Firehost, a cloud hosting vendor, highlights the following six proactive steps to take and six reactive mistakes to avoid to protect an organization’s IT security.
6 do’s of IT security
1. Encourage a culture of security by educating employees on their roles in data protection. Promote safety practices and ensure employees know what steps they can take to prevent security issues.
2. Conduct a proper risk assessment to identify unforeseen weaknesses as well as expected vulnerabilities.
3. Encrypt your data using certain techniques for certain scenarios.
4. Patch your system to remain current with risk threats. If a weakness is identified, implement a patch immediately.
5. Monitor your system so you can spot hacker tactics. Additionally, make sure employees can identify the difference between normal and abnormal behavior on systems.
6. Hire the right people with the proper training because having employees with knowledgeable skills will help security remain current.
6 don’ts of IT security
1. Don’t sacrifice security for HIPAA compliance. Instead, balance the two priorities because neither is more important than the other.
2. Don’t ignore even the slightest potential vulnerability because even small exposures can lead to massive breaches.
3. Don’t wait for a breach to occur before taking action. A proactive approach is better than a reactive one.
4. Don’t equate security and compliance, as they aren’t the same thing.
5. Don’t fall behind on IT updates because secure infrastructures don’t remain secure forever.
6. Don’t forgo guidance. Seek help from experts to ensure maximum security.
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