12 Secrets to SMB Security

The 12 SECRETS
to SMB Security
By CopiaTECH June 15, 2007
If you have a lot of money would you keep it all at home or would you prefer to put it in a bank? If you choose the latter, it is obvious that you are concerned about the money you have earned and would like to protect it. When you buy a computer, you have spent money and you should want to protect that money from harm and also the data that is so important to you. This is where the Common Sense Guide to Cyber Security comes handy. To protect your computer you need to know about Cyber Security. Before embarking on the virtues of Cyber Security, some of the common myths and norms need to be dispelled. To begin with, you need to take out time and realize how important it is for you to protect yourself from cyber attacks and how disastrous these attacks can be. Attacks on information systems operated by small and mid-sized businesses are increasing. According to a survey, 'My Doom' virus affected one out of three small businesses. Compared to the large businesses which were affected by the same virus, this is twice the proportion. Today, business losses arising from cyber attacks are estimated at several billion dollars a week. Larger businesses have more to lose in terms of absolute dollars, but it is the narrow profit margin under which smaller businesses work which makes it important for them to have their information backed up. If you lost your data and did not have a back up imagine the cost involved in recovering it. Also, there might be some data which cannot be recovered. How much loss on a day to day basis would that be for a small business? More importantly, can you afford such an inconvenience? Most of us tend to think that such things happen to other people and we are safe from them. Here is a real life example, which dispels such a belief. A company, valued at $1million dollars, had to sell its customer lists after a series of computer attacks. As quoted by the disgruntled owner in the Computer World Magazine," My business is lost. My wife's business is lost. I hope we can hang on to our house." This guide contains a lot of real life examples. Not all are as disastrous as the one above; nonetheless, they all led to some amount of loss. What every business owner needs to understand is that no matter what the size or type of business you have, you are prone to cyber attacks if you are using the Internet. To envision the prosperity of a business without Internet is similar to hoping that your product will sell like hot cakes with no publicity or marketing costs.
Page: 2 Everyday there are technological changes taking place and the only way to protect your business from their adverse effects is through Cyber Security. Why would anyone attack me? Most of us think along the lines of why anyone would attack us. Most of the times, we are not a direct target. The attackers do not target anyone in particular. What most attackers do is send a large broadcast which looks for any unprotected system and then uses it as a launch pad for the attack. An unprotected system, that is a system with no firewalls, anti virus software or user education, affects your business and other businesses that come in contact with you, as the virus spreads through the Internet. It is better to be proactive than being reactive. As users of the Internet, we should contribute to an environment of security which will lead to an increase in business and consumer confidence. To achieve this, we need to start by protecting our systems and ensuring that no virus spreads from us to our partners, colleagues or associates. Does this Guide apply to my business? The next logical question would be if this guide is applicable to my business type. This guide is designed to meet the requirements of businesses which have more than one computer but do not have an in-house information technology department. There are guides available even for a sole proprietorship kind of business, which would probably have only one computer. We can call that guide a "Guide for Really Small Businesses". How is it that smaller enterprises are a bigger t... [download for more]