When you subscribe your business to managed IT services in Toronto, you gain access to a full suite of IT support services that are outsourced, and essentially managed by an external provider who takes care of your tech needs, both routine and on-demand. This way, your company is able to streamline both the organizational structure, and the cost of operations, allowing small- to medium-sized businesses to thrive in today’s market, while leveraging the same advanced technology bigger players wield.
Managed IT services for businesses in Toronto rely on core services like systems administration, support, data backup, and security – the latter increasingly growing in performance as the market migrates to the digital age, and the need to protect crucial information both from competitors and cyberattacks grows. Because of these developments, it’s high time to explore the types of managed IT services that increase your business’ IT security.
Types of Managed IT Security Services
Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring is a core managed IT service for businesses in Toronto, as it is an ongoing preventive measure that keeps track of events in your company’s systems. With careful assessment of data collected, your managed IT service provider can help you determine if these events are a risk to your data or information systems. With remote monitoring in your managed IT services plan, it’s easy to track all unwarranted behavior on your network, as well as inbound connections that many include hacking attempts. This also allows your managed IT services provider in Toronto analyze security trends within your company’s systems in order to detect troublesome patterns and resolve them in a timely manner.
Perimeter Management
Along with routine monitoring comes perimeter management. Your managed IT services provider can set up firewalls and intrusion detection systems to further protect your information, and remotely manage configuration settings to ensure top functionality of the hardware and software your business in Toronto uses in its day-to-day operations. These systems are then periodically maintained and upgraded to the latest versions to ensure your data’s safety as cyberattacks evolve in sophistication as well.
Vulnerability Testing
To correctly assess the data security threat levels your business in Toronto could be exposed to, your managed IT services provider can stimulate hacking attempts and conduct software scans. This exposes vulnerabilities in your systems, allowing them to be properly assessed, and from then, your managed IT services provider can better design hardware and software security systems that can adequately protect your information and assets.
When your tech support provider in Toronto conducts vulnerability testing, it typically does not include a network-wide security assessment; rather, the focus is on the perimeter, and how easy or hard it is for hackers to access your company’s systems and bypass existing security measures.
Risk Assessment
By conducting a risk assessment, a managed IT services provider helps you understand the security risks your business in Toronto faces. With this, you can identify an IT support plan that keeps your key assets, systems, procedures, policies and controls safe, while minimizing risk when sharing information with external vendors. A thorough risk assessment allows your managed IT services provider to address emerging security threats, making it easier and safer to integrate new technology that not only secures the risks, but allows you to improve procedures and outputs at work.
Remote Compliance Monitoring
Not to be confused with routine, remote monitoring above, remote compliance monitoring involves installing software that constantly scans the network for changes. The software then flags unusual behavior that do not meet your company’s security policies. Compared to remote monitoring that scans external threats, this assesses unusual activity within your company’s network. For instance, if someone in your team grants themselves access to additional privileges or information they are not authorized to view, the software will immediately flag their actions as a possible internal security breach.
