4 Oversights that will Harm Your Network

With all the attention that hackers receive, you would think that they are solely responsible for every network security breach, but the truth of the matter is that most damages to company networks are due to negligence. Here are the four most common IT security oversights that can lead to major damages to your network.

Not Educating Employees
Human error is responsible for the majority of security breaches. By educating your employees on proper network use and what to look for in a malicious e-mail, you can save yourself the time and expense from having to clean up after a potentially harmful data leak. You may even have network security policies in place. Taking the time to educate your employees on how to follow these policies will go a long way in keeping your data safe. Directive can help you draft security policies if you do not yet have anything official in place to communicate to your staff.

Not Performing Security Updates
Software manufactures work hard to provide users with security updates to protect their networks. Forgetting to install a new security patch can leave your network defenseless to the newest cyber-attack. Installing an update only takes a couple of clicks. Remotely installing software and security updates is a managed service that Directive offers if you want to be sure that this task will get done.

Not Restricting Network Access
This oversight especially applies to offices that have a wireless network and lets anybody and everybody access the network with their personal devices. When it comes to your network, the restrictions and allowances to network access are like the front lines in the security battlefield. Using an NAS device like a Unified Threat Manager is a great solution to give different people different levels of access to your network, making it so that you don't have to worry about who is accessing files that they shouldn't.

Not Having an Employee Termination Procedure
It's important that when you terminate an employee, you also terminate their access to the company's network. Even before you fill out the pink slip, it's good to have this denial of access procedure enacted in order to prevent theft of sensitive company data. Managing access points to your network is one of the many IT services that Directive offers. Before you send someone home packing, give us a call at 607.433.2200 and we will prevent them from packing sensitive files on their USB flash drive.

Every network comes with its own unique set of security risks. Before you can educate your employees on what to look for, you need to be informed about these risks. Directive performs free network audits in order to educate businesses about their network's vulnerabilities. We'd be happy to work with your company and provide network security solutions, which includes having us manage your network so that you don't have to worry about any oversight!