The Walls of Troy Cannot Stand Tall Forever – Why You Can’t Take Your IT Security For Granted

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December 16, 2014

Hackers have taken a page from the book of Troy: they don’t try to break down your walls when they can instead slide a Trojan horse past your defenses. They’re sneaky like that. Their Helen is your information. You didn’t take it from them, and it was always yours to begin with, but they want it. Like Spartans, they aren’t scared to show brute force, with some tactics up their sleeves. Here’s how hackers try to slip past your defenses, and how you have to stay vigilant against their tricks:

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

The Greeks and hackers have something in common: they don’t like to be distracted. It’s hard to attack a city or a computer system when you’re dealing with defenses like boiling oil or walls of fire.

Throwing hackers off guard and forcing them towards the sea will set them back in time – time they don’t want to spend. Keeping them away from the walls will ensure a safe distance, and they may even give up. How do you do this with your computer systems? Install proper firewalls that present constant challenges to unwanted intrusion; they will present enough of an annoyance to most hackers that they’ll give up and go look for another Troy to raid.

The Walls Haven’t Been Penetrated, But They’re Inside Anyway

Building your walls high and installing powerful defenses is good to deter most invaders, but, like the Trojans, sometimes you’ll be facing an army that’s smart, and not just strong. Eventually they will get through the walls. You can put up as many obstacles as you want, there will always be a way. They will deceive you or find a hole left unpatched.

That’s why having a simple firewall and anti-virus program isn’t enough. Prevention alone can’t keep your systems safe: you have to also take advantage of detection security to ensure nothing has slipped through vulnerabilities you’re unaware of. At Integris, we offer 24×7 remote monitoring of your systems to look for unwanted intrusion and potential IT problems, so the guards are watching the inner courtyard as well as the perimeter. Even if the Greeks slip a horse inside the walls, your IT security experts will be smart enough to catch it and kick it back out.

What Should You Be Doing

There are many precautions you can do to make sure you don’t get hit by hackers. Take some of these for example:

  1. Use sufficient anti-virus, malware protection, and Internet security software – keep those walls high.
  2. Look for potential weakpoints – invaders are always looking for a side door or other way to sneak past your walls. Integris can help you conduct a security assessment to look for potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited, and patch those holes.
  3. Have the security experts at Integris proactively protecting your system – having a lookout, or two, is always a good idea. They’ll let you know if something gets through the walls.
  4. Cloud storage – If Troy could have hidden Helen in the cloud, she would always have been protected from abduction. Storing your vital information in a secured cloud data center means you don’t have to worry about mounting your own defenses.

It’s tough hiring the right people to keep you afloat and protected. It’s not easy and you need experience for the job. Give us a call at (888) 330-8808 or email us at [email protected] and see how we, Integris, can make sure your company doesn’t end up like another story of Troy.

We're Integris. We're always working to empower people through technology.

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