Preferred Blog

The way that an organization handles risk is a big deal. Despite being born out of opportunity, opening a business itself can be looked on by many a major risk. As a result, every business should be looking to manage their risk. Today, we take a look at the role risk plays in business, and how IT, for all its benefits, carries with it some risk.

BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, policies have proven to be a highly effective way for companies to save money. However, these policies need to address some of the shortcomings, potential costs and issues that comes with employees bringing and using their own devices could present to your business--not to mention security concerns.

The more users on your network, the more risk that user error could create a costly mistake for your infrastructure. While untrained employees could certainly ignore security policies, the greatest risk to your organization is an unexpected one. Research has proven that your company’s CEO, as well as other C-suite employees, hold one of the greatest risks for your business’ security.

Every business has to deal with a certain amount of risk from various factors, from hackers, natural disasters, or user error. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your organization can bounce back from a potentially dangerous situation with minimal casualties. We’re here to help you understand the importance of a risk assessment, and what you need to look out for.

What Risk Management Is
Risk management is the act of understanding and remedying problems that could cause trouble for your business in the long run. Risk management includes, but is not limited to:

• Business continuity: This is a broad term for the act of planning for the future in terms of backup and disaster recovery, workforce retention, and other problems that can directly be attributed to a disastrous change in operations. Basically, it’s making sure that your organization is prepared to handle a worst-case scenario.
• Network security: Network security protects your business’s network from the many cyber threats that exist on the Internet, including viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware, trojans, and many others. As such, it’s a pivotal aspect of ensuring that your business’s future is secure.
• Asset management: Asset management basically consists of ensuring your technology, as well as your IT budget, is prepared to handle a worst-case scenario. When your server breaks down, will you have the funds to purchase new hardware, or invest in the repair of the broken-down unit?

What You Need to Watch For
As you can see, risk management is an all-encompassing part of managing a business. Thankfully, you don’t have to go about risk management alone. With the help of Preferred, you can effectively manage risks to your business and ensure its continued prosperity. The following are services Preferred provides that are designed to alleviate the major pain points of handling risk management.

• Backup and disaster recovery
• Security solutions - firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, content filtering
• Penetration testing
• IT management
• Remote maintenance and workstation/server management

Preferred understands that a small business like yours can have trouble managing and maintaining critical IT systems. You already have your hands full, even without taking a cautious, preventative approach to your technology solutions. To find out how your organization can benefit from our managed IT services and our risk management expertise, contact us at 708-781-7110.

Businesses today are responsible for keeping the data in their care safe from hackers. There are two kinds of data that a business must protect: the information of their customers, and their own data (eg. company policies and employee information). Which of the two do you think the average business does a better job of protecting?

Cloud computing grows more popular by the day, and it continues to show its value to a modern business world. Being able to dynamically access content while online is a great asset, but of course, this doesn’t come without taking some risks and gambling your data’s security. Thankfully, there are some ways in which you can tip the odds in your favor.

Every business knows about "spending money in order to make money." Dropping cash on advertising and hiring key personnel are classic examples of this. However, "spending money on risk prevention in order to save money by avoiding expensive problems, and thereby making money," isn't as well known. Perhaps because it's harder to explain.