Here at Maytech, we know that IT professionals are real people too. We know that you have fears just like everyone else. You may be no longer scared of The Bogeyman, but managing your organisation’s IT solutions provides a headache on another scale.
What are the biggest fears of the modern IT manager? We’ve taken a look at a few:
“Which of these threats is the serious one?”
IT departments are used to threats. Security professionals, particularly those in larger organisations, can deal with thousands of alerts every day which range from routine notifications to large-scale attacks.
The challenge often isn’t sniffing out the problem; it’s examining all the various threats and ascertaining which is the dangerous one – and then dealing with them as appropriate. With this level of human interpretation involved, it’s no surprise that the majority of UK data breaches arise from human error.
Because IT is presented with a variety of threats, your department needs to do a range of things:
- Set security levels – understand different types of potential threats that could face your organisation.
- Plan for each circumstance –create a ‘roadmap’ of what needs to be done to solve the problem.
- Automate security – if possible, create steps that allow systems to deal with simpler problems, while leaving you free to deal with more complex situations.
- Publish these plans – let relevant people in your organisation know about your security levels so that they’re fully informed to protect against threats
“Are my colleagues using their devices safely?”
The rise of BYOD has been a blessing for many organisations. It allows employees to be more accessible and more productive. Research by Needham Bank for CIO found that an employee with their own device worked between 2-3 hours extra every day and sent 20 more emails.
That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: BYOD may provide a fillip for productivity, but it gives IT a security headache. 45% of companies have lost BYOD devices lost while they contained sensitive enterprise data. A study by Trend Micro found that 46% suffered a data breach as a result of BYOD.
The onus is on IT departments then to educate employees about the dangers associated with BYOD and to ensure that sensitive information is only ever shared on secured platforms.
Read more: SSO / ADFS Integrations for Better Security and Corporate Data Protection
“How does this organisational change affect me?”
Businesses are in a constant change of flux. Departments are forever being shuffled around, while many colleagues will have a range of ever-changing responsibilities. It can, therefore, be complicated for IT to keep track on who needs access to specific files.
Likewise, systems are constantly changing. If new platforms get adopted in the organisation, IT’s job is to ensure that they are safely synced together without any security concerns.
IT managers need flexible administration controls that allow them to add and remove users’ permissions at the click of the button – ensuring that sensitive data is only seen by those that have to see it.
“Am I Getting Value For Money?”
Of course, everyone’s worried about money. As an IT manager, it’s your job to spend your budget in a sensible way and ensure that you’re not blowing it up the wall. You need to be sure that the systems you’re investing in are worth the money and are adding value as they should.
Just as importantly, you need to show your boss that you are also worth the money.
Sometimes, it’s hard to quantify the return that your IT department’s getting for its investment because many systems and platforms are preventative rather than reactive.
File sharing is a great example. While Maytech does add value to its customers in IT departments through faster file transfer, the security benefits are often hidden. It’s only if an organisation switched to a less security-conscious platform then they’d see more vulnerabilities and greater risk.
If you’re working with a trusted provider like Maytech that puts your organisation’s data first, then you’re getting value for money.
What are your biggest fears?
Ghosts? Spiders? Peter Andre?
More importantly, what are your biggest worries at work? Let us know in the comments below or talk to us on Facebook and Twitter.
Read more:
Final GDPR countdown: Is your business at risk from uncontrolled file sharing?
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