The 3-Legged Stool That Is Business IT Security

In a lot of ways, your business’ IT is just like a chair; you want it to feel stable, steady, and secure, not unbalanced and unsteady. In particular, a reliable security strategy depends on three legs: your people, your processes, and your technology. Let’s look at how you can use this “stool” approach to IT security to improve your company’s resiliency to potential threats.

The Fatal Flaw: Some Businesses Focus On One More Than the Other

If one leg of a stool is longer than the others, it creates an imbalance. The same could be said for your cybersecurity; if you invest too much (or too little) into one area of your organization’s security measures, you’ll notice that it’s significantly less effective. You’ll want to balance your preparations so that you can maintain protection across each part of your strategy.

The 3 Legs of Business Security

Your People

Your employees are one of the best security assets you have, provided they’ve been trained on security measures, policies, and best practices. Be sure to train them on how to identify phishing links, as these attacks are by far the most common, and take care to train them on password hygiene, how to identify other common warning signs of attacks, and security etiquette. Whatever you do, make sure it’s clear they play an important role in your cybersecurity strategy.

Your Processes

A company is only as effective as the policies and procedures that govern it—particularly in the realm of cybersecurity. Your processes should be straightforward and clear to all, focusing on how technology and data should be handled. For example, you’ll want the following:

• A formalized password policy
• A concrete incident response plan
• A set of rules dictating how company devices are to be used to access data remotely

All of these policies are crucial to ensuring that your business’ employees, departments, and management are on the same page. Your security processes should be consistent throughout and across your business.

Your Technology

Finally, we have the solutions and systems that protect your business, including firewalls, antivirus, email filtering, multi-factor authentication, and data backup. Without these solutions, your business could be at even greater risk of potential threats, and even the smartest employees and policies won’t be enough to protect it.

If you’re looking for a way to get all of the above in one convenient package, we recommend you work with Preferred to discuss our managed IT services. We’ll protect your business, train your staff, and help you set up policies that protect the integrity of your infrastructure. Learn more by calling us at 708-781-7110 today.