What is a security audit?
A security audit assesses your business’ internal systems, looking at both strengths and weaknesses. It identifies the potential risks which can affect your businesses IT systems, processes and assets.
The audit looks at every piece of IT hardware and software you use, finding the vulnerabilities and classifying the potential impacts on the organisation in the event of a cyber security breach. It is focused on how your business operates and what your priorities are.
It's important to have all your processes and procedures documented and to hand for the auditor. Share your data backup and recovery plan, the company’s priorities, how to guarantee business as usual, and key contacts at every level.
The most important part of the security audit is that you’re prepared for a cyber attack if it happens and that you have a plan in place to deal with it. Decide how you’ll communicate it to your staff, your clients, suppliers and any other relevant parties. If there is a risk of non-compliance, do you need to speak to your solicitor?
Why should you have one?
The security audit flags up vulnerabilities and weak points in your security system, so you can be proactive about fixing these. This means you can considerably lower the risk of your data being compromised. It will also allow you to prioritise the improvements you need to make, and help you work out the costs of each of these.
Taking steps to safeguard the information you hold on your systems will only enhance your reputation, too. It demonstrates to both existing and potential customers that you take data security seriously, and it also reassures suppliers that you’ve invested in protection. If you’re part of a supply chain or hoping to be, this shows that working with you doesn’t put the other businesses within the chain at risk.
The introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in May 2018 means that all businesses now have an obligation to keep customer and employee data secure, and to destroy or remove it from their systems once it’s no longer relevant to them. Carrying out regular security audits shows a commitment to ensuring you have the right controls in place to protect data.
You can also have an audit as part of your assessment and application for Cyber Essentials certification. This is awarded by various bodies, but ATG carry it out on behalf of IASME, and it’s jointly managed by the UK government and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
The scheme is nationally recognised, looks at your cyber security protection and identifies any gaps where you might be vulnerable to attack. You can either complete a self-assessment form or go for Cyber Essentials Plus, where a third party tests your system as a simulated cyber hack.
The ATG audit process
At ATG, we understand that every company is different, so each organisation needs its own unique, layered approach. To do this, we put together a package tailored to meet your specific cyber security requirements.
We carry out an audit of your IT equipment, network, IT infrastructure, software, services and existing IT security, a supply chain analysis and assess your internal practices in relation to IT Security.
Then, we perform external and internal vulnerability testing & scans to review your company against known risks.
After every audit, we provide a written report on all of our findings and let you know where the vulnerabilities are.
We also advise on how to reduce the risks to your systems, offering suggestions on changes that are needed to be made, immediately, short term and long term, including the tools and processes you can use to resolve any security problems to improve the level of protection.
We can also provide ongoing support to monitor your security systems, to assess the level of protection they’re giving and to safeguard you against new threats.
Ready to have a security audit carried out? Our team are on hand to answer any questions you might have - why not give them a call today?
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