Key IT Security Considerations When Choosing Your Technology Partner

With the advancement of technology has come a new wave of security threats. IT security Software as a Service (SaaS) technology offers an extra bit of security.

As SaaS means outsourcing responsibility for hardware and software to a specialist provider, the opponent the hackers face is much more versed with technology than a normal IT department can ever be.

A company specializing in security has experts who monitor online zero day threats and continually look for breaches.

No small business is likely to have a department tasked with nothing by securing their data and network.

There are a few key IT security considerations you should make when choosing the right technology partner.

Ensure that the SaaS company you engage performs all of the checks below.

Systems Audits

Your SaaS provider should periodically perform audits and system checkpoints to ensure that the application is operating properly at all times.

To guarantee that the protocols are being completed correctly there are Service Organization Control (SOC) reports that detail the findings of the audit or program examination.

Availability of IT Security Services

You need an application that´s up and running at any time. As such, you want to check your SaaS provider commits to defined service levels.

Your contract should include:

• • • • Service Level Agreement (SLA): availability time of the server
      • Recovery Point Objectives (RPO): acceptable data loss amount and the point to which data must be restored
      • Recovery Time Objectives (RTO): time it takes to be available for use of clients after recovery

Any system that you consider should have these elements in place and be within appropriate parameters.

For instance, a standard RPO is 30 minutes and a standard RTO is no more than four hours.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Any security related SaaS you consider hiring should be expert at identity threat detection and response (ITDR).

To detect and respond effectively to immediate threats is What Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) is.

IT Vendor Consolidation

The more vendors your business uses, the more challenging it is to protect against data loss.

As part of the efforts to close down attack vectors that permit security gaps later on used by bad actors, each organization should aim toward cybersecurity vendor consolidation to ensure that solutions intersect in the safest way possible.

IT Security Components

In addition to the aforementioned considerations, application, there are a few specific security components that should be in place within the application itself.

The main components to check are as follows:

• • • • Strong identity authentication features
      • A firewall with an intrusion prevention system
      • Intrusion audits
      • Vulnerability assessments

Making sure that your sensitive data is secure is essential in selecting the right SaaS provider.

To aid in the process, make sure that you weigh in the considerations above. If you do, you will be sure to select a strong partner to support your business.

Additional IT Security Resources:

 

Originally published 3/16/15; updated 1/8/24 to improve formatting for mobile devices and add additional resources.

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