By Sonny Oboson | Technology Editor, Africa –
IT security is a set of cybersecurity strategies that prevent unauthorized access to organizational assets such as computers, networks, and data. It maintains the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information, blocking the access of sophisticated hackers.
What is the need for IT security?
As hackers get smarter, the need to protect your digital assets and network devices grows. While providing IT security can be expensive, a significant breach costs an organization far more. Large breaches can jeopardize the health of a small business. During or after an incident, IT security teams can follow an incident response plan as a risk management tool to gain control of the situation.
What is the difference between IT security and information security (InfoSec)?
Although IT security and information security sound similar, they do refer to different types of security. Information security refers to the processes and tools designed to protect sensitive business information from invasion, whereas IT security refers to securing digital data through computer network security.
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What are the threats to IT security?
Threats to IT security can take many forms. A common threat is malware, or malicious software, which may come in different variations to infect network devices, including:
Ransomware
Spyware
Viruses
These threats make it even more important to have reliable security practices in place. Learn more about malware to stay protected.
How do I benefit from IT security?
IT security prevents malicious threats and potential security breaches that can have a huge impact on your organization. When you enter your internal company network, IT security helps ensure that only authorized users can access and modify sensitive information stored there. IT security works to ensure the confidentiality of your organization’s data.
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Types of IT security
Network security
Network security is used to prevent unauthorized or malicious users from getting inside your network. This ensures that usability, reliability, and integrity are uncompromised. This type of security is necessary to prevent a hacker from accessing data inside the network. It also prevents them from negatively affecting your users’ ability to access or use the network.
Network security has become increasingly challenging as businesses increase the number of endpoints and migrate services to the public cloud.
Internet security
Internet security involves protecting information sent and received through browsers, as well as network security for web-based applications. These protections are designed to monitor incoming internet traffic for malware and other unwanted traffic. This protection may come in the form of firewalls, anti-malware, and anti-spyware.
Endpoint security
Endpoint security provides protection at the device level. Devices that may be secured by endpoint security include cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Endpoint security will prevent your devices from accessing malicious networks that could threaten your organization. Advanced malware protection and device management software are examples of endpoint security.
Cloud security
Applications, data, and identities are moving to the cloud, meaning users are connecting directly to the Internet and are not protected by the traditional security stack. Cloud security can help secure the usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and the public cloud. A cloud access security broker (CASB), a secure Internet gateway (SIG), and a cloud-based unified threat management (UTM) can be used for cloud security.
Application security
In application security, applications are coded at the time of creation to be as secure as possible, helping ensure they are not vulnerable to attacks. This added layer of security involves evaluating an app’s code to identify vulnerabilities.
Could one cyberattack bring your organization down?
Sonny Oboson is the man behind the MRWEBBS Online brand and a dynamic IT professional. He has a degree in Business Management from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, certified by NIIT Nigeria. He has an Advanced Diploma in Systems/Network Engineering and an international certification, MCITP. He is the CEO of Sonnywebs International, based in Nigeria, with an NY office. Email him at mrwebbs2@gmail.com. He was one of the editors who supported Heartmenders Magazine at its founding in 2014. Visit www.sonnywebs.com.