What is a Security Procedure?
A security procedure consists of steps and tasks that are necessary to ensure security in an organization’s day-to-day operations. Security procedures work together with security policies, standards, and guidelines to implement outlines for safety operations within any business.
Additionally, a security procedure can implement, enable, or enforce security controls laid out in your organization’s policies. These security policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures are followed in every safety protocol. Also, security policies act as the foundation of an organization’s security program.
There are a few essential concepts and components to know for security procedures:
- Security Policies
- Standards
- Baselines
- Procedures
Why are Security Procedures Important?
Security procedures play a vital role in any organization’s operations and functions. These procedures and policies ensure that an organization has methods to keep their employees, data, reputation, and workplace safe. They help to prevent accidents and injuries that could severely hinder an organization’s operations. Cybersecurity-focused procedures also provide a level of defense against cyberattacks, which can damage the organization’s functions and result in the loss of important data.
In addition, the presence of security procedures can give both workers and clients a sense of safety and assurance that they might not feel otherwise. This, in turn, can improve workers’ morale and productivity.
What Are the Different Types of Security Policies?
There are numerous types of security policies and procedures which are important to know and be able to recognize when creating them. The types of security policies can be divided into three categories:
- Administrative
- Technical
- Physical
An organization needs to have security procedures of each type to form a cohesive, unified security plan that will cover as many bases and mitigate as many risks as possible.
Administrative
Administrative policies control the type of hazard meant to be prevented, and dictate any measures that are to be used when responding to a given hazard. They are used to prevent harm and damage within the workplace. They do this by prohibiting certain actions, behavior, and activities which pose a danger to the workplace or workers. Typically, the administrative category involves monitoring and modifying people’s behavior rather than the natural hazard itself.
Technical
An Information Technology (IT) Security Policy serves as the model for the organization’s culture. Technical security policies protect organizations and their employees and identify procedures for all people accessing an organization’s resources. These policies and procedures protect an organization’s data and network, preventing unauthorized users from accessing them. Cybersecurity procedures and other resources are needed to identify hazardous exploitation contained within products.
Physical
All applicable regulations must comply with an organization’s physical security policies. Physical security restricts unknown users from accessing organizational functions. They involve documenting all resources and necessary information. This security also ensures the presence of systems to control, monitor, and remove engrafted access throughout the information resource facilities.
Information security standards follow strict guidelines. Therefore, precise security procedures are needed to prevent internal and external risks. One function of a security procedure is reducing external network threats through means such as firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion-detection systems, and email filters. In addition, these procedures reduce internal threats by defining the appropriate use of network resources.
What Does A Security Procedure Entail?
By having a procedure in place, employees can help with the continued maintenance of protections against both internal and external risks. Security procedures must be direct in how to solve each problem thoroughly; therefore, there are ten steps to consider when crafting successful cybersecurity policies and procedures.
1. Identify Security Risks
Firstly, a security procedure must be able to determine any potential risks to an organization. Identifying risks starts with having effective monitoring and reporting tools. Many information resource programs have evaluation periods, so you have to assess your products to make sure they are both functional and safe. Also, ensure that your employees know about the evaluation periods for risk assessment.
2. Research Current Security Policies
Take a look at what other people and organizations are doing in regard to security policies. There are many types of security procedures; other organizations may have security procedures or policies which you might not have thought of. By considering the possible effects of these procedures and adapting them to your own organization, you can make your security strategies and policies much more effective.
3. Make Sure the Policy is Compliant with Legal Requirements
Conform to appropriate and necessary standards for privacy and integrity. This means if your company holds confidential information, always make sure to have it secured in a safe place on the web. It also means that your organization must follow through on any promises or assurances made to clients. This will let clients know your organization is serious about its work and preserving their privacy, therefore making them more likely to become a repeat customer.
4. Ensure Level of Security is Equal to Level of Risk
A high level of security demands a high level of attention to risk. However, overprotection can become a problem, leading to excessive measures being used and the expenditure of unnecessary resources and security methods that could be better used somewhere else. Therefore, a written code of conduct regarding security procedures is needed to develop a careful approach to smoothly-run business operations.
5. Include All Staff on New Policies
Never leave anyone out in planning security procedures development. All eyes on these procedures will assist in better protection for your data services. Therefore, every process should involve all staff, who can help to appropriately assemble effective rules and precautions. In addition, because the security policies will affect everyone, everyone should be able to have some level of input in them.
6. Train Your Employees on New Policies
A vital phase in the process of security policy-making is teamwork. If every worker understands how the organization’s security procedures work and how they can contribute, things will go much more smoothly. Most importantly, employees need to be trustworthy, trained, and confident in getting tasks done. Therefore, everyone should understand all of the policies and procedures so that they know what the policies involve and what they, as individuals, need to do to comply with the policies.
7. Write Everything Down
Confirm that everyone has agreed and understands all the rules and instructions on ordering procedures for security. If the instructions, procedures, and other papers are not written down, then it becomes much more likely that misunderstandings will occur. Therefore, you should have the agreement papers in writing to ensure clarity and understanding. This can also reduce the risk of legal complications down the road.
8. Enforce Clear Penalties and Have Contingencies
Procedures followed by all employees need to be clear and concise; this ensures that everyone will be ready in case any systems malfunction. Also, network security can sometimes be incapable of restoring private information, so you should make sure to always have backup plans to restore such data. Furthermore, there should be clear and reasonably strict penalties for breaches of policy or failure to follow the security procedures in place. This will discourage employees from ignoring the security policies and make clear that the organization is serious about upholding them.
9. Update Staff on Security Procedure
In the process of carrying out a security procedure, documents are consistently updated, and databases are created and then destroyed. In essence, new security software is developed all the time. Therefore, the staff should be informed about any changes or updates so that they know what to expect. New hires may have innovative ideas to keep software safe, so consider their ideas and insights.
10. Install Necessary Tools
Adhere to multiple customizable rule sets for email and internet content security products. Also, invest in the necessary security tools for safety and stability. Lastly, always have a policy that documents and covers all of the tools needed.
What is the End Result of A Security Procedure?
Firstly, setting up a security procedure is practical and effective for risk management assignments. Also, a security risk causes harm to people in ways that expose information or assets to compromise or damage personal data.
These security risks extend across:
- Entities
- Premises
- Local and regional communities
- Industry
- International partners
- Other jurisdictions
Therefore, having security policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures in place is essential to mitigate such risks. Security procedures help implement rules to align with priorities and objectives. These instructions lead to safer networks and better risk management practices.
Security planning procedures always consider risk management practices. Then, the practices are designed, implemented, monitored, reviewed, and continually improved to better network performance. As a result, security procedures address security risks and set out assignments for tasks to finalize smoothly-run operations.
What Are Key Elements to Remember in Security Policies and Procedures?
Information security is an important aspect of running an organization, and is often carried out through security procedures. Information security manifests in many ways. However, there are five main elements to remember for information security to be successful when implementing it into security procedures:
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
- Authenticity
- Non-repudiation
With all this in mind, security procedures and improving performance plans are essential. Incorporating a security procedure ensures that employees can safely access files on the organization’s servers. Security documentation creatively outlines all the steps needed to create a clear list of rules and procedures for preserving the safety of workers and the organization as a whole. So, you should continue to control and monitor all files for employees to pass on information to new hires.
How Can EDC Help?
However, you may be wondering what all this means. How does EDC help your business? Essential Data Corporation accesses safe files while avoiding corrupt networks for any business. Security procedures are for risk management and safety purposes. With that in mind, EDC is always available to assist you with any problems.
Whether you need a single technical writer for a brief project or a team of consultants to produce a complete line of documentation, the quality of our work is guaranteed for you. Our clients work closely with an Engagement Manager from one of our 30 local offices for the entire length of your project at no additional cost. Contact us at (800) 221-0093 or sales@edc.us
Written by Lucas Van Deventer