Business Growth

Spring is often a time to reset—to clear out clutter, streamline processes, and prepare for what’s ahead. But while most businesses focus on physical spaces or financial cleanup, the technology stack quietly running your operations often gets overlooked.

That’s a problem—because outdated, misconfigured, or neglected IT systems don’t just create inefficiencies. They create real risk.

At SafSecur, we perform routine IT audits for businesses across the Pittsburgh region, and what we find during those “spring cleanups” is eye-opening. From expired firewalls to broken backup systems, these issues often go unnoticed until they result in a breach, a compliance failure, or an insurance claim denial.

This blog covers five essential IT housekeeping tasks that every business should be doing right now—and includes the latest stats to show just how critical these actions really are.

1. ✅ Audit Your Software Licenses—Especially Firewalls and Antivirus Tools
Let’s start with what seems simple: software licenses.

Far too many businesses are running with expired or partially functioning licenses, especially when it comes to security tools like firewalls, endpoint protection, and backup systems. When these licenses expire, the software may still look active—but critical security features often shut down.

📊 78% of businesses run at least one system with expired or outdated security software.
—Ponemon Institute, 2023

For example, we often see SonicWall firewalls still passing traffic—but no longer scanning for threats, because the license quietly lapsed. That means malware, phishing links, and ransomware can slip through undetected.

This spring, take inventory of all your security-related tools. Are the licenses current? Are features like DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) and threat detection still running? If you’re unsure, your IT provider should be able to provide a simple license health report. If they can’t, it may be time to get a second opinion.

2. 👥 Remove Dormant Accounts and Lock Down Access
It’s easy to forget about users who are no longer with the company. Former employees, interns, or outside vendors often retain access to systems long after they’ve left. These “ghost accounts” are rarely monitored—and that makes them the perfect backdoor for attackers.

📊 60% of breaches involve misused or compromised credentials—often tied to unused accounts.
—Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 2023

And if those accounts don’t have MFA (multi-factor authentication) enabled—which is still surprisingly common—your risk doubles.

This quarter, conduct a user access review across all critical platforms: email, cloud storage, accounting software, VPN, remote desktop tools, and more. Remove accounts that are no longer needed, and enforce MFA on all remaining users—especially admins and executives. This is one of the fastest and lowest-cost ways to improve security posture.

3. 💾 Don’t Just Back Up—Test Your Backups
Most businesses believe their backups are working. But “green status” in a dashboard doesn’t mean much if no one has actually tried restoring from that backup.

In real-world ransomware cases, it’s common for businesses to discover—too late—that their backup was corrupted, misconfigured, or incomplete.

📊 More than 50% of companies find that their backups are corrupted or incomplete when tested.
—Datto State of the Channel Ransomware Report, 2023

This spring, schedule a backup restore test. Pick a server, a shared folder, or a key system and walk through a full recovery. Measure how long it takes. Document the steps. Know what your actual downtime would be in a real-world scenario—and fix any gaps now, not later.

This also gives you leverage with your cyber insurance provider, who may require proof that you test and monitor backups regularly.

4. 🛠 Keep Systems Patched and Vulnerabilities Closed
It’s easy to delay software updates—especially when you’re worried about breaking something in production. But unpatched systems are one of the leading causes of successful cyberattacks.

📊 Over 60% of breaches stem from vulnerabilities for which a patch was available but not applied.
—CISA Annual Vulnerability Exploitation Review, 2023

Hackers don’t need to invent new methods—they just need to scan for unpatched machines and exploit known issues.

Patch management isn’t just about applying Windows updates. It includes firmware, third-party apps (like Chrome, Zoom, Java), network devices, and cloud platforms. If you’re working with a managed IT provider, ask for a report showing your patch cadence. If no such report exists, that’s a red flag.

This quarter, make patching a priority—and create a rollback plan if you’re worried about software conflicts. Patching is cheap. Breaches are not.

5. 🔌 Retire Legacy Systems Before They Become Liabilities
If your business is still running on hardware or software that predates the pandemic, you’re not alone—but you are at risk.

📊 38% of SMBs still rely on infrastructure that is more than 5 years old and no longer supported.
—CompTIA SMB Tech Trends Report, 2023

Old servers and desktops not only slow down daily work—they often can’t run the latest security software or operating systems. That leaves you exposed to known vulnerabilities, compatibility issues, and frustrating performance bottlenecks.

Do a quick audit of your hardware. Identify systems older than five years or running unsupported software (like Windows 7 or Server 2012). Create a replacement plan now—before those machines crash unexpectedly or become the cause of a compliance issue.

If CapEx is a concern, ask your IT partner about hardware-as-a-service or leasing options. Delaying upgrades might save you money in the short term, but the long-term risks are rarely worth it.

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