I’ve been working in IT a long time, the biggest IT ‘threat’ 20 years ago was in impeding ‘millennium bug’ that never happened. We were advised by experts that planes could fall from the sky, power stations would shutdown and trains come to a halt. Alas, when the clock struck midnight the world continued to turn and IT continued to run… Regardless of the huge sums of money already spent overcoming the impending doom.

Back then the biggest headache for IT in a business was the users mis-using, breaking the systems or a hardware failure causing outages. It was a headache because recovery was lengthy, complex and tiresome.

Since then, the landscape has changed somewhat. Now the threats come thick and fast. We hear a lot of very real news of the latest ‘impending doom’ awaiting our destiny. Although IT has become easier and faster to recover or avert a disaster, this is only true if you are
covering the basics in the first instance.

The basics I’m referring to are simple and in-expensive. Done correctly they could save you a big headache, they are the aspirin of IT disaster headaches.

1. Backup correctly – We all know we should have backups, but make sure you’re doing it right. Cover all the data, cover certain time periods, make sure its offsite, get failure alerts and test test test the backups by restore the data frequently. Always Test.
2. Lock it down – Make sure you’re not giving unnecessary access to your data. If I walked into your office and sat at any staff computer. Can I get access to ALL the business data? If the answer is yes, then start locking it down.
3. Get protected – Anti-virus, anti-spam, web-filers, 2 factor authentication. They’re a great investment and a must-have to help keep your systems safe.
4. Process & Procedure – Commonly overlooked but really useful. Have a process or procedure for things like staff leavers/starters to make sure old access is correctly disabled and data archived. Or a password policy to make sure everyone is using a complex password (people don’t care as much for their work passwords as they do personal – fact). Simple procedures that ensure everyone in the business is doing all they can to keep the business protected.
5. Keep it up-to-date – Old software and systems don’t get the latest security updates. Yes its not unusual for a Windows update to break a system or application but if you do it right you can drastically reduce the risk of this. Plus you can roll an update back quite easily. Much easier than recovering from ransomware.

These are the basics. They are not full-proof (nothing is these days), but they are a good baseline for keeping your business IT systems and data safe.

Do you want to discuss your business IT or have any questions? You can book a quick chat with me using the toolbar on on this page. Its free and there’s no obligation. Happy to help.