Facts state that 88% of organizations worldwide experienced phishing attack attempts in the year 2019, 95% of the total cybersecurity breaches occur due to human errors, there is a hacker attack after every 39 seconds, and so on. These are some shocking and disquieting facts and figures about the hazards to the Information Technology Industry. Every development and growth comes with its pros and cons, and the biggest demerit for the IT industry is a cybercrime that is growing exponentially and is hazardous to the whole world.

An organization needs to understand its loopholes and flaws in terms of its data and systems' security and safety. Everything over a network is at risk. Audit sounds like an examination or scrutiny from any other department. Still, an IT security audit is essential to realize, analyze, understand, resolve and overcome the potential threats to the systems and the information involved.

What is an IT Security Audit?

An IT security audit assesses the institution's security measures for physical or hardware and software that could be at risk. It can involve conducting scans, penetration tests, virus management policies, training the employees, and many more. The auditors generate a report to figure out the bugs that can lead to a cyber-attack and compromise the reputation of the company.

Need of an IT Security Audit

The IT security audit not only figures out the bugs but also implements practices to resolve the problems. They keep a check on the level of security required for the organization, control the security practices updated, make the staff aware and train them to follow the best security protocols, implement measure to preserve the information from getting exposed to attackers, use past data of audit to develop better security practices, identify and handle the potential hidden risks, make investments for the security of data and the software, keep the software up-to-date and many more.

Not everyone is very well aware of the impact that cyberattacks can cause to an organization; these regular audits will make sure that the employees and the management are very well aware of the probable security threats and how they are supposed to handle them. This enhances the efficiency of the working and minimizes the burden of safety while working over a network and dealing with sensitive information.

As technology is growing, the world is shifting more to the cloud. The organizations are going virtual, with employees working from home attracting more cybercriminals to take advantage of the new working trend and steal valuable information. The IT auditor can decide protocols and regulations to be followed by all the employees at various levels to make sure that effective remote working is taking place.

An audit might sometimes sound like an expensive affair but imagine keeping yourself away from bargaining with a hacker not to leak your organization's personal information that might cause a hefty loss to the entire company. You can explore the pentesting pricing options here.

Once an organization is well aware of the importance and value of security and the security breaches, it is easier to prepare or fight against an emergency or a cybersecurity attack from an external source. The preventive measures and well-trained staff will be capable enough to cope with the attacker's tactics and implement the best practices to avoid breaching of information.

The process of an IT security audit involves identifying and recording internal and external cyber threats that might affect your organization, attain knowledge from various resources about the identified threats to analyze the level of breach or harm that it can cause, determine the repercussion that the danger can bring to your enterprise and plan the strategy for response in the order of the consequences it can cause to the organization. 

The most crucial step before an audit begins is to state the goals and the principal purpose of the audit; once the objective is set, the results are more efficient. All minor details must be well noted and considered while planning for safeguarding the system to ensure a protection level that is capable enough to overcome all the major issues and enables the company management to work in a peaceful environment.

As the technology grows more robust and more environment, so do the cyberattacks, making it almost impossible to get rid of them forever. Still, it reduces the fear and establishes confidence that the organization's name and reputation are not at stake due to security breaches from external sources. Do not wait for a threat to happen; instead, make sure today that your system and software are safe with a detailed IT security audit.