Next to the safety of your people, there is nothing more important to your business than the security of your data. A data breach is a serious issue that can result in a financial loss and the loss of business, talent, and reputation. It could even result in legal repercussions. You need to protect your sensitive data from malicious threats and that means being proactive and conducting regular security assessments.
What Is a Security Assessment?
A security assessment is the act of evaluating the effectiveness of your security controls. During a security assessment, a variety of tests and exercises are conducted to check your network, systems, and processes for vulnerabilities and to ensure that they are functioning as intended.
If you have a skilled in-house IT team, you can conduct these security assessments yourself on a periodic basis. If you don’t have your own IT team, a third party can conduct the security assessments for you.
Why Conduct Regular Security Assessments?
There are multiple reasons why you should conduct security assessments on a regular basis. These include the following:
Identify Potential Weaknesses in Your Security
First and foremost, regular security assessments will help you detect and identify potential weaknesses in your security, which can lead to data breaches. This includes any employee behavior that is risky, whether they are aware of it or not.
Ideally, an audit of your defenses against a variety of internal and external attack methods is done to determine whether there are vulnerabilities and gaps in your security, where they are located within your security architecture, and how they can be fixed.
Ensure the Security of Sensitive Data
All sensitive data in your organization must be secure during creation/receipt, storage, and transfer. A security assessment will help determine the effectiveness of your data security measures to ensure that sensitive data cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties or compromised in any way.
Ensure Compliance
Regulations related to data security are changing all the time. Regardless of what industry you are operating in, you are responsible for maintaining a minimum level of regulatory compliance with regards to the security of your network and systems and the data they hold. Periodic security assessments will help ensure you are always up to speed and compliant, saving you from the legal fallout that can come from noncompliance.
Identify New Threats
With the rapid change in technology these days, potential threats are always evolving—and your security measures should be too. Regular security assessments allow you to test different approaches to security that will help protect you from emerging threats that are related to advances in technology and changes in the work environment, such as BYOD and working remotely.
Determine Training Needs
Your employees are an integral part of your security. Regular security assessments will allow you to determine where there are gaps in the knowledge your employees have regarding security so you can determine the training required and set your training budget accordingly.
Develop Disaster Recovery Plans
In the event of a data breach, you need to have a recovery plan in place. Regular security assessments will help you determine what you need to do should there be a security incident. This includes planning an adequate backup of essential data and how that data will be restored once the incident has been resolved.
Regular security assessments will help you determine whether the policies and procedures you have in place to ensure the security of your network and data are adequate. If there are any weaknesses in these policies and procedures, they can be identified and modified to improve security. This includes policies and procedures for things such as access control, user account management, information security governance, risk management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and physical and network security.
Strengthen Policies and Procedures
Regular security assessments will help you determine whether the policies and procedures you have in place to ensure the security of your network and data are adequate. If there are any weaknesses in these policies and procedures, they can be identified and modified to improve security. This includes policies and procedures for things such as access control, user account management, information security governance, risk management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and physical and network security.
Contact Platinum Technologies today to find out how we can help you plan and conduct regular security assessments so you can rest assured your network and data are fully secure.
