Spring is finally here, which means it’s time to start cleaning up the mess that’s piled up through the winter months. Your businesses’ security system is no exception! To help tackle this task, WatchGuard CTO Corey Nachreiner recently wrote a column for Dark Reading explaining some regular security maintenance projects that every IT and network admins should add to their list this spring. While all of these tasks are important, they don’t need to be done on a regular basis so it’s easy to postpone or forget about them. For example, data audits, reviewing and purging outdated security policies, reviewing employee privileges and scheduling company-wide phishing training are all important security housekeeping tasks that often get overlooked.
Patching systems is another easy-to-forget security task that often gets lost in the new year shuffle, but should be revisited as you head into spring. Here’s an excerpt from Corey’s article where he explains why a yearly review of server updates is important. Most infosec professionals already have a regular monthly patch cycle for normal desktops and servers, but every network has a few problematic servers or devices that do not get patched regularly. Perhaps these are one-off legacy servers running old operating systems for a custom application or a collection of set-and-forget Internet of Things (IoT) devices that aren’t updated regularly…Whatever they are, now is a time to take care of them. Check the firmware updates on all hardware devices and bring them up to date.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be set for a safe and secure spring and summer. Read Corey’s full article on Dark Reading and watch our recent Daily Security Bytes on Secplicity to learn more about the last few Patch Tuesdays and the importance of keeping your software up to date.