7 Basic Principles of IT Security
When it comes to IT, security is always a top priority. Data theft, hacking, malware, and a host of other threats are things professionals are always on the lookout for. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are the three overarching principles of IT security. Equipped with these higher-level principles, specialist have up with 7 best practices to help organization ensure their information stays safe.
- Balance Protection with Utility. The main challenge of IT security is finding a good balance between resource availability and the confidentiality and integrity of those resources. Instead of trying to protect against all threats, most IT departments focus on insulting the most vital systems first and then finding acceptable ways to protect the rest without making them useless. Some lower-priority systems may be candidates for automated analysis, so the most important systems remain the number one focus.
- Split Up Users and Resources. For IT security to be effective, it must know who is allowed to see certain things and perform certain tasks. A system administrator needs to assign access by job type, and may have to further refine those limits according to organizational separtations. This ensures that upper level team members or management will have access to more data and resources than lower level employees. Rank should not mean full access, though. A company’s CEO may need to see more data than others, but that doesn’t mean he needs complete access to the entire system.
- Assign Minimum Privileges. An individual should only be assigned the minimum privileges needed to carry out their responsibilities. If responsibilities change, privileges should follow. Following this practice reduces the chances that any one person can walk out the door with all the data from any one department.
- Use Independent Defenses. Using one good defense, only works until someone breaches it. When several independent defenses are employed, an attacker has to use several different strategies to get through them. Introducing this type of complexity doesn’t ensure 100% protection, but it does reduce the chances of a successful attack.
- Plain for Failure. This minimizes consequences should failure actually occur. Having backup systems in place beforehand allows the IT department to constantly monitor security measures and quickly react to a breach. If the breach is not serious, the company can keep operating on backup while the problem is addressed. IT security is just as much about limiting damage from breaches as it about preventing them altogether.
- Record Everything. If and when a security breach does take place, the event should be recorded. The IT staff should record as much and as often as they can, even when a breach isn’t happening. Sometimes the causes of breaches are immediately apparent, so it’s important to have data to look back on. Data can help to improve the system and prevent future breaches.
- Run Tests Frequently. Hackers are constantly improving their skills, which means IT security must constantly improve theirs as well. IT professionals constantly run tests, conduct risk assessments, reread the disaster recovery plan, check business continuity plan in case of an attack, and then repeat.
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IT security is a challenging job that requires attention to detail and higher-level awareness all at the same time. Like many complex tasks, if it’s broken down into basic steps, the process can be simplified. JK Consulting is an IT Consulting Company with over 100 years of combined engineering experience. We can provide remote and on-site IT support for your hardware and software, and provide systems administration and help desk services that replace the need for a full-time engineer on an “as needed” basis. We have built a team of support professionals with website, hardware, software and network experience in both the corporate and residential markets. If you’ve found yourself in the need for IT support, request a quote from us today.
