Growing companies often worry about bringing a managed IT services company onto their team. While they may have concerns about cost or value or even return on investment, no one can ignore the importance of gaining adequate protection from both internal and external security threats.
These are six key reasons that hiring a managed IT services team can help improve your company’s network security.
DNS security agents
DNS security is a hot topic right now, especially given the DNS attack issues at the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. Without getting too technical, DNS is part of getting your browser to the right URL. So when you receive unexpected redirection errors, you’re often seeing a problem with the DNS. Unless you have an in-house IT resource familiar with this security issue, your business is likely to be vulnerable to such attacks.
User education
Internal users can be your biggest vulnerability in cybersecurity. They often don’t understand why mobile devices need to be encrypted, why they shouldn’t ever share their password, or why following email links can be a disaster. Managed IT can often help provide day-to-day and even regularly scheduled education that can have a greater impact on your staff.
Active security firewalls
Casual users often think of firewalls as simply a block against harmful incoming traffic. It’s true that most firewalls are passive, but they only block known problems from entering your network. However, your managed service provider can implement extra protection with active firewalls that scan every bit of incoming traffic to look for potential problems or errors. This helps identify attacks in real time, letting IT respond quickly to prevent or mitigate any damage.
Vulnerability scanning
Vulnerability scanning, sometimes also called ethical hacking, locates potential problems with network security. It identifies problems so that they can be quickly fixed. This service is an important part of making businesses aware of potential weaknesses so they can fix the problems.
While companies can hire independent firms to do vulnerability testing, they may not have the experience or knowledge base to correct any problems that are discovered.
Antivirus programs
While we all know that antivirus programs are essential tools to protect connected devices, we are also generally awful about keeping antivirus programs up to date. It’s common practice to “snooze” update notifications, and we’ve all used unsafe practices that introduce virus risks into shared systems and generally make the entire network less safe.
Managed IT services can rollout antivirus updates during downtime so that they don’t interrupt the business day. This helps keep the entire network safer and reduces potential downtime due to threats.
Email security
Phishing scams are one of the most common security threats for business networks. Using subject lines and file names like “Guess who’s getting fired” or “look at this list of pay rates,” phishing tempts users to click on files or website links that contain malicious code or grant unauthorized access to attackers.
Along with educating your team, managed IT services can help scan incoming email to identify potential threats and mitigating risks before they reach inboxes.
When working with a managed IT services company, businesses gain the benefits of improved security that may not be possible to achieve on their own. Depending on a team of dedicated experts to monitor and maintain a secure computing environment allows you to focus your business and maintain high-quality service for customers. For more information on how managed IT could benefit your business, contact Xpert Technologies today.