With the amount of data being generated by businesses the world over, every single day, securing this data is vital. While Government, Industry and other regulations offer compliance to standards, information security reduces business risks related to cybercrime, ransomware and other interruptions resulting in data loss. Keeping your network safe and in compliance can help you avoid the consequences of data breaches. Read on to learn more about how to keep your network in compliance–and healthy, too.
Maintaining Network Health Facilitates Compliance
Your computer network is the backbone of your IT infrastructure, and needs to be maintained in order to stay healthy, and keep your business secure and compliant. Your network enables you to stay connected to customers, vendors and employees; keep your mission-critical applications running; and connect to public and private cloud infrastructure as well as back up data offsite. A healthy network is efficient, flexible and secure, routing data in the quickest way possible and rerouting easily. Security is another hallmark of a healthy network, one with no weak spots or holes allowing the intrusion of malware and viruses, where data is encrypted. Keeping the network strong is a good step toward compliance.
Keeping Your Network Secure
Keeping your network and its data and applications secure can be thought of as a two-prong effort. One involves technological tools and defenses. A company can protect its network with current operating systems patches to block malware or viruses from intruding, as well as maintaining current antivirus and anti-malware definitions. Going further, a company might consider network monitoring to keep small intrusions from becoming major problems. Such monitoring can be done offsite, to protect your network after hours. The second prong is employees. Training them in cybersecurity policies, and best practices around passwords and connecting to your network can ideally transform employees from being the weakest link to being one of the strongest parts of your defense.
Compliance Facilitated by Security
If security involves protecting your company’s assets, compliance has to do with following regulations from a third party like the government or an industry. Industry regulations include HIPAA, followed by health-care organizations or PCI-DSS which protects personal information belonging to retail customers. Procedures for compliance have to do with backing up data, auditing and monitoring your network for any weak spots including unprotected devices, and maintaining current definitions. These procedures can help your business avoid the loss of money (through penalties), avoid downtime (which is also costly) and can prevent the loss of trust resulting from a data breach.
A healthy network can go far in helping your company stay secure and compliant. For assistance in reaching this goal, contact us today.
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