Information security is currently the cornerstone for the IT sector of any company. Perhaps the price of IT security seems high, but here you need to understand – what is the cost of your data that needs to be protected?
Information security in the company
Information security is a comprehensive protection of information and its supporting infrastructure from accidental or malicious influences, resulting in damage to the information itself, its owners, or supporting infrastructure. The tasks of information security are reduced to minimizing damage, as well as to predicting and preventing such impacts.
In modern business, almost all this information is stored and processed in automated information systems (AIS). Therefore, the effectiveness of the company and, hence, the fate of its business are becoming increasingly dependent on the stability of the functioning and security of these systems from the passive and active information impact of the external environment and competitors, respectively. The loss of AIS performance can lead to negative consequences for the business structure and, in some cases, to the death of the system as a whole. Furthermore, the expansion of activities, the development of new markets, the expansion of the range of customers and suppliers, and the emergence of new services – all lead to a complication in the structure and algorithms of the organization’s functioning and the requirement for continuous improvement of its information infrastructure based on new computer and telecommunication technologies. At the same time, with the creation of AIS, the number of sources of threats to information security violations is expanding.
Business information security management
Adopting all possible means and methods of protection for all occasions is absurd and unrealistic. The organizational system can become inoperable and ruinous for the owners from excessive security measures. The solution to this conflict is to create a mechanism that would allow tracking of real risks and threats to take rational, most effective, and feasible protection measures for the organization. Such a mechanism can create an information security management system similar to financial, quality, and project management systems in any organization. Such a solution will represent the same systemic, integrated approach to ensuring the information security of a business, which will guarantee against unpleasant “surprises” associated with a violation of information protection.
As part of the business information security management system, the following tasks should be solved:
- control and management of the functioning of the information security subsystem;
- continuous monitoring of AIS security and registration of intrusion attempts;
- analysis and investigation of information security violations;
- study of known models of hacker attacks and hacking of computer systems, analysis of the possibilities of their implementation concerning the organization’s AIS, and taking measures to eliminate the possibility of such attacks and hacking methods;
- organization of anti-virus protection of computers of the organization;
- ensuring compliance with the security policy in the organization;
- monitoring of possible threats of violation of information security;
- information security risk management;
- using virtual data room for secure deal management;
- preparation of plans and proposals for improving the information security subsystem and security policy;
- development of new solutions for information security.
The specifics of solving problems in the field of security and information protection in small business is associated with a limited budget for the IT structure. Although it covers a small number of users and local networks are entry-level, it does not even have the simplest data protection tools. At the same time, the risk of information security threats is quite high due to the use of public data transmission networks.