It’s not very difficult to tell how well protected your IT network is. Although, the telltale signs can sometimes be so common that they are often simply accepted as the norm.
In fact, recent studies find that roughly one in three of the computers in the Unites States are infected in one way or another. Let’s take a moment to take these “norms” and identify them as red flags they are.
“I think my computer has a virus” is a common enough phrase, which makes it among the easiest symptom to let slip past. The problem is that those viruses, malware, Trojans and such are also among the most common way your IT security is being threatened. When they become commonplace, your employees become desensitized to it and the opportunities for infection skyrocket while the security of your data plummets.
If you’ve ever received an email stating that a message you sent to a contact of yours, that you have frequently emailed in the past, has been rejected, you may find that your company is on an email blacklist. This typically happens when a Trojan makes its way on to your network and silently begins to send email from the host machine it is on. It will send enough spam for someone to report and your IP address will be put on email blacklists around the world. As a result, your legitimate emails will no longer be accepted by many recipients, and your corporate communications will be stunted. The band aid fix is to this is to go through the long process of communicating with the blacklist keepers and getting your IP address of the lists. The permanent fix is to tighten security.
Lastly, if the process of recovering a lost file to any virus infections, or accidental deletions, or any other form of data loss is anything short of structured and fairly simple, then that is yet one more sign of poor IT security. Security does not end in prevention, but extends into recovery as well. The fact is that no set of policies or technology will ever be fool proof, which is why your strategy for data recovery must be just as strong as that of your security.
