You wouldn’t want to fly on a plane that hasn’t had its regular safety inspection. Similarly, periodically assessing your IT security is an important part of your organization’s security plan.

Just as every plane comes with a list of scheduled maintenance items, your IT organization should have a list of security features to audit on a periodic basis. You can do many of them yourself, but there’s no substitute for having an independent expert occasionally check for your blind spots.

 There are many benefits to doing periodic assessments beyond simply complying with your specific information legislation. Undertaking regular assessments can help you to:

  • Find out whether your security has already been compromised. You might not know unless you look, and you will sleep better at night if you know.
  • Stay on top of the latest security threats — with new attacks coming on the scene every day, you could become vulnerable even if nothing has changed since your last assessment.
  • Make sure that your staff is being vigilant by maintaining a focus on IT security.
  • Increase awareness and understanding of security issues throughout your company.
  • Make smart security investments by prioritizing and focusing on the high-importance, high-payoff items.
  • Demonstrate to your customers that security is important to you — this shows them that you care about them and their data.