How to Ensure Data Security in Your IT Services

Ensure Data Security

IT services are an incredibly important part of most businesses due to how much we rely on software, cloud services, and computer networks. The world has largely turned digital and IT has never been more vital. It’s for this reason that you have to protect your IT services, including the data shared and stored on them. In this article, we look at what you can do as a business to protect your data in relation to your IT services.

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Why Is Data Security Important in IT?

The amount of data businesses store in their IT services is staggering. This includes things like customer data, financial information, and employee information. It’s incredibly sensitive data and the implications of this info being stolen or corrupted can be severe:

Data corruption: Imagine that you have an order database on your CMS platform that contains customer orders to be processed, and orders awaiting payment. Imagine then, that the data became corrupted due to a security issue and was lost. This could cause immense damage to your business including financial loss, and loss of customers.

Stolen data: Similarly, what happens if you have an employee database containing sensitive info and it was stolen by cybercriminals? You have no idea how that info could be used, or the damage it could cause to your employees.

This is why data security for your IT services is vital. It ensures the data you store remains secure, that it can’t be used maliciously, or that it won’t have a negative impact on your business. Data security is also often vital from a compliance perspective. For example, your business may have to comply with GDPR or have special industry regulations relating to data protection.

4 Implementations to Improve Data Security

With the importance of data security defined, we can look at four things you can implement to protect your IT systems.

1. Move to a Managed IT Services Solution

Smaller and medium-sized businesses often don’t have the funds, knowledge, and experience to manage their data security effectively. In instances like this, moving to a managed IT service solution could be ideal.

The upkeep, maintenance, and security of your IT services gets outsourced to a professional third-party company. They take care of everything. This gives you peace of mind, excellent security, and also allows your employees to concentrate on other aspects like growth and development.

2. Incorporate a Threat Intelligence Platform

Threat intelligence platforms analyze your IT services, cloud store solutions, and networks to look for potential security threats. They also have access to huge amounts of data from global security feeds to stay on top of cybercriminal trends. This is a form of proactive security instead of reactive. It allows your business to stay one step ahead and stop potential data security breaches before they ever happen.

3. Ensure Employees are Up-to-Date with Best Security Practices

Data security issues are often caused by user error. For example, perhaps someone clicked on a suspicious link, or gave their login credentials out unintentionally. This can easily be combated by training your employees in data security best practices. Put policies in place for factors like password generation, internet usage, and email security. Be sure to implement a strict permission system so that employees only have access to the IT services they need.

4. Conduct Regular Security Audits

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Everything comes undone if your IT services and security systems aren’t regularly audited. In the world of cybersecurity, technologies are constantly changing. The means criminals use to attack businesses are also continuously evolving.

Software and programs need regular updates to make sure they are the current version and benefit from the latest bug fixes. Consider implementing a monthly security audit. During this audit, you would look at your data security processes in relation to your IT services. You could also analyze threat intelligence software to find potential weaknesses that have arisen in your defenses. The audits should involve key employees from different departments, and your managed IT service correspondent if you choose to go down that route.

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Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Data Security

As modern businesses continue to push towards full digitalization, the importance of data security for your IT services increases. As digital tech and IT services develop, unfortunately, so do cybercriminals and the tools they use to launch attacks.

By reviewing your data security practices, you can reduce the chance that your IT data is compromised. This includes regular audits, clear guidelines for your employees regarding IT service usage, and use of cybersecurity tools like threat intelligence platforms.

Small and medium enterprises could also consider moving to a managed IT service approach. This would ensure compliance and improved security, while allowing your own staff to concentrate on your core business processes.


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