5 Security IT Policies that Every Business Needs

Whether you are looking to get accredited by ISO or Cyber Essentials, or looking to build solid foundations for your IT security; it is essential to have solid IT policies in place within your organisation to ensure that security is at the heart of your organisation and processes. To cut through any ambiguity, we have put together five key IT security policies that you can build your defences around.

Our five IT security policies are as follows and are covered in more detail in this article:

• Disaster Recovery Policy
• Access Control Policy
• Information Transfer Policy
• Starters and Leavers Policy
• Change Management Policy

Access Control Policy:

The first IT security policy on our list is the Access Control Policy. This policy defines who has access to your company's data and systems.

Processes your Access Control Policy should include are:

• Granting access to systems.
• Revoking access to systems.
• Managing user accounts.
• Detecting unauthorised access
• Auditing access rights periodically.
• Ensuring the integrity of administrative access.

Access Control Policies are so crucial because of the complexity of modern IT systems. Imagine your network as a vast mansion, with your workers having keys to access only the rooms they need to do their job. Should a burglar steal a worker's key, they won't be able to go wherever they want in the mansion. Instead, they can only go to specific rooms. This limits the damage they can do and makes it much easier to track them down and expel them.

Information Transfer Policy:

The next IT security policy on our list is the Information Transfer Policy. This policy governs how sensitive information is transferred within your company, and your policy should cover:

• Encrypting data in transit.
• Sending secure emails.
• Classification of information, and who is authorised to transfer it.
• Restriction of unsecure transfer methods, such as USB.

Following these procedures will help to keep your data safe from interception and theft. They ensure that your most valuable data can only be viewed by the intended recipient.

You sure ensure your Information Transfer Policy can be used with other firms. When you transfer data, access must be on the condition they follow your Information Transfer Policy alongside any data protection policies or NDAs that you might put in place.

Starters and Leavers Policy:

With the remote work boom in full swing, employees now have access to a much larger variety of opportunities. Therefore, all businesses are experiencing a higher turnover of staff. With a higher turnover of staff, you leave your business open to increased risk due to improperly trained stuff, access rights not being revoked and your company's commitment to Security being lost.

A good starters policy should include:

• Appropriate vetting processes to ensure integrity of your staff
• Permission boundaries which can be granted alongside your access control policy
• Confirmation of security and data protection training
• Handover of key policies and procedures to protect security

A good leavers policy should include:

• Removal of permissions in line with your access control policy
• A reminder to staff of contractual obligations around information disclosure
• The safe storing of employee data

Change Management Policy:

Your data and systems are fragile things that your business' survival relies upon. Implementing changes and testing them should not be any single worker's responsibility.

Change Management Policy helps to manage this responsibility by governing how changes are made to critical infrastructure under consistent procedures. This ensures that all changes are made correctly so that your systems can avoid downtime caused by human error, as well as securely, so that doors open to cybercriminals are closed before a system goes live.

A good change management policy should include:

• Approval processes, and a definition of a change approval board.
• Planning and testing processes
• Sign off procedures 
• Requirements for staff training
• Metrics for documentation of changes, to ensure that they are trackable

Disaster Recovery Policy:

Despite every intention to protect your data from security risks, you need to ensure that you have a plan and process to follow should the worst happen. Therefore, our most important policy is Disaster Recovery.

Used in the worst-case scenario when a major cyber-attack hits your business, this policy allows you to recover as rapidly as possible. There are a handful of features in an excellent Disaster Recovery Policy:

• Accessing backed-up data, and your defined points of recovery.
• Restoring systems.
• Process to follow in a data breach scenario.
• Communicating with customers, staff, and authorities.

An ideal Disaster Recovery Policy, therefore, allows you to return to normal business operations as quickly as possible while maintaining customers' trust in your business and remaining compliant.

Helping You To Implement IT Security Policies

The IT security policies listed in this article are the basics that all businesses need to have. Implementing them effectively are crucial to keeping your data safe and preventing unauthorized access and disasters.

At 3GI, we are adept at helping businesses to implement these policies and to explore other policies that might be relevant in your sector. If you have any questions or want our help to protect your business, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.