Security audit

Safety Audits are a relatively new tool on the Polish market, best known still mainly in various branches of international corporations. More companies on the domestic market, however, understand that audits are a relatively cheap factor in achieving higher security levels.

Audits are often the only opportunity to interest the management team in security issues of the company. Thus, a full safety audit may be considered the most influential tool when it comes to forming Security Policies.

IT Security Audits not only will help examine the company’s network structure, but primarily they will help protect data from destruction, modification or disclosure. IT audits as first examine access systems – the Web, FTP servers, network equipment, and employee’s workstations. As research show, 80% of incidents of security breach take place within the company. The most common abuse types are: eavesdropping through the network, data theft, or increasing access privileges without the supervisors knowledge, as well as impersonating other users.

Conducting an audit, even in a small company may help protect it from attacks on its resources, including data loss, even up to 50%

One of the goals of IT security audits is to verify the security of data, so as to minimize the threats coming from hackers and online thieves. This is especially important in finance, insurance and medical care industries.

Safety Audits are not only a data safety control for external attacks, they also help check for internal threats, such as whether the data is used as intended. Improving security, we improve or completely prevent any attacks on our resources.

The costs to be incurred to repair a system after an attack are much higher than the potential profits when such an attack does not occur.

Why is IT security such a problem for many organizations?

1. The key elements of everyday used software are its functionality and ergonomics, not the security;
2. We often deal with incorrect network configurations;
3. Also our awareness of the dangers arising from the use of networks is often insufficient (more attention is applied to the usage of the application than respecting its safety rules).

We can distinguish three levels of Security Audits:

1. Primary SA – quick assessment based on the main safety indicators, the process can be performed fairly quick, it is the least accurate, however it’s key advantage is that it may be performed repeatedly, providing necessary information which enable drawing out conclusions about the general safety trends;
2. Extended SA – a detailed analysis of the positions of risk, which are indicated in the Primary SA;
3. Complex SA – precise analyzes of the organizations security, it is a process that requires the utmost commitment and the highest administrative permissions.

IT’S WORTH TAKING NOTICE OF IT SECURITY – when do we perform security audits

1. To verify the safety systems used so far, in order to find and repair any shortcomings on their end
2. If we already came across situations where someone tried to break into our database, it’s worth taking appropriate measures to prevent such situations in the future.

Audits not only check situations which can be predicted and prevented, but they also help reduce the chance of successful re-attacks.

Audit implementations are usually commissioned to partners and external companies. Underlying this is the belief that issues are better seen from the outside and give companies new opportunities.

External auditors basing on their extended experience gained in numerous organizations of a similar nature, extent and risks, can bring many valuable observations, conclusions and recommendations.