Are Your Admins Fed Up With Your Bad Security Protocols?
How well-equipped is your IT department? Do your administrators have everything they need to do their jobs effectively? If you don’t know the answers to those questions, you need to learn them.
These are the men and women who, at the end of the day, are your best (perhaps only) defense against the array of cyberthreats facing your business and its data. Treat them well and provide them with what they need, and they will keep your business secure. Mistreat them and expect them to spin gold from twine?
You may as well hand your files to a hacker yourself.
But how exactly can you tell if your administrators are frustrated and put-upon? What are the warning signs your IT department is under-resourced or understaffed? And more importantly, what can you do about it?
Your first step is to examine both workplace culture and the status of your own software and hardware:
- You regularly hear employees talking about how difficult an administrator (or the entire department) is to deal with. Such a hostile relationship could indicate serious frustrations on both sides.
- IT workers seem apathetic or disconnected when you interact with them – as though they don’t care about your organization.
- Your IT systems have not been updated or improved in years.
- Security updates and device provisioning are not automated – everything must be done manually.
- Your executive board constantly pushes for new technology or functionality, simply because they can – not because they need it.
- You find yourself regularly disregarding or ignoring the advice of your administrators (or notice colleagues doing the same).
- If your organization is struck by a data breach, your administrators seem unsurprised by it.
- You do not have security awareness or risk management training at your organization. Employees are simply left to their own devices.
When In Doubt, Communicate
It was once a common misconception that cybersecurity is solely the domain of IT. This idea is toxic. There needs to be an open dialogue between IT and every other department and executive within your organization.
In other words, the best way you can determine whether or not your administrators are happy with your business’s security practices is to simply talk to them. Ask them about what they need to better do their jobs. Ask them how they might improve organizational security posture.
Remember that you’re all in this together – and that by working together, you can achieve far more than you ever could divided.
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Security
