend conferences and summits is imperative.
Key industry drivers and cutting-edge strategies are often showcased at these events, and this helps IT departments keep abreast of developments and new concepts in IT security.
Conferences can also outline case studies of malicious data breaches and what security practices might have mitigated certain risks and reduced network damage.
Conclusion
Managing a modern IT department and organization can be challenging – and we are here to help.
Outsourcing some of your corporate network monitoring challenges can lighten your load dramatically.
Our security team is versed in the latest network security developments, and we can support entire organizations. Similarly, should your company be in growth mode, let us help you scale these challenges!
