IT Landscape and Risks

In today’s business world IT is central to a lot of businesses. Business and client data and rapid communications sit at the heart of your day-to-day operations. This increased reliance brings increased risk. These risks fall into three key categories:

1. Data breach

Data breaches in the fourth quarter of 2023 exposed more than 1.5 million records in the UK (Statista). A data breach exposes your organisation to potential security risks and reputational damage, such as:

• Not meeting General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) obligations, potentially incurring ICO (Information Commissioners Office) penalties.
• Commercial contract sensitivity, exposing client and competitive information.
• Financial loss, as account access and activity details could be obtained.

2. Operational disruption

With increased reliance upon technology within business operations, IT problems can cause severe disruption due to:

• lack of access to systems,
• malicious or accidental data corruption,
• denial-of-service attacks, and
• productivity loss.

As well as these immediate issues, your organisation needs significant administrative time to source and configure new hardware. This needs to be managed carefully and consistently to ease integration.

3. Opportunity cost

New products and technologies are constantly evolving. Not being aware of developments may cause you to miss opportunities to help your business thrive.

Taking action

To counter these risks and manage their own exposure, your clients, suppliers and insurers are increasingly demanding about how you operate your technology. It’s important to demonstrate your awareness and proactivity in minimising these potential problems.

Cyber Security accreditations are a way to show clients and insurers that you take this seriously and can lead to lower premiums and access to a wider pool of potential clients. The UK Government require Cyber Essentials as a minimum for their suppliers.

Achieving a robust IT infrastructure involves managing certain requirements. These actions can be demonstrated to external parties as required. The steps involve addressing key operational issues such as:

Proactive monitoring and maintenance

• How do you police system and data access?
• How do you ensure all systems are up to date with the latest security fixes and are supported by the software vendors?
• How do you ensure all user devices have the appropriate security software and any issues are swiftly dealt with?
• How do you minimise disruption in the event of a hardware failure?

Device and licence management

• How do you ensure old devices have any sensitive data removed?
• How do you protect the security of your user accounts?
• How do you ensure all your systems are licensed correctly?
• How do you mitigate the theft of an end user device such as a laptop?

Business management

• What is your plan for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery?
• Are your staff kept up to date with Cyber Security awareness training?

The answers to these questions are influenced by the IT maturity within your business. Generally, the larger your business, the more complex the answers and the longer these aspects take to address.

Is your organisation proactive about the IT risks it is exposed to?

Would you value a greater understanding of the issues and what action you can take?

Arrange an initial discussion without obligation. Talk to the experts at EMH Technology. We love exploring the benefits and risks involved with technology. We’ll offer bespoke, jargon-free advice. Let’s talk.