Each day you interact with the news headlines of cyberattacks causing breaches, financial damage, and significant reputation damage for organizations. Imagine what if this news is about you or your organization. Hard to think right? These headlines are a gentle reminder to advance your security level for online stuff. How? Information security integrity is the key to your sensitive data, ensuring the data remains accurate, reliable, and protected. By using this integrity, your organization can work in the full flow and gain the trust of potential clients.
In this blog, you will learn in detail about information security integrity and 10 practical tips on how to keep your IT system secure.
What Is Information Security Integrity?
Information security integrity is a combination of three words: information, security, and integrity. First, you need to understand the meaning of these three to catch its original definition.
- Information: Information refers to the processed data that is crucial for decision-making or understanding for an individual or an organization. It is the collective form of data that is well organized, analyzed, and interpreted in a way that provides value. Now, it can be anything from the user’s stored files, databases, or even the output of the program.
- Security: It is the practice of protecting the devices (smartphones, laptops, tablets, and computers) of an individual or an organization from the theft of online data.
- Integrity: Integrity in cyber security means data is complete, trustworthy, and has not been modified or accidentally altered by any unauthorized users.
So, the meaning of information security integrity is protecting devices and stored information from unauthorized access and theft while maintaining the trustworthiness, accuracy, and consistency of data.
10 Practical Tips to Keep Your IT System Secure
In today’s world, securing your IT system is more important than ever. It ensures the overall integrity and reliability of sensitive data in your organization. Here are 10 practical tips that will help you maintain a secure IT system environment.
1. Use strong password and multi-factor authentication
Make sure to use strong passwords that no one can guess for smartphones, laptops, tablets, email accounts, or anywhere your crucial details are stored. The National Cyber Security Center recommends using three words: characters, symbols, and numbers.
Where possible, make sure to add multi-factor authentication. It ensures that the right person is accessing your information or not; the person has to fill out two separate forms of authentication.
2. Back up your data
Back up your data regularly to ensure that you can recover your data in case of cyber attacks or data loss. It saves data against data corruption, accidental deletion, and ransomware attacks.
3. Install antivirus and malware protection
You must make sure that devices you or your employees are using have antivirus installed. They help you protect your device from the malware sent through phishing attacks. And the most crucial mistake people often make is that they just install it but miss updating it. Don’t lie in that category.
4. Protect your device when it’s not in use
Lock your screens of gadgets when you’re temporarily away from your desk to prevent unauthorized access. The best method you can use is to keep your gadget in a secure place or out of sight.
5. Be aware of suspicious emails
This is a common method hackers try to get access to information and break security integrity. Hackers will send you suspicious emails showing they are important to click and enquire more details. The moment you click, hackers will get access to your sensitive data. To avoid this, make sure to check the signs of bad grammar, payment requests, and demands to act urgently in emails.
6. Make sure your Wi-Fi connection is secure
Using public Wi-Fi could put your personal data at risk. Sometimes you connect to the network in the hope of gaining internet connectivity, which can help hackers access your sensitive data. If you’re using a public network, consider using a secure virtual private network (VPN).
7. Give limited access
You’re working on a project, and you have shared your details with your colleagues or friends. Make sure to remove the access after the project is done. In case someone leaves the organization, he/she may misuse it.
8. Don’t keep useless data
Sometimes you receive useless data from social media or any other way you no longer use in the future. But you don’t delete them until your storage is full. Don’t do it; keep deleting the data to free up space and smooth the performance of gadgets. It ensures that you have less personal data at risk or suffer cyberattacks. This is a minor tip but plays a big role in maintaining the integrity of information.
9. Take care when sharing your screen
Don’t share your screens easily unless it’s a case of urgency or the person you’re sharing is trusted or loyal. Make sure to close the tabs you don’t want to share on screen. Sometimes people record the screen and use the data for harmful activities.
10. Be aware of your surrounding
This might be seen as a small practical tip to maintain the integrity of information, but its impact is high. When you’re outside your office or home, make sure that the eyes of people are not on the screens of gadgets. They may record or read the passwords and use them for harmful activities.
Conclusion
Information security integrity is a cornerstone for ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and consistency of data. It helps protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, keep it away from edits, and maintain trust and faith in the eyes of clients and users. The above practical tips have been well researched, providing effective strategies so that you do not become part of any cyber-attacks.
