Proactive IT Support Strategies
Proactive IT support is essential for maintaining the security and efficiency of your organization’s network. Unlike reactive support, which addresses issues after they arise, proactive support involves anticipating and preventing problems before they impact your operations. This blog explores various proactive strategies that can safeguard your network and ensure a smoother IT experience.
Proactive Support
Proactive support involves implementing strategies and services to eliminate or mitigate problems before they escalate. The approach can vary based on industry needs and budget constraints. Your managed service provider (MSP) should offer a tailored strategy that stays within your budget while maximizing your networks security.
Regular Audits and Assessments
Network audits and assessments, like anything else, can look different depending on the industry. They are crucial for maintaining a secure and organized network. Here’s a list of what could be some common denominators when it comes to audits and assessments:
- User Lists: Detailed records of all users in the network
- License Inventory: Information on software licenses and their usages
- Device Inventory: Comprehensive lists of hardware in use
- Performance Report: Documentation of the IT team’s activities and performance metrics
Disaster Recovery Plan
Network security breaches happen everyday. According to a report by IBM, 95% of the companies that participated had more than one data breach in the year 2023. Having a disaster recovery plan in place is important because it immediately decreases your downtime post-breach. The less time that it takes to identify and contain a breach, the less money you’re going to lose.
Key components of a disaster recovery plan could include:
- Data Backups: Regularly updated backups of critical data
- Incident Response: Clear procedures for responding to security incidents
- Communication Plan: Strategies for internal and external communication during a crisis
End-User Training
The biggest threat to an organizations network security is human error. The end users are typically the main reason that hackers can infiltrate networks simply because we are neglectful when it comes to practicing safe online interactions/transactions. Increasing the knowledge of technology use for an end user is essential to the health and safety of an organization’s network. There are many ways to educate your employees:
- Online Modules: Interactive training sessions with quizzes and videos
- In-Person Workshops: Hands-on sessions with real-life scenarios and practices
Patch Management/Continuous Monitoring
Patch management is critical to your organization’s proactive strategy because it ensures that your systems are protected against vulnerabilities. Not only that, patches and monitoring make sure that applications, software, and hardware are running as smoothly as possible. If your organization chooses to outsource IT needs, it’s important that the MSP you choose has a great back-end team that will constantly make sure that your operating systems and hardware are updated.
Proactive Security Software
There is an abundance of proactive security software that you can invest in that will protect your network from threats before you’re even aware of them. Consider these tools:
- Multifactor Authentication: Adds an extra layer of security (check out our MFA blog post for more details)
- Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR): Monitors and responds to threats in real-time
- Email Filtering: Assists in weeding out spam and potential malware from your inbox
- Web Content Filtering: An extra layer of security that ensures whatever link you’re going to is safe
- ZeroTrust: A strategy that doesn’t allow any applications or software that is not already permitted to download
- Password Manager: An encrypted online vault to store all your unique passwords for your online accounts
All these different software work together to create a robust defense system for your network. If one doesn’t catch the threat, another will pick up the slack. Plus, with the help of your all knowing and wise tech team, they can help these applications learn what are good or bad things for your network.
Cyber Security Insurance
Just like anything else in our American lives, insurance is a MUST. For some industries, like healthcare, law offices, and finance companies; having cyber security insurance is a requirement. This type of insurance typically will cover any incidences where your organization has been compromised. According to the FTC, be sure your policy covers:
- Data breachers
- Cyber-attacks on your data held by vendors or other third paries
- World wide cyber-attacks
- Terrorist attacks
While cyber security insurance can be costly, it is still significantly less than paying for a breach. If you want more information on cyber security insurance, check the FTC website.
Conclusion:
Learning the ins & outs of proactive cyber security strategies can be confusing and tedious. Hopefully this compressed list gave you a little more insight to see what is best for your business. For more information or to book a consultation. Please visit www.axigent.net to receive professional IT advice!
