The world is abuzz these days about the dangers of the Internet. The media is filled with stories about websites and corporations falling prey to intrusions due to one vulnerability or another. One of the great consistencies with each of these occurrences is that the victims usually have a team of IT professionals on hand to deal with things. Is security an issue for smaller businesses? The answer is yes, and no. While your average small business might not have reams of customer data waiting to be stolen, there are still vulnerabilities to be exploited by many unscrupulous folk and it’s important to safeguard your data.
A mistake made by many businesses is believing that they don’t need to focus on network security. A quick trip to a big box store can provide a network router and firewall for next to nothing. This isn’t really the best route to take for a business. Many of these devices can provide adequate protection for a time but the Internet is always evolving. Any device intended to protect your data should be capable of doing the same.
A primary key in selecting network security hardware is ensuring that the equipment can be updated regularly. Well designed network security equipment will be regularly updated to let it improve and remain secure, providing piece of mind for the long term. This kind of equipment will generally also support a broader range of features like Intrusion Detection, VPN Tunnelling, and bandwidth monitoring. This might sound impressive…and expensive but there are multiple levels to buy in at and you might be surprised at how inexpensive it can be to put good security in place.
Consult a professional about selecting the equipment that is right for your business and make network security a worry for the other guys.
published in Business Venture ~ ventureguelph.ca
