If you want to run a thriving business in the digital age, you need a suitable Information Security Policy. Whether you are a global company or a small start-up, without operations, you need to document your business needs in an IT Security Policy and share it with all your employees for acknowledgement.

Having such an IT Security Policy and helping your team members understand the requirements should help your business protect its valuable assets, and also help them mitigate risks of non-compliance.

An IT Security Policy ensures that your employees are informed about the systems and measures in place to protect your organization from cyber-attacks. It also makes your business less vulnerable to a cyber-attack and ensures people know how to respond to such attacks and report suspected cases. Continuous compliance software available on the market also provides you with a secure, centralized place where you can store all the documents and other evidence files you need when regulators and auditors come knocking to your door following a reported security incident.

Therefore, an IT Security Policy should tell your employees what is expected of them and help them to be educated about the safe and secure procedures they should follow. It should also inform them of possible consequences if they do not comply with the guidelines. Your policy-making team (mainly Information Security team with support from Top Management) must be able to include imminent threats to data security in your policies.

Listing the threats and risks your organization is facing is the first step in developing an appropriate IT Security Policy, which should aim to address them. Although it is an absolute must in your IT Security Policy, you must also be aware of any risk that could create a vulnerability within the Company.

No matter how simple the task of drafting the document is, make sure the policy is documented and understandable. IT Security Policy will tell your employees what they should and should not do, define high level security principles, clarify and translate security policies, translate them and communicate them to employees, to name just a few. Once you have a final draft and it is published inside the Company, remember that if the staff does not read and sign it, it is useless. This would frustrate it’s purpose and create confusion within the organization.

Information Security Policy can be difficult to develop from the ground up and must be robust and ultimately secure. IT security policy can be more difficult than developing it from scratch, but it needs to be robust to secure your organization at both ends. As such, we highly recommend using a recognized template for starting on this journey and we suggest you to browse the available templates available on our website. Also, please refer to ISACA (i.e. Information Systems Audit and Control Association) website for further guidance in this area.

The presentation of how you want to update, monitor and review your IT security policies is a key component for successful implementation. Make sure your IT Security Policy includes clauses informing users of the consequences of non-compliance.

A Security Policy defines in general terms what is and is not permitted in terms of data protection, security, privacy, confidentiality and privacy. An Information Security Policy summarizes all policies, procedures and technologies for protecting your company’s data in one document. In short, such a policy describes in detail what the company’s philosophy on security is and helps you set up the right policies and procedures for the security of your IT systems and data.

Essentially, an Information Security Policy is a set of rules that dictates how digital information should be handled within the company. An organization’s information policy is usually a high-level policy that can cover a large number of security checks. Since networks are often most vulnerable to internal and external threats, network security policies are often the largest category to be included in the documentation of IT security policy. The organization’s Information Security Policy is usually the highest level of policy, which can cover a larger number of people than any security check.

Once you have an information security policy in place, seek management’s consent and ensure that it is available to all target groups. With your policy in place, the last piece of the puzzle is to train your staff and understand the information and security requirements.

Talking to your employees about their responsibility in terms of data security is a key aspect of an Information Security Policy. Regular internal communications should be released (e.g. emails, leaflets, etc.) together with periodic live sessions (usually on an annual basis), where the main objective is to refresh and increase knowledge and acknowledgement of security practices.

The security policies of companies create a framework for the systematic and consistent fulfillment of security-related tasks based on your organization’s information security requirements. Since they need to be constantly changed due to the high-dynamic environment we live in, ensure that the Information Security Policy is regularly updated – at least on an annual basis.