Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Why Your Company Needs Regular IT Network Audits

By Hannah Babington


Auditors have the task of making sure that they do IT network audits to ensure it remains safe from attack and unauthorized access. Security has to be ensured to maintain access. When they are carrying out their duties, they have certain things that they absolutely have to get right.

They need to establish its actual extent. There is always a diagram that is drawn by whoever sets up the system itself. In most cases, unfortunately, it is never really accurate. As a firm expands, changes occur and a problem eventually arises if the changes are not properly recorded and integrated into the old diagram.

The auditors also must find all the information assets in networks. They have to identify the exact assets, services and systems that require security. The main elements that are usually secured are mail servers, ERPs and internal applications. This reduces the risk of these assets getting accessed and damaged in one way or another.

They also have to know all the parties that have any level of access to the system. Every network is accessed differently by different parties. A customer has his own level of access, different from the level given to an employee of the firm. Administrators also have different levels of access. To avoid issues where the source of a glitch is unknown, every person and the level of access has to be noted.

Another key element is to find if there are any connections to external networks. This could be done when looking at the diagram in the initial step. However, dealing with this separately is vital because any compromise could result in catastrophic security errors. In most cases, the main external connection is to the internet.

They also have to find out what the protection mechanisms are. All these add up to ensuring that IT network audits are effective. Security glitches often cost the business even millions of dollars, so no compromise can be taken.




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