Keeping pace with technical developments – for the security of your company

Keeping pace with technical developments – for the security of your company

Technical articles | 12. November 2021 | 8 min |

“Never change a running system” – what used to be the motto in corporate IT now makes technology managers’ hair stand on end. This approach has become increasingly fatal with the advance of digitalization and globalization and is now completely outdated.

Why do operating systems, software & Co. have to be updated regularly if everything is running?

About fifteen years ago, the saying in IT was: if it’s not broken or causing problems, don’t try to repair or reconfigure it. If the computer/server was “running” back then, you shouldn’t try to optimize or fix anything if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Users were worried that they would break more than they could repair and would not be able to continue their work or even lose something.

Today, it’s the other way around: systems have to be constantly adapted and optimized to prevent an emergency from occurring in the first place. Regardless of whether it is the new Windows 11 operating system from Microsoft or Apple or Linux systems. Application software such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat is no exception. While the “mistakes” made by employees during “optimization attempts” at the time could be quickly rectified or devices replaced by IT specialists, today’s untreated problems and vulnerabilities, such as so-called “zero-day gaps” for which there are no updates, can lead to much longer downtimes and, above all, more fatal damage such as the loss of all company data. While computers were still largely closed and independent ecosystems and primarily focused only on the work carried out on them, malware can now spread to other end devices and even throughout the entire company network. As a result of global and internal networking, risks can therefore not only emanate from outside, but also unintentionally from within. In today’s world of work, numerous areas and tools are already highly digitized in many industries. The advancing digital development brings more opportunities, but also more risks.

The legal situation also does not allow us to remain at an old but functioning technical level. The EU GDPR, which came into force in 2018, largely requires the infrastructure to correspond to the “state of the art”. From an IT perspective, it can be assumed that the aforementioned state of the art is the latest version of a software or security-relevant component.

You read about cyber attacks on companies in the press practically every day. The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. Targeted attacks on companies have developed into a lucrative industry in recent years. Attacks are planned well in advance and are usually carried out manually after exploiting security vulnerabilities. The extortion sums are considerable and often amount to around 10% of the annual turnover of an attacked company. The sector does not matter. Industrial companies are blackmailed just as much as consulting firms, the healthcare sector and non-profit/church organizations.

In addition to the extortion sums, downtime and recovery costs, such an attack causes enormous reputational damage and, in most cases, a reportable data protection incident.
What are these risks and what can you do to protect your company?
It is essential to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to updating the company’s operating systems. In today’s ransomware and data leakage threat environment, the latter basically means deliberately exposing yourself to cyberattacks. The probability of irretrievably losing all company data in the event of a ransomware attack is extremely high. However, it may already be too late and the damage too great to repair. Potential security gaps in the client or server infrastructure must be identified and closed as early as possible in order to minimize the risk of a successful cyber attack for companies. To this end, the systems must be monitored (i.e. kept under constant observation) and intervened in the event of an anomaly. Possible IT risk factors for companies and how they can be avoided are outlined below.

5 tips for avoiding risks in corporate IT

Administrative rights on clients
If users – i.e. employees – can install any software on their computers, smartphones and tablets themselves, malware can be installed unintentionally and unnoticed on the end devices and possibly spread. To ensure the trustworthiness of the download sources (via which the software update is obtained), software installation by an IT expert is strongly recommended. Employees of a company, regardless of whether it is an IT company, a real estate agency or a construction company, must under no circumstances be authorized to carry out software updates independently on the end devices provided to them. For this purpose, every company should have an IT expert in the form of an external IT service provider or an internal IT department who centrally controls and manages the installation of software updates on computers, laptops and smartphones.

Patch management (system and application updates)
Of course, patch management is a must – we discussed what it is and why it is so important in our blog post “Patch management – identifying IT vulnerabilities and eliminating them in good time”. Without patch management, major risks arise, as security vulnerabilities can be exploited for a long time. These vulnerabilities should always be fixed as quickly as possible so that they cannot be exploited by third parties. Software updates that are not installed at all or are poorly installed are points of attack for hackers, computer viruses and other malware. These vulnerabilities in IT are exploited to penetrate IT structures, manipulate company data or access confidential company data. It is not just individual programs or end devices that come under attack, but entire operating systems. The topic of “up-to-dateness” is one of the most important pillars of an IT security concept in the software sector today.

Centrally managed firewall
A firewall must be state of the art and centrally managed by IT experts so that a qualified response to error messages or alarms from attempted attacks can take place. Updates must be installed as early as possible in order to remain constantly up to date and secure.

Antivirus system / Endpoint Detection & Response
Antivirus systems and modern endpoint detection and response solutions that react dynamically to threats must run automatically. Companies often have to check their reports manually – which is a disaster in terms of security, as it is not possible to respond adequately to threats. By the time the cyber attack is noticed, malware may have already spread for a long time. However, an automated process can relieve the burden on companies, and not just from a security perspective. Continuous management allows companies to focus on their core business and not have to keep monitoring in the back of their minds or even fear serious cyber attacks. However, our Managing Director Felix Zöbisch says: “An antivirus system is only as good as those who evaluate its messages and take action.” Because if the antivirus system’s error messages are not recognized, misinterpreted or processed incorrectly, even the best system is useless. This calls for IT experts who can understand and resolve them.

Backup and business continuity
In addition to the need to have a backup of your IT systems, it is important to monitor them continuously so that you can react immediately in the event of a fault. Damage can also occur here or – if it has already occurred – can no longer be repaired if the process from finding the fault to rectifying it takes too long. In addition, it is now absolutely essential to store backup copies in at least one external location where they cannot be accessed. This is the only way to ensure successful recovery in the event of an attack or natural disaster. Incidentally, this is also a necessity with regard to the EU GDPR and GOBD.

One backup and business continuity solution for companies is offsite backup in a data center (central backup monitoring). Access to the “backup vault” from the company must be impossible. Otherwise, intruders could gain access to the backup structure from the company network – the use of a backup would therefore be pointless. Furthermore, different versions of the backups should be retained as part of the company’s retention obligations. It is also essential to ask how long it takes to restore an error-free productive system from a backup. This can be implemented with appropriate business continuity solutions to ensure that work can continue quickly. If you would like to know what business continuity is and what solutions it entails, read our blog post “BCDR: Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery – the solution for emergencies”.

“Backup” is therefore much more than just a data copy – today it is a holistic security concept that must be at the top of a company’s emergency planning.

Business continuity – essential for corporate security
“Business continuity” is an important term for companies in the context of the advancing digitalization and globalization of the IT world. Systems must be constantly monitored, kept up to date and secured – and at best, this should be automated (24/7). To conclude by briefly and succinctly addressing the question posed in the first paragraph: the aim of modern IT is no longer that “everything currently works”, but that it does so continuously and reacts quickly to changes.

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