IT Security Assessments

ArchTech offers cost-effective, standards-based security and compliance systems to keep you protected 24/7/365.

Protect Your Digital Assets IT Security Assessments

IT Security Assessments are comprehensive evaluations that pinpoint vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and potential threats in your IT infrastructure. At ArchTech, we ensure that your systems meet security and compliance standards, preparing you for audits from organizations like the DHS, DoD, and DOJ. We are an authorized public sector vendor specializing in the First Responder and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) areas, with work spanning multiple market segments. Our assessments and Gap Analysis work help you comply with required regulations, including compliance with:

Unlike most assessment teams, we're also an MSP that integrates directly into any clients' operations at all levels of support and project management. This means we have real-world, boots-on-the-ground experience of day-to-day management to guide successful, prioritized recommendations for real security that meets compliance requirements on a budget. To learn more about our services, including retaining an RPO (Registered Provider Organization) for audit preparation. To learn more about our services, contact us online or give us a call at (866) 566-2464.

IT Security Assessments St. Louis, MO | IT Security and Compliance

4 Reasons Why IT Security and Compliance Are Important | IT Security & Compliance

Organizations today face increasing risks that can jeopardize not only their operations but also their reputation. From cyberattacks to regulatory demands, ensuring strong IT security and compliance is no longer optional—it's a necessity. Here are seven key reasons why prioritizing these areas is vital for your organization.

  1. Staying In Business: 60% of businesses close down within 6 months of a cyber attack. For many other organizations, meeting compliance requirements is a prerequisite to getting and maintaining certain contracts, grant funding or operationally required certifications. Regardless of which category you fall into, you need an expert team to review where you currently are before it’s too late.
  2. Avoid Financial and Reputational Losses: The costs of a data breach are staggeringly high in terms of both money and time. In addition to recovery costs, legally required disclosures, hundreds of hours of staff time, insurance premium increases, ransomware payments and other factors, the loss of customer, client or constituent trust can be devastating. For many organizations that must adhere to industry regulations and standards (such as CMMC, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS), legal penalties and fines can be imposed, or certifications required to maintain operations can be revoked.
  3. Gained Cost Efficiency: Proactively addressing security vulnerabilities not only helps prevent costly breaches, legal fines, and downtime. It can also be surprisingly affordable, particularly along some of the most common attack vectors. As both an experienced security assessment and highly experienced IT management and operations provider, ArchTech’s security assessment recommendations can provide peace of mind and leverage for your bottom line. In many instances, we have identified savings sufficient to entirely recoup the cost of our assessment, even after all recommendations are implemented.
  4. Competitive Advantage: Demonstrating strong IT security and compliance can serve as a differentiator in the market, giving you an edge over competitors who may not prioritize these areas. Robust Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (DRBC) plans are part of operational IT security and minimize the likelihood of disruption incidents, ensuring business continuity and maintaining productivity in the face of adverse circumstances relative to competitors. Ensuring that your organization’s data is accurate, reliable, and uncorrupted, supports better decision-making while preserving staff and customer trust in your systems.

Types of IT Security Assessments

Depending on your organization's needs, your assessment may involve a variety of approaches to identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance. These include:

  1. Compliance Audits for Specific Standards: Verifies that your organization meets industry standards like HIPAA, CMMC, PCI DSS, CJIS, the NIST 800-series, and others.
  2. Vulnerability Scanning: Automated tools scan systems for known vulnerabilities cybercriminals could exploit. Unlike other assessors, ArchTech uses several commercially available tools instead of just one or two. Additionally, ArchTech uses proprietary scripting and discovery tools we have developed in-house, further differentiating our offerings from our competitors.
  3. Penetration Testing: Using customized tools and processes, ethical hackers simulate attacks to test the effectiveness of your security defenses.
  4. Risk Assessment: Evaluates potential risks, analyzing both their likelihood and impact on your organization. It is important that this step covers all information systems where Protected or Sensitive information is stored, processed or transmitted. Many assessors only look at a few systems, leaving potential vulnerabilities un-remediated.
  5. Policy and Procedure Review: Ensures your security policies align with industry best practices and regulatory requirements.
  6. Incident Response Plan Evaluation: Assesses the effectiveness of your plans for responding to and recovering from security incidents.
  7. Security Recommendations: After the assessment, you’ll receive actionable steps to address vulnerabilities and improve your overall security.

We tailor our technical assessments to meet your organization’s unique needs. Our evaluations can include attempts to breach your network and security protocols, identifying potential vulnerabilities in your systems, software, and even IoT and ICS. By addressing these gaps proactively, we help ensure robust protection and compliance with industry standards, safeguarding your most valuable assets.

IT Security Applications & Cybersecurity

IT and Cybersecurity play a crucial role in protecting various aspects of an organization’s operations. The following areas are key applications where robust IT security measures that include technical, administrative, and physical controls that can make a significant impact:

  • Applications: Securing software applications from vulnerabilities and unauthorized access is essential to prevent data breaches and ensure operational integrity. From web-based platforms to internal tools, safeguarding applications helps maintain functionality and reliability for both users and employees.
  • Data-Use and Management: Protecting the way data is stored, processed, and transferred is fundamental to IT security. Encryption, access controls, and data classification protocols help ensure that sensitive information is safeguarded against cyber threats and unauthorized access, preserving both confidentiality and compliance with data privacy regulations.
  • IT Policies: Implementing clear IT security policies sets the standard for how security measures are enforced throughout the organization. These policies guide everything from password management to remote access protocols, ensuring that all employees adhere to security best practices and protect the organization's digital assets.
  • IT Procedures: Effective IT security relies on well-defined procedures that dictate how security tasks, such as system updates, vulnerability assessments, and incident response, are carried out. These procedures ensure consistency and reduce the likelihood of errors that could compromise security.
  • IT Operational Processes: IT security must be embedded in the day-to-day operational processes of an organization. This includes routine tasks like system monitoring, backup management, and user access reviews. By incorporating security into operational workflows, businesses can detect potential issues early and respond to threats swiftly, minimizing the risk of disruption.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Static Application Security Testing, also known as white-box testing, evaluates the security of an application by examining its source code or binaries without executing the program. This approach helps identify vulnerabilities such as insecure coding practices, logic flaws, and potential data leaks early in the development process. By integrating SAST during the software development lifecycle, organizations can proactively catch and address issues before deployment, minimizing the need for costly fixes later.

Dynamic Application Security Testing, in contrast, is a black-box testing method that analyzes the security of an application while it’s running. This technique simulates external attacks to uncover vulnerabilities like input validation errors, misconfigurations, or authentication flaws in real-time. DAST provides critical insights into how an application behaves in a live environment, revealing weaknesses that may not be visible during development.

By using both SAST and DAST together, organizations can benefit from a comprehensive approach to application security. While SAST focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in the code before the application is live, DAST ensures that no exploitable flaws are overlooked in a running environment. This dual approach helps protect applications from both internal and external threats throughout their lifecycle.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structured process that guides software developers through the phases of design, development, testing, and deployment. It begins with planning, where the project scope, objectives, and resources are defined, followed by analysis to gather detailed requirements. Next is the design phase, which involves creating system architecture and user interface models, leading to implementation, where code is written and components integrated.

After implementation, the testing phase validates the software against requirements to identify and fix defects. Once tested, the software is deployed in a production environment, followed by maintenance to monitor and update based on user feedback and issues. Incorporating AST techniques that often involves SAST and DAST throughout the SDLC helps ensure vulnerabilities are identified and mitigated at each stage, leading to more secure software and reducing remediation costs.

IT & Cybersecurity Assessments | IT Support When You Need It

IT security assessments are comprehensive evaluations designed to identify vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and potential threats in an organization's IT infrastructure. These assessments help businesses understand their current security posture, ensure compliance with regulatory standards, and mitigate risks to protect sensitive data and systems.

IT security assessments are essential for protecting against cyberattacks and making sure you're protecting both your business interests and your customers. Contact the ArchTech team now to learn more or give us a call at 866-566-4264.