The 10 Commandments of IT Security
IT Security Commandment #9: Thou Shalt Address All Issues Immediately
You are at the dentist for your six-month checkup and cleaning. At the end of the visit, the dentist provides a summary of what he/she finds and says, “There is an issue I am seeing on the lower second bicuspid. I am seeing what appears to be some signs of weakness. However, it is not an imminent concern, so we are just going to keep watch on it for now.” Great…that’s a relief! You don’t have to deal with that now. You can put it off for a while before doing something. Makes perfect sense.
However, there are other things in life and in business that come up. They are often warning signs or early indicators of something amiss. Truly the best way to deal with them when they arise is to address the issue immediately because often these things can be bad news. There is an old saying that rings true in this example, “Bad news does not get better with age.” Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, may have said it best, “Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.”
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This commandment is all about proactive planning for and defending against the possibility of an outside agent accessing your network and your proprietary information.
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So how does this relate to Information Technology? Very simply it means that any security issues that may arise—and they will arise for sure—should be addressed in the present tense. This means NOW! The 9th Commandment of IT Security is, “Thou Shalt Address All Issues Immediately.”
The rationale for this is that any gap in an organization’s security posture can only lead to a widening of that opening and may also be an indicator that there are other breaks in the layers of security necessary to protect the firm. In addition, the employees of an organization see how management acts and/or reacts to cybersecurity topics. If some sort of weakness exists and the staff knows about it, seeing that it is not being addressed immediately can easily be interpreted that management does not care about cybersecurity. This can lead to a downward spiral and to even more negative situations and events.
This commandment is all about proactive planning for and defending against the possibility of an outside agent accessing your network and your proprietary business information. It’s imperative that you review your security posture on a regular basis; and if you find an issue, act on it!
Address all issues immediately because one thing is for certain… bad things happen, and if they are not ameliorated, they only get worse! Reach out to us here at IT Radix and we can help make IT work for you!
