Best Methods to Improve Information Security in Companies

This are the very important ten Easy, Cheaper Means and best methods to Improve Information Security in Companies around the world at large.

Now that you have started your company in either a small to medium-size range, you would have noticed that it can be quite exhausting to hire info security manager. It is very demanding to meet the expense of a comprehensive Information Security Management system similar to those installed by bigger organisations.

As an IT specialist, you may be apportioned the information management role and you may only able to afford one or two information security team member to work with. Thus the question; what are some beneficial methods you can economically improve the information security position of your firm?

Simple, Low Cost Ways to Improve Information Security

Employ a third-party assistant to conduct an information security risk assessment.

• First of all, you have to keep a low cost by choosing a local company nearest to you. This is because, travel budgets can add up quickly to a huge sum. Risk assessment rates from local companies are usually lower charges as also.
• Secondly, ensure that you hire a firm that will simply conducts assessments so that the report is not predisposed.
• Thirdly, contact your local chapter or ISACA, ISSA, IAPP, HIMSS or ISC to find some good local companies they may recommend.
• Fourthly, make sure that the company has knowledgeable experience in the field and in your industry. They must know about the compulsory regulations (i.e. FFIEC, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, etc.)
• Next, source for contact references.
• Lastly, make sure the deliverables include actionable items, prioritized based upon risk.

Use the results of the assessment to create a plan before execution.

• Now that you have the results, you need to focus on the high-risk items.
• After that, you also need to consider mitigation to reduce the risk level versus complete remediation, which can often be even more resource demanding (apply the 80/20 rule).
• Similarly, you have to consider the company’s ability to accept change ¾ don’t even try to hurriedly solve too many problems all at once. You have to stay focused on accomplishing a few tasks, one at a time.

Open up and share the strategy with company management, IT staffs and any other departments that can help implement the plan.

• Depending on your company size, there may be a separate Privacy and Compliance team, give them updates since they may be willing to help write new policies and procedures.
• IT technical staff can often make small changes in their procedures to close several items.
• Management may have suggestions on how to get projects done or providing additional funding.

Use online materials to obtain templates and guides to implement action items.

• The internet is a free online platform to sources for information related to how to complete a particular action item. Go ahead and do a search by topic and you will find controls, toolkits, tools, policies, procedures and standards related to information security.
• It is recommended to join information security-related associations such as ISACA, IAPP, ISSA, ISC and others. Keep in mind that membership is usually cheap, with access to enormous resources.
• Lastly, even though the federal government has been increasing its engagement in public-private forums and sharing information, this is still in the early stages and may not provide the level of detailed assistance you may need.

Involve employees in other departments to be “eyes and ears” to keep you informed of potential security issues in their area or to “sell” information security to their coworkers.  

• A lot of staffs are aware that information security is a growing field and have been actively educating themselves or taking classes. Some are even getting degrees or certifications related to information security. Oh yes, they may be willing to help.
• Appreciate managers of a section for the efforts of their volunteers and make sure that you have a good volunteer mentorship program.

Determine if a security component can be added to another project or plan.

• Hardware replacements and upgrades to include encryption, malware protection, and asset tracking.
• Programming projects to include information security coding training and testing. Even if only training can be done, that will provide better results than untrained programmers writing code that leaves the doors wide open.

Constantly “update” information security to the board of directors, management and all employees.

• Just as stated above, you should inform management of security breaches occurring in your industry.
• Next is to simply understand how your business works and determine how improving information security (think confidentiality, integrity AND availability) will provide business benefits to your company.
• Use a good amount of time to develop relationships with managers. The truth is that you can win over their cooperation and support to keep you aware of potentially insecure practices.

Obtaining and implementing a Security Awareness Service.

• Charges are decreasing and more vendors are entering into this space.
• Performances are bite sized and interactive, sometimes
• Supports monthly reminders about security and keeps it top of mind for employees.
• Check things like phishing and have departments compete for lowest percentage hooked.
• This makes information security a part of everyone’s job requirements and evaluation.

You should Partner with local education institutions. 

Several educational institutions including high schools, certificate schools, community colleges, and both undergraduate and graduate programs at degree allowing colleges, polytechnics and universities have information security related programs. Benefiting from this advantage of these programs through work-school programs.

Also the multi-term internships enables companies to support the local community, develop a pool of future talent, gain current state knowledge and implement programs a lower cost.

Examples include: Interviewing subject matter experts and writing policies, procedures, standards and controls.

• Auditing
• Security awareness communications
• Threat research
• Meeting facilitation and documentation
• Project coordination and management
• Vendor and technology evaluation
• Management presentation support

Select a Managed Cloud Services provider.

This is the last step you need to do and you must do it carefully. So, you have to choose a preferable Managed Cloud Services provider by yourself, so I can be considered not biased in this regard. However, it is becoming generally apparent that managed services providers can often provide a secure environment at reasonable prices. You can see this post: Compared 16 Best Cloud Hosting Services – Reliable & Top Secure for more details on how to get into the cloud in a secure way for more details on how to do this.

8 Ways to Keep IT Systems Secure

1. Protect with passwords.
2. Design safe systems.
3. Conduct screening and background checks.
4. Provide basic training.
5. Avoid unknown email attachments.
6. Hang up and call back.
7. Think before clicking.
8. Use a virus scanner, and keep all software up-to-date.

How can a business improve its security?

6 Simple Tips to Increase Your Small Business Security Using Inexpensive Cybersecurity Measures

1. Change Your Passwords.
2. Use a Password Manager.
3. Delete Any Unused Accounts.
4. Enable Two-Factor Authentication.
5. Keep Your Software Up to Date.
6. Training to Identify Phishing and Spear Phishing Attacks.

What are 5 key steps that help to ensure database security?

Here are five things you can do to keep your company and customer information safe and secure.

1. Have secure passwords.
2. Encrypt your database.
3. Don’t show people the backdoor.
4. Segment your database.
5. Monitor and audit your database.

Summary

Wow, we have come to the end of today’s discussion. In a recap, we talked about 10 ways you can improve your company’s security position as its information security manager. The steps and options provided about will help you protect your data even if you have limited resources. Given these points above, we would be very interested to hear your stories and comments. You can also check out the related articles on this blog and any of the topics I have written on for Hybrid Cloud Tech blog. Go forth and secure your information and data!