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Hacking attacks are more of a threat than ever before, and most attacks commence with a relatively harmless-looking email to unsuspecting recipients. As remote working increases and data storage rapidly grows, it is becoming harder for companies to manage the daily risks and threats to network security that they face.

IT network security encompasses three components;

Protection of IT hardware
Protection of software
Protection of cloud services

Enhanced network security is designed to protect the complete integrity of an IT network through the use of various software technology, and hardware. Just a short period of downtime can be detrimental to a company in terms of the disruption it can cause, damage to the company’s reputation, not to mention its revenue.

Businesses are obliged to take action to prevent the numerous viruses, phishing attacks, spam, hackers and identity theft attempts that target their often complex networks. These attempts can damage or compromise company data that has been stored either on-site or in the cloud.

Cyber-Attacks Are On The Increase

Lockdown has exacerbated the number of cyber-attacks as more employees are now working from home, and generally without the necessary network security protocols in place. Many people are unaware that traditional email hosting and other basic packages that they purchase, might not provide the following essential services;

Email archiving
Advanced threat protection
Backup solutions

Most email hosting packages only have a limited email retention policy, which means that they only store emails for a limited period. Once this period has lapsed, the emails cannot be recovered unless there is an email backup solutionor an archiving function installed.

Similarly, although there are email protection and security services built into traditional email hosting services, advanced threat protection is required in addition to this to strengthen email security and to protect against phishingand ransomware attacks.

Westech, a highly-experienced IT company based in Sandton, has developed their own specialised security products to;

Prevent unauthorised access to networks (hacking).
Prevent malicious code from deleting or destroying company data.
Prevent internal abuse of company networks.
Improve productivity by limiting downtime due to cyber-attacks.

In order to ascertain how secure a company network is, the following questions must be asked;

Is there an anti-virus on the company server and at each workstation?
Is there threat protection on all company email?
Is there a firewall with analysing software?
Does the company have an email archiving service for secure backups?
Is company critical data backed up off-site?
Who controls the company IT network?
Is the company IT security monitored efficiently to highlight hacking attempts?
How much access do employees have to the company server?

If the answer to even one of the above questions is “no”, then the company is in urgent need of an IT security audit and update. One of the biggest threats to a company’s IT network is its own internal users since they generally have a limited idea of how IT systems and protocols work.

There are many utilities and tools in the marketplace that can be used to protect a company network. For reliable advice and cost-effective network security solutions, contact Westech or request them to perform a thorough IT security audit on the network.