Workplace Safety in Cyberspace from Pam Luton's blog

The world is now becoming a global village, thanks to technology and its constant development. The Internet has influenced many aspects of life, whether we are conscious of it or not. It has facilitated connection with friends, families, transportation, online banking, and business operations, as well as in many more workplaces. It has spearheaded growth in education, businesses, company operations, companies etc. Further, the advancement of technology has enabled more connections and made life easier. Despite these benefits alongside the convenience caused by IT systems, the use of IT presents a number of risks for personal, community, and workplaces. The use of technology influences users, neighbors and the nation at large. In effectively ensuring the safety of IT systems, each person has to play a role in this endeavor.

In a company's IT systems, there are various threats, which could be in the form of simple forms of malevolent codes known as spyware and malware to serious viruses that can severely damage the whole system. Further, there are cyberspace hackers who are able to access the computer and utilize personal information and data for ulterior motives. These are some of the dangers business entities need take into consideration and address them accordingly in order to achieve cyberspace security. Essentially, cyberspace security involves taking measures to keep documents and data from any unwarranted intrusion. In the subsequent part, we will evaluate on how we can achieve business information security in cyberspace.

How to Achieve Information Security in Cyberspace

In this age of technological advancement, a business entity with no network is typical of a city without roads. Businesses, including small ones, have seen the need to incorporate information systems and connections to facilitate their day-to-day operations. Businesses rely on information systems for various reasons, including customer service, database, and communication. Organizations are both morally and lawful required protecting their customers data and information at all costs. The financial information safeguard regulation requires companies to come up with an information security plan in written form. It describes how they will protect consumer information. This plan ought to be in relation to the complexity, nature, size and scope of the business operations.

Among the measures that an entity can use to achieve cyberspace information securityis to establish management governance in their IT systems. These governance management systems should define a person who harbors the right to decisions and input in specific domains. Further, these governance arrangements should be extended to incorporate security. The security policy domain established by the organizational management also ought to include acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for employees concerning the handling and operation of the IT systems. IT users in organizations at every level, that is from the lowest ranked employee to the executive director, in case there may be, should pay special attention to the security basics of cyberspace attacks. Again, the parties that are within or outside the organization should be relegated with security responsibilities in the companies cyberspace systems.

Business entities should also incorporate appropriate processes and technologies in ensuring the enterprise’s cyber security. The process may involve such measures as locking down computers when they are not in use, being update to antivirus definitions, patches, use of strong passwords and other types of strong authentication, use of firewalls, and other measures. Technologies may include those that prevent virus attacks, penetration of the system by hackers or those preventing unwarranted access to information and data.

However, the technologies deployed should not be overhyped, but should be in relation to the company’s capability to avoid wastage of the companies finance resources. Instead, the enterprises ought to put their focus on the needs of the business and the potential threats in prioritizing security needs for their systems. These companies should also develop policies ensuring that employees understand common cyberspace threats, including viruses and how to prevent or deal with them. If employees are able to understand the presence of viruses and their seriousness with regard to the threat they pose to the companies systems, they will be able to respond appropriately. Therefore, it will prevent further damages and intrusion. Moreover, knowledgeable employees will quickly summon help in case of a potential threat to the IT systems.

Further, business entities should incorporate appropriate reporting standard interfaces and reporting standards. For instance, it may be the Extensive Markup Languages (XML) and their equivalents, simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and other algorithms for correlation purposes. These will enable monitoring of the real time enterprise network security, as well as the performance of their systems. The companies can also apply volume measurements on their email systems that can help in checking spam attack and denial of service. Other effective measures are incorporation of monitoring tools for web server that prevents unauthorized changes.