Tip of the Week: 5 Steps You Can Take to Bolster Network Security

Network security is more important today than it’s ever been before, especially in light of several concerning developments in targeted hacking attacks. Unfortunately, many employees (and even some employers) don’t know or understand how to follow various security best practices. By ensuring that every single one of your employees understands the importance of cybersecurity, you can exponentially increase your organization's network security.

The best part about educating your employees on how best to handle cyber security, is that it doesn’t have to be difficult. Even some basic security practices are capable of improving your data security and business continuity. Consider the following measures for enhancing your business’s data security.

Check your password security protocol: Your team members should always be using security-optimized passwords. This means using both upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Furthermore, no accounts should be using the same passwords. It might be difficult to remember so many complex passwords, but using an enterprise-level password manager can help with this.

• Monitor access logs: Your network has several users accessing it on a daily basis, including those who work remotely. They need access to mission-critical data and applications in order to facilitate operations. You should be keeping track of who accesses your network remotely, primarily because if hackers gain access to administrator credentials, they can potentially (and legitimately) access the network and bypass your security measures. If this happens, the only way to know is to monitor your access logs. Nobody should be accessing your network from the other side of the world.
• Restrict access on a user basis: How many of your employees are privy to information that they shouldn’t have access to? For example, no employees besides your human resources or financial departments need access to credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and so on. By limiting who within your organization has access to sensitive information, you can essentially limit its exposure to potentially hazardous threats.
• Integrate proper security measures: In cyber security, sometimes the most basic measures are the most effective. Are you using a firewall solution? Are you taking advantage of enterprise-level antivirus software? What about content filtering and spam blocking solutions? All of the above can be taken advantage of in a Unified Threat Management solution, which maximizes your data security.
• Monitor and maintain operating systems and software: When your business takes advantage of so many different pieces of software, you know that it can be a challenge to keep them all up to date and secure. If you fail to install the latest patches and security updates, your organization could be staring down the barrel of compliance fines and data breaches. Horne & Benik has a remote monitoring and maintenance solution that’s designed to keep a close eye on your network, so that the moment critical patches and security updates are made available, they are deployed quickly and efficiently.

For more information about how you can keep your organization’s network secure from both internal and external threats, give us a call at (603) 499-4400.