It is no secret that information technology is one of the fastest growing fields in the world. It is hard to imagine any business operating without it – at least, any businesses that want to exist in
a modern space. Why do I say that? Well, it is one of the driving forces behind e-commerce.
If you did not know, many companies are transitioning to more of an e-commerce style of operation. The reason for this is largely that large corporations have went that way (most of us are familiar with Amazon, and I would say that is one of the biggest reasons for this), so we all want to keep up. It also boils down to everyone wanting a slice of that pie!
What is Information Technology?
In general terms, the purpose of IT is to solve problems through the use of technology – usually some sort of software, but not always. There are three main ideas that an IT department handles for an organization. It is a good idea to remember these if you are in charge of one or attempting to create one (if you do not have such a department, I definitely recommend it). The first is operations. It is pretty much what it sounds like – a broad term for the overall activities that the department handles on a day to day basis. Responsibilities often vary depending on if there are any security risks or if any incidents have occurred, so it is hard to chart exactly what they could be. That being said, some examples are running virus scans or sending out information about avoiding scam emails.
Next comes governance. This is essentially the set of policies that a department sets regarding how to operate the technology in an organization. You can see some examples here, https://tentacle.co/, but note that procedures can and should vary depending on the goals of
an organization.
Of course, there are some gold standards. For example, you should always have some form of verification and password protection to access sensitive information. This helps to shield that data from unauthorized users – which is a huge part of information security, so be sure to have some forms of protection. I would say that passwords are the bare minimum in that sense.
It is a good idea to have other forms of verification, often known as two-factor identification. Most competent IT departments will eventually institute a policy like that. Additionally, procedures for handling spam emails will vary depending on your organization, so take that into account when examining the governance.
Finally, there is infrastructure. Something of note is that this does refer to physical hardware as well as any software that is installed or systems used to promote security. This includes but is not limited to any servers, routers, anti-virus programs, device management, phone systems, and individual devices. Maintenance is another part of this.
Why Does Any of this Matter?
Information security and technology are closely entwined. Without one, the other could not fully operate. Unfortunately, because of how much most organizations rely upon their computer systems, if there is a malfunction it usually means there will be trouble. You can read more about how that impacts a business on this page.
A lot of data will be input into your systems each and every day. Without proper management, it can easily result in a system overload. So, a part of daily operations might be server maintenance, for example, to ensure this does not happen. Some of the aspects necessary for this are a lot of processing power along with analysis programs and employees.
Ensuring that data is saved to a backup storage space such as the cloud is another critical aspect to this. Obviously, you need to keep the cloud storage just as secure as the desktops and hard drives where the original copies are kept. This helps to maintain overall safety and reduce the risk of something like a security breach.
It is an unfortunate fact that hackers are out there, always looking for ways to infiltrate business systems to gain access to sensitive customer information. This is because we store important details about their lives such as credit card numbers or social security numbers. This data can be used for nefarious purposes such as identity theft, so it is necessary that we do everything we can to prevent it from happening.
If you think back on the past decade, most of the times that companies take heat in the public eye is due to leaked data such as this. So, be sure to keep that in mind as you consider options to protect any sensitive data that you are entrusted with. No one wants to become the next business that gets sued in a class action lawsuit because of security negligence.
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