A lot of business leaders today aren’t very familiar with all the aspects of IT security. And they don’t necessarily need to be.

But every organizational leader and everybody that’s responsible for their organization needs to have a certain level of confidence that their IT is secure, that they have the proper systems in place, and that they’ve managed their risks appropriately.

What State is Your IT Security In?

Business leaders often tell us that they aren’t really sure what the state of their IT security is. It’s also common for them to say something like, “my IT guy says we’re good, so we must be good.” And unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.

Here’s an example. We started working with an organization recently that we had talked to a few years earlier. At the time, they told us that everything was great and working just fine. They were happy with their situation. And that was true… right up until they got hit with ransomware.

And that’s not a unique situation. It’s not a unique story. And in our opinion, it happens far too often.

Business leaders just aren’t aware of the risks in their infrastructure. Maybe they’ve trusted their vendor, or they’ve trusted their internal team to take care of the IT infrastructure. And as far as they know, things are in pretty good shape. And they don’t really find out the true situation until something bad happens.

How to Measure IT Security

The best way to measure IT security and to make sure that your infrastructure is secure is to have a system in place to compare yourself to an objective standard. And there are a lot of different standards out there, like ISO 27001 or SOC 2.

A lot of organizations aren’t required to be compliant with these standards, but it’s still a good best practice to maintain some level of standards, whether it’s an industry standard or best practices for IT security.

You want to see how you stack up against those standards on a regular basis. What is the health of your infrastructure? Can you get an objective score that gives you, as a business leader, a clear idea of the health of your infrastructure?

When you do have that objective measurement, it creates peace of mind. You know exactly where you are, and there are no hidden surprises. You’re aware of any potential risks. And you can feel confident in the IT health of your organization.

Risk Management and Mitigation

Measuring the health of your IT infrastructure and IT security is essential, but another thing business leaders tell us is that they want to know that their risks are managed. They want a plan in place for that worst-case scenario.

If there is a ransomware incident, or data loss, or an infection of some kind they want to know that there’s a plan already in place. In other words, they just want to go to sleep at night knowing that their risks have been managed as well as possible.

One of our key goals at CopperTree is to get clients to a point where everything just works. The risks are managed and they have the right technology in place.

The CopperTree Process

The CopperTree process starts with your strategies. We set out to understand your organization, your business goals, and where you are today.

We come in monthly to make sure your IT is aligned with the best practices we’ve developed. And we have best practices for every piece of technology that you use. And then we’ll give you a health score. You might be 99% aligned, for example, or just 75% aligned.

Most clients that have worked with us for a while stay in the high 90s. But we might have to change a standard or adapt to new security protocols that require new recommendations, and they might drop down a few points. But the score gives you a tool to know how your IT is functioning. And it makes you aware of anything that you should be worried about.

IT security is a constantly changing world. We’ve done more things related to security in the last two or three years than we ever did before that. And that’s unlikely to change. There’s just been an increase in reliance on technology and an increase in different threats that are out there. That’s something that you can’t really ignore.

Click here for IT security solutions that you can rely on from CopperTree IT!