5 Reasons IT is Stressed About Security

If you have an internal IT administrator, they might be pretty stressed about your business’ security. Why? Simple - there’s a good chance that they feel trapped in a few common situations. Let’s review some stresses that influence IT employees, negatively affecting your security.

“Wait, that’s my job, too?”

How busy is your internal IT staff - and how many people make up that team? It isn’t uncommon for these employees to be overworked… and when a security issue pops up, they often have additional responsibilities heaped on top of their already full schedule. Sometimes, they may be volunteered for certain tasks, or given additional titles.

Perhaps this person isn’t even an IT employee, but everyone turns to them because they seem to be pretty good with a computer.

The problem here should be apparent - there’s only so much that one person can do, especially when their responsibilities are of such importance to an organization. Therefore, while it can be tempting to lean on an employee that seems reliable, it can sometimes backfire into creating an employee who never has the opportunity to get any of their own tasks done.

“I can’t keep up!”

On a related note, it isn’t just internal responsibilities that an internal resource feels pressured to complete. Part of an IT specialist’s job is to keep apprised of developing threats and undergo regular trainings to keep sharp on the security end of things. This is no small feat on its own, and when combined with the often-growing list of things to do for the company directly, something often falls by the wayside.

This creates a two-fold problem… in addition to not being aware of developing threats, the IT resource doesn’t know to look for the solution to them. Even if the IT department prioritizes their security training, it is often at the expense of some other work responsibility - again, largely because there’s too much responsibility placed on each person.

“The IoT is too risky!”

As connected devices and other Internet-of-Things doodads are introduced into our lives, more of them will inevitably make their way into the workspace. While they may offer some convenience to the user, the IT specialist will likely have a very different impression of them. These devices are notorious for having sub-standard security, which has contributed to attacks like Mirai and many others.

While there are ways that these devices could be developed to be more secure in the future, this has not been prioritized by manufacturers - in fact, there are usually no records of any security testing whatsoever. So, despite the promise of these devices proving valuable in the professional environment, the lacking security is of great concern to IT specialists today.

“There are so many threats!”

It only seems natural that, when there is something that actively makes a job more difficult, an increasing amount of it can only be expected to increase stress levels.

This is precisely the situation that the IT specialist finds themself in. While we have already mentioned how an increase in threats creates more pressure on these employees, it warrants repetition - especially when one considers how these threats are shifting. Between the number of threats growing, and the rising number of devices in the workplace, cybercriminals have a greater opportunity to attack.

It doesn’t help that attackers are becoming more strategic, either. Their evolving tactics are leaving more businesses vulnerable, and attacks are happening more often. One of the biggest challenges for IT, however, is keeping the rest of a company’s users apprised and aware of the risks that are out there. This means that these users are opening up the company to attack without being aware of what they’re doing, certainly not the ideal security situation.

“It’s YOUR job, too!”

Unfortunately, one of the biggest stresses in any IT employee’s professional life is usually the people that they work with. There can often be the assumption that, since “security” isn’t a part of the job title, the rest of your staff doesn’t have to worry about security issues, that the IT resource will take care of it all. As a result, there can often be a lax attitude toward security best practices, like changing or sharing passwords and other basic security mistakes. This leads to a stressed-out IT team that has to run around, putting out fires.

Horne & Benik can help take some of the stress off your internal IT resources, or can step in as a remote IT department, depending on your circumstance. Reach out to us at (603) 499-4400 to learn more.