The last thing you want is to read about your organization getting hacked in the news. The sheer number of cybercrime-related articles makes it clear that IT security has become a top priority for organizations worldwide.

Without a strong security setup, organizations are more vulnerable to breaches, hacks and other cybercrimes which can compromise your data and financial profits.

But there are many ways to improve your IT security and keep it manageable. Listed below are pointers to help improve the IT security of your organization.

1. Ensure All IT Equipment Is Always Up-to-Date

The most basic way to improve your organization’s IT security is to ensure that all the hardware and software used by employees are up-to-date.

This is one of the easiest ways to ensure you have the latest patches and updates installed on all devices. If you don’t, it will be easy for hackers to find vulnerabilities in your system. By exploiting these vulnerabilities, they can damage your equipment or gain access to sensitive information.

This means you should ensure that operating systems, applications and firmware are regularly patched with the latest security updates. The same goes for third-party software, such as antivirus software and any other applications installed on your networks, such as web browsers or email clients.

To keep track of everything, you can use tools that allow you to scan all your hardware and software remotely to know what needs updating and where.

2. Turn On Automatic Updates

When improving your organization’s IT security, you must ensure that all your systems and software are up-to-date.

It’s easy to forget to update the software regularly, especially if you have dozens of computers to manage. Set automatic updates to prevent this from happening, so you never have to worry about a patch getting missed.

This includes operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS X, browsers like Chrome or Firefox, email programs like Outlook or Thunderbird, and even apps you run on mobile devices like iPhones and Android phones.

Automatic updates show you what has changed in each new version. With this, you can decide whether it’s worth installing the update or waiting until later when you have time for a proper reboot.

3. Use the Strongest Passwords

Passwords are one of the easiest ways to protect your business against hackers. They’re also one of the easiest ways for hackers to break into your system. The best way to protect yourself is by using strong passwords that are difficult for others to guess.

Strong passwords are:

  1. Randomly generated, with a minimum of 8 characters, containing upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols
  2. Not based on words found in the dictionary or any other easily recognizable pattern of letters or numbers
  3. Changed regularly (ideally every 90 days)
  4. Not shared across multiple accounts or devices

For example, “password123” is not a strong password; “qwertylkjh345” is a much stronger password. This is because it has more entropy and relies on elements less likely to guess correctly. 

However, both of these examples are still vulnerable to brute-force attacks because they only use one layer of complexity. You can improve security further by adding more layers of complexity by adding spaces, punctuation or other symbols between each word. The longer and more complex the password is, the harder it will be for hackers to crack.

4. Use a Password Manager

Passwords are hard to remember and vulnerable to brute force attacks, but they’re still the most common way we protect our accounts online. So what can you do? Use a password manager. 

If you use the same password for multiple accounts, it’s easy for hackers to guess it. Using the same password for all your accounts makes it easier for hackers to access your accounts, including those where you store confidential information like credit card numbers. 

To protect yourself from this attack, use a password manager such as LastPass or 1Password that generates and stores unique passwords in an encrypted vault for every account you create online. That way, if someone gets hold of one of your passwords, they still won’t have access to others.

5. Encrypt Your Data

Encryption is the process of converting data into an unreadable form by anyone who does not have access to a key that they can use to decrypt the data. Encryption protects data in transit and at rest and is possible in many ways.

The most common forms of encryption are symmetric encryption, which uses the same key for encryption and decryption. Another one is asymmetric encryption, which uses two different keys for these operations.

Symmetric encryption is faster than asymmetric encryption.  It requires only one operation; however, if an attacker has stolen or compromised your symmetric key, they can decrypt all your encrypted data. 

Asymmetric encryption provides more protection against this sort of attack. Only someone with knowledge of the private key can decrypt the data. Without knowledge of that private key, attackers cannot reverse engineer it from any other information they may have acquired.

6. Only Share Company Data With Trusted People and Applications

Every organization needs to share data with other employees or third parties at one time or another. When this happens, there is always a risk of someone else accessing confidential information without permission or authorization.

Sharing company data with trusted people and applications, however, doesn’t mean that you should allow anyone to access your systems.

Instead, it means you should only share company data with trusted people with the right credentials and authorized by your organization to access it. You should only give people access to the information they need to do their job properly. 

It also means you should only allow trusted applications to access company data—applications developed by reputable software vendors and which have undergone rigorous testing for security vulnerabilities.

You may also want to consider using two-factor authentication as an additional layer of security when granting access rights.

7. Train Your Staff

Training your staff is key to improving your organization’s IT security. However, it is also one of the more challenging aspects of this task. So how can you ensure your staff is trained properly on IT security?

Here are  tips for training your staff:

  1. Ensure there is a documented list of staff training requirements
  2. Train all new employees on the basics of IT security
  3. Have regular refresher courses for existing employees
  4. Ensure that all staff members understand the dangers associated with unauthorized access to sensitive information, including how much access could threaten their safety
  5. Ensure that senior management understands how they can help improve your organization’s IT security by not disclosing sensitive information over insecure channels

Safety Is Key!

With the number of cyber-attacks on the rise, it is important that organizations, regardless of size, pay attention to security. Although IT security can be costly and time-consuming, it is an investment worth making. These eight tips will help you get started.