Company IT after the summer: the checklist to restart safely

The first day back from the summer break, the office restarts slowly, and IT is the part nobody looks at until it breaks down. During the weeks of downtime the systems stayed on and un-updated, the backups ran without anyone checking them, and in the meantime the odd colleague has changed. Before getting back up to full speed it pays to spend half a day on an orderly IT checklist: it costs little and it saves you from a problem that brewed in August blowing up at the worst moment. Here's what to check to restart safely.

Updates left behind

During the break the updates pile up, and among them are often security patches for flaws that are already known and exploited. It's the first thing to catch up on, in an orderly way rather than all at once.

• Update the operating systems on all workstations and servers, rebooting where needed to apply the pending patches.
• Check the business software, CMS and plugins: a site or a system stuck at months ago is an easy target.
• Verify routers, firewalls and access points: they receive updates too, and they're the entry door to the network.
• Where possible, apply the updates on a test machine first, so you avoid a patch halting work on the very day you restart.

Backups: verify them, don't trust them

Automatic backups have a flaw: they run silently, and when they stop working no one notices until a restore is needed. After weeks with no check, this is the point on which not to turn a blind eye.

Open the backup console and look at the dates: is the last successful save recent? Check that it covers everything that matters, not just some folders. Above all, do a real restore test: recover a file, or a whole system in a separate environment, and verify that the data is readable and intact. A backup you've never tried to restore is a hope, not a protection, and the time to find that out is now, not during a failure.

Passwords and access

Summer is the season of changes: people who left the company, people who joined, seasonal collaborators who had temporary access. The return is the chance to put order back into who can get in where.

• Deactivate the accounts of people who no longer work with you. A forgotten account that's still active is a silent risk.
• Review permissions: everyone should have access only to what they need, nothing more.
• Change the shared passwords of critical systems, especially if they were known to people who have left.
• Enable two-factor authentication where it's still missing, particularly on email, business software and admin panels.
• Replace the habit of the password file with a real credential manager, so the keys don't circulate in plain text.

Workstations, printers and network

Machines switched off for weeks sometimes come back with a few quirks, and it's worth checking them before the first serious workload does.

Turn on the workstations and check that the antivirus and updates are aligned. Test the printers and shared peripherals: drivers to update, jammed queues and empty cartridges are the classic first-day snags. Take a look at the network: that all the devices are back online, that the connection holds and that the guest network is separated from the office one. If you have an on-site server, check the temperature, the available disk space and the state of any RAID drives: a disk that failed in August should be replaced before a second one fails.

A security check before you rush

Beyond the individual items, the return is a good moment for an overall look at security, calmly, before the calendar fills up.

• Go over with the team how to recognize a phishing attempt: email scams remain the most common way in, and after the break attention is low.
• Verify that firewalls and protections are active and configured, not disabled "to be quick" during some summer maintenance.
• Check the expiry of certificates and domains: an expired certificate makes the site inaccessible and suspicious in customers' eyes.
• Update the inventory: which machines, licenses and accounts exist today. It's the basis for all future checks.

You don't have to do it all on the first day. Turn this list into a plan across a week, with someone responsible for each item, and file away what you've verified: next year you'll start from here instead of from scratch.

Want someone to handle it for you

If this checklist has raised more than one doubt, it's the sign that the office lacks a stable technical point of contact. With our IT support for offices service we handle updates, verified backups, access and security all year round, so coming back from the break is no longer a scramble to plug holes. Book a free call: we'll look at the state of your IT together and tell you which exposed points to fix first.