The Internet has proven to be a vital communications medium for worldwide commerce, but as an open and unprotected global network it can also present a wide range of threats that can cripple any business organization. Several years ago, most Internet threats were relatively benign examples of a young adolescent’s technical expertise but over time they have evolved into increasingly sophisticated domestic and foreign attacks that are designed to capture financial, personal, or strategic business information. Threats now come in the form of deliberately malicious acts, and exploitative opportunities for hackers and/or organized crime. The impact is serious, and the landscape of victims is getting broader every day. In response, no organization can afford to have its networks remain unprotected.
Be certain
Effectively Securing Small
Businesses from Online Threats:
Minimizing the Risks Associated
with Email, Web, and Instant
Message CommunicationsExecutive SummarySituation - Online Threats Have a Significant Impact on Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs)While the Internet has proven to be a vital communications medium, it also presents a wide range of threats that can cripple a business. This is especially true for smaller organizations that lack theextensive enterprise-class IT resources necessary to defend against Internet threats. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) receive as much and sometimes even more spam as larger enterprises but are less likely to thwart the dangerous consequences. This can have severe repercussions for SMBsfrom a legal, technical and company reputation perspective. In particular, external online attacks andinternal misuse of sensitive information can impose significant brand and/or image damage to an SMB. This kind of publicity can cost an SMB the loss of essential business opportunities and long-termreputation damage.
"However, to adequately Problem - SMBs Lack the Internal Resources to Effectively Address Online Threatsprotect themselves and their For SMBs, threats such as spam can very quickly become a silent killer, overwhelming the resources of a mail system or network before effective countermeasures can be applied. Unfortunately, smallerstakeholders, SMBs must do companies often don't have the time or specialized IT resources to install, configure, and maintain anmore than merely establish appropriate array of security hardware and software to continuously address the scope of threats fromthe Internet. However, to adequately protect themselves and their stakeholders, SMBs must do moreinternal communication policies; than merely establish internal communication policies; they must also use effective administrationthey must also use effective tools to manage existing policies, block unauthorized content and malware, and proactively monitorall communication-related behaviors on both an individual and group level. Also, they must be able toadministration tools to manage accomplish this level of security protection at a reasonable cost that does not impose a heavy financialexisting policies, block burden on the organization to the point of negatively impacting bottom-line profitability.unauthorized content and Solution - MessageLabs Provides SMBs with Complete Protection from All Online Threats malware, and proactively MessageLabs is the leading provider of security solutions across all forms of information communicationsmonitor all communication- for the SMB marketplace. As a managed service, The MessageLabs Complete Security and Controlsuite of services offers a comprehensive set of communication security solutions to protect businessesrelated behaviors on both an from all email and web-borne threats. The service requires no additional hardware or software on aindividual and group level." customers' network, conveniently removing the need for on-site maintenance and layers of complexityhaving to be added to the information infrastructure. MessageLabs provides SMBs with enterprise-classSource: service and support that allow management to focus on the needs of the business, without worryingabout the details of managing communications security. MessageLabs also uses a simple, affordable,MessageLabs Intelligence fixed monthly pricing plan, based on the total number of users, rather than use volume, which makesApril, 2007 it much easier to budget for this expense.Result - Online Threats are Intercepted Before They Can Impact the BusinessMessageLabs leading role in the security services industry is the result of an extensive commitment to research, investigation, and proactive threat tracking of all communications-related online threats.This knowledge is used to develop the most secure communications security solutions for SMBs bylearning about threats and averting them before they can impact the business. The system works byfirst identifying threats outside of the SMB network and filtering items such as viruses and unwantedcontent before they enter the network. With a global presence spanning four continents, clients in more than 80 countries, and an infrastructure capable of processing hundreds of millions of electronic communications each day,MessageLabs provides small and medium sized businesses with complete security and integrity ... [download for more]
