Technology can be a huge boon to your business, but much like anything that contains so much power and influence over your company, it can easily be abused. Whether it’s an IT system that your employees have control over, a flakey network storage device that has been causing problems or even just a computer that has been randomly turning itself off, there are many dangers lurking within technology in your business that need to be controlled.
Network Security
A problem for most businesses in the world is the idea that a hacker, be it maliciously or accidentally, could ruin your business’s tech by breaking into your security systems and either damaging it from the inside or stealing information and selling it to shady buyers. Network security issues can usually be solved with help from a third party company such as Office Solutions IT. Most IT companies will offer you advice on how you can secure your data by using a mix of hardware and software solutions. For instance, they might recommend a hardware firewall that filters unwanted internet traffic and manages denial-of-service attacks, or they could recommend a secure piece of software such as a password tracker or anti-virus.
Giving Employees Too Much Control
One of the issues with giving employees control over your network and its systems is that if they wanted to, they could leak information, spread data and even tamper with customer information. This is often easy to track, but it requires sophisticated software that only IT professional would understand how to use. If you’re a growing business that is hiring more and more employees by the month, then you need to cope with this growing danger by hiring tech experts that are capable of limiting access to important files and logging employee access so you can prevent fraud and misuse.
Allowing Employees to Bring Their Own Devices
One of the most dangerous things that could destroy a business is the threat of internet viruses or malicious programs being run on your computer network. However much money you spend on protecting yourself, there is always the risk of having an employee bring in a piece of equipment such as smartphone or laptop, plugging it into the office network, and accidentally infecting the rest of your office computers with a malicious virus they didn’t even know about. One of the complications in these infections is that they are not only hard to detect, but also hard to remove. It could be stealing customer information for a long time, or it could be secretly leaking information from your company network to rivals and third-party companies to make use of.
The best way to fix this issue is to always monitor the devices your employees use. Instead of telling them to bring in their own laptops, make sure you’re providing them with devices to use for work and don’t skimp on safety measures.
Final Words
Businesses can be extremely vulnerable to network threats and technology generally contributes to most catastrophic failures that companies can encounter. However, with the right help and taming your technology, there’s a very low chance that anyone could penetrate your technology and use it against you.