Whether you anticipate a bustling holiday season or you're just looking to supplement a skeleton crew of permanent team members, you may be planning on bringing in some temporary employees. Keep in mind, however, that these individuals are strangers to you, and their intentions may be not pure as Christmas snow. Here are some strategies you can employ to make sure your IT system won't be compromised, courtesy of our Austin IT business support experts.

Data access levels – Think carefully about just how much access your incoming temps will need to your data. Most rank-and-file workers will be performing a limited set of low-level tasks, so limit their access to sensitive information. For instance, you may want to assign them passwords that allow them only into carefully-chosen public directories. Once they've complete the job, change these passwords immediately.

Hardware protection – Most IT systems rely on some fairly expensive components, from racks of servers to multiple rows of workstations. If you keep your ventral components in a separate IT room, make sure that room remains locked to everyone but authorized personnel who have their own keys. Never leave keys to IT rooms or server closets in desk drawers or other vulnerable areas. If you hand out keycards or badges, make sure they only permit access to the proper areas for a limited amount of time.

Mobile device safeguards – BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) may make sense for our permanent employees, and you'd probably rather have your temps using their own devices than hand out company devices to them. But you absolutely must secure those devices against theft through two-party authentication, remote wiping, limited data access and other techniques.

Gravity systems can help you maintain a secure environment for your IT this holiday season. Contact us with any questions you may have!

Related Post: Steps Toward a More Energy-Efficient IT System