Many companies have information security teams that work on everything related to security. Such teams design and implement all the controls required for protecting the business and managing different security incidents. That is when the appropriate help desk software comes in handy. But you have to remember that your service desk system must comply with the relevant industry’s standards. In this case, it may contribute to securing critical data significantly.
Why Does the Service Desk Information Security Matter?
To stay compliant with specific regulations and rules, each company has to involve the service desk. Here are the top five reasons why IT help desk is critical for all businesses:
- Everyone takes responsibility for security. Efficient data security relies on an appropriate balance between people, processes, and technology controls. Your employees must know the help desk software requirements established and be responsible for sticking to them. Among such you will find usage of policies, password management, authorization, or using personal devices for managing customers.
- ITSM platforms serve as the eyes and ears of IT. Your service desk tool is the major interface between the IT company and the end-users who work with your services. Thus, the tech staff has a unique understanding of the current situation within the user community. When they are properly trained, they will serve as the first line of defense and struggle with numerous potential security breaches.
- Service desk tools can communicate data security messages to users. The service desk team is always in regular contact with end-users. That allows communicating crucial information security messages. Also, it is an excellent opportunity for service reps to cooperate with the information security team and build strong relationships.
- ITSM’s role in security incident management. Service desk solutions often serve as the first place to address security incidents. Thus, they play a critical role in such a process flow. For instance, in many companies, service desks can log, track, escalate, and manage various security incidents.
- Service desk reps are role models. The relevant people work with users if something goes wrong, give advice, and clarify details to improve the customer experience. That makes it critical for them to train for doing such activities. Besides, your team has to follow the company’s culture.
What Are the Consequences of a Non-Compliant Service Desk Solution?
Non-compliance with information security standards results in - significant losses of costs, customers, and reputation. Such costs may come in different forms ranging from direct penalties of $5,000 to more than $50,000 in fines. There can be extra business-related losses because clients will have no trust in your brand.
Besides, staff will not want to work at the risk of personal identity theft. After all, the average business with one hundred users may lose about $190,000 by ignoring IT compliance regulations. That is the equivalent of three full-time help desk employees.
What Does Your IT Help Desk Need to Comply with Data Security Standards?
To ensure you have appropriate help desk security, double-check if you have in place the following:
Know data you are storing and who can access it
Your organization may store various types of data, including credit card information, patient health information (PHI), or staff records. Therefore, your service desk team has to understand what information is considered sensitive.
For example, your users call in and request access to the necessary protected information. Or they can need help with something that relates to your organization’s data. In this case, an ITSM tool should be correctly configured to who can access such kinds of records.
Specific rules for information preservation
Although your help desk agents may not curate your business information directly, they should basically understand IT help desk requirements. Therefore, they need to know how to preserve your information.
For instance, that includes knowing when backups occur, how to transfer data, or who can access it. Unfortunately, your help desk staff may not ensure they understand the ways your data is stored. Or employees may not know how specific data types are moving within your organization. In this case, there is a potential for data leaks and hacks.
Understand how to dispose of information
When your company destroys information, is there any lingering piece? Sometimes, it happens that the IT service rep lacks expertise in disposing of data efficiently. These agents may typically work on simple user issues unrelated to information disposal. Thus, make it your priority to provide them with proper training on data disposal and compliance with rules.
Firewall and malware monitoring requirements
Each business has customers and needs to comply with the existing security standards. Regardless of the authorities and legal acts regulating your industry, your organization needs to implement firewall and malware monitoring. That should become a critical part of your security routine. Your help desk team has to stick to and employ the latest security monitoring requirements, which allows keeping both personal and business data safe.
Role-based and limited access to data
All help desk security compliances predict a requirement of access restriction. The reason is simple: 50% of data leakage happens because of staff neglecting policies and responsibilities. Your employees who access sensitive data need to complete specific annual compliance training. Plus, you better adopt role-based access restrictions and multifactor authentication to prevent unwanted situations.
Key Tasks to Complete When Embarking on Securing Your Service Desk
When your company wants to secure service desk software, make sure you are following these critical points.
Create a security policy
You have to disseminate this policy within the whole organization. After that, you should monitor compliance and ensure everyone is following it.
Build a risk exception process
The IT environment is becoming increasingly complex. That refers to the rapid technological evolution and continuous assimilation of organizations into external networks. Thus, exceptions at the service desk are considered inevitable. But a risk exception process allows evaluating and weighing the risks of problems that affect data security policies or standards. Such an approach is crucial for each business since its objective is to fully address the detected violation.
Setting access standards and team training
Set the strict access requirements. Teach your reps and ensure they refresh their knowledge at least every six months. Also, the efficient step is to restrict access to all company’s systems to the least privilege possible depending on business needs.
Implement a role-based access control (RBAC)
Your company needs to deploy corporate authentication solutions for ensuring reliable identity tracking. Therefore, you can provide limited administrative access to mission-critical systems to only pre-defined employees. Such employees require elevated privileges using only approved approaches. Finally, you should prohibit using shared system accounts unless that is required by data security.
Is Your ITSM Team Helping Hackers?
Your organization has to empower its IT help desk with the correct information for supporting users and the entire business. The relevant employees should focus on securing your team because help desk threats to your digital life may be enormous.
You can expect the service team to understand the ways of checking users’ identities or creating and curating safe passwords. Also, you can expect them to never fall for various hacks or phishing attempts. But can you be sure that your company is in good hands?
ITSM solutions are always inundated with numerous users issues. Such issues may range from simple problems to incredibly complex ones. Thus, it can be easy for help desk staff to forget fundamental security measures that they ask the whole organization to follow. Often, the most significant security drawbacks result from service desks that fail to follow necessary protocols completely. Or they may not abide by the security compliance policies established within your industry.
However, the reality means that the efficient security strategy begins with the company’s IT help desk. Such employees must be IT professionals who know how to:
- recognize social engineering attacks, along with different suspicious requests
- ensure all mission-critical systems are secured properly
- understand credential hygiene correctly
Therefore, you should not manage and address their security failures. That is because help desk technicians must be of a higher standard compared to you and your end-users.
Summing up
Of course, your organization needs to have a compliant team that also refers to your specific business objectives. Besides, you should have help desk personnel that understand your industry and find solutions for making your business secure and profitable. Ultimately, considering the security and compliance with regulations is the priority for each IT help desk.
