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The Importance of Regular IT Health Checks

Image: Christina Morillo via Pexels

If your car is due for a Warrant of Fitness, you wouldn’t skip it and hope for the best. Yet many businesses treat their IT infrastructure exactly that way — running systems that haven’t been properly reviewed in months or even years, and only finding out something was wrong when things go sideways. A regular IT health check works on the same principle as a WOF: a structured look under the bonnet before small issues become expensive ones.

Why now is a good time to take stock

In August 2026, the National Cyber Security Centre published findings showing that between April and June 2026, 92 cyber incidents were escalated for specialist technical support due to their potential national significance — a 19% rise from the previous quarter. Total reporting volumes stayed relatively stable at 1,129 incidents, but the key takeaway from the NCSC’s reporting is clear: incidents are becoming more complex and harder to contain. That’s not a reason to panic, but it is a very good reason to make sure your organisation’s defences are properly set up and regularly tested.

What does an IT health check actually cover?

A thorough business security assessment isn’t just a quick scan of your antivirus software. Think of it as a full inspection across several key areas:

• User access and identity: Are staff using multi-factor authentication (MFA)? Are old accounts from former employees still active? Unused or over-privileged accounts are one of the most common entry points for attackers.
• Patch and update status: Are your operating systems, applications, and network devices running current, supported software? Unpatched systems remain one of the leading causes of successful breaches.
• Backup integrity: Backups are only useful if they actually work. A health check verifies that backups are running, offsite copies exist, and — critically — that restores have been tested recently.
• Network security: This covers firewall configurations, remote access controls, and whether your Wi-Fi is properly segmented. Many businesses are surprised by what a review uncovers here.
• Endpoint protection: Are all devices — including laptops staff take home — covered by appropriate security tools and policies?
• Incident response readiness: Does your team know what to do if something goes wrong? Having even a basic plan in place dramatically reduces the impact of an incident.

Prevention is far cheaper than recovery

The organisations that weather cyber incidents best are usually those that had the fundamentals in place before anything happened. The NCSC’s guidance for organisations consistently emphasises the same core controls — MFA, patching, backups, and access management — because they genuinely make a difference. An IT health check is how you confirm those controls are actually working as intended, not just switched on in theory.

It’s also worth remembering that for law firms, health organisations, and NGOs handling sensitive information, a lapse in IT security isn’t just an operational headache — it can carry real privacy and reputational consequences.

How often should you do this?

For most organisations, a formal review once or twice a year is a sensible baseline, with ongoing monitoring filling the gaps in between. If your business has grown, changed systems, or onboarded new staff in the past year, that’s a good prompt to bring a check forward.

If you’re not sure where your organisation currently stands, our team is always happy to help with an honest, no-jargon assessment of what’s working well and where there’s room to improve.

Chris Drowley
General Manager, Resolve Technology
Outside the office, Chris runs a highly organised empire of model trains — where the schedules are always on time, unlike the real thing.