Small Business Security Strategies: New Ways to Work Safely
You have an obligation to protect your business's data from theft, intrusion, and destruction. A server-based network offers many lines of defense to help keep your files safe and secure.
In today's information-driven economy, the bits and bytes that we work with every day have become incredibly valuable. The data around which you've built your business is your most important asset, and it could also potentially be valuable to others who want to get their hands on it. Think about your customer profiles, your employee records, your intellectual property, your financial data. Now think about what could happen if any of those crucial files were lost or, perhaps worse, stolen.
Threats to the security of your data are real, and they're always changing and evolving in the wired world in which we all work and live. A well-organized and centralized approach to protecting all your vital information--and by extension your reputation--is just plain smart, and it's key to giving you peace of mind as you go about your real work: keeping your eye on day-to-day details and growing your business.
Tough Security Challenges
Cybercrime isn't what it used to be. Gone are the days when hackers simply made a sport of transmitting viruses to see how many hard drives they could scramble. Watch any news report about identity theft or corporate espionage, and you realize that today the stakes are much higher, and they can have a powerful negative impact on your bottom line.
Today's computer cyber-crooks have two goals:
- To get inside your computers to look for potentially valuable business or personal information about you or your customers.
- To take up residence on your computers and secretly hijack some of their processing power and their Internet connectivity to spread viruses or spyware further down the line.
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In either case, it's not just your files that are threatened. Your reputation is on the line, too. You can't have your employees’ social security records or credit card numbers floating around in cyberspace and you certainly don't want to be responsible for betraying the confidentiality of your clients' communications.
When you have many computers spread all around the office, and each one has its own connection to the Internet, it can be difficult for you to protect them and keep track of what's going on, no matter how diligent you are and how much time and money you spend on installing and upgrading the latest security software on every computer.
Peace of mind comes from being able to answer these questions:
- Where are all my data files?
- Are the files safe from outside intrusion?
- Do I have control of how my business is connected to the Internet?
- Are the notebook PCs we take out in the field filled with confidential information, and if so, are we sure that information is protected if a notebook is lost or stolen?
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While the threats are myraid and the solutions can sometimes seem technologically challenging, the goals are simple to understand: No down time. No data theft. No destroyed data.
Smart Security Starts with a Server-Based Network
One of the smartest steps you can take to boost your business's security dramatically is to install a server-based network, a straightforward, easy-to-implement way to gain control over the security of your business and its vital information. No business is too small to consider organizing itself around a server. Why do it?
- In a server-based network, your most important files can be stored in several controlled locations that employees can access only with the specific rights you assign to them. It's easy to keep track of who is using the files and what their current status is. With redundant drives and external storage options, you can also create automatic backups and archives to prevent down-time disasters.
- Today each one of your employees may have his or her own personal connection to the Internet leaving you with no centralized control of that online access, an inherently insecure arrangement. A server connects your business and everyone in it to the Internet at only one point. That gateway to the outside world is simple to monitor with a firewall designed to protect your server from any kind of unwanted outside intrusion. It scans all the communication coming into and passing out of your network, blocking anything unauthorized, including viruses and in some cases annoying spam. Firewalls are available either as hardware devices that can be attached to your server-based network or as software apps that live on the server itself and/or on individual PCs.
- A firewall should be supplemented with powerful antivirus software. By installing the software on your server, you can also proliferate it to every PC in your office and take care of all those frequent antivirus updates with one master update. There's no need to waste time going from computer to computer to make sure everyone is up to date.
- And be sure to set up tight password protection. A server and its network-ready operating system makes it simple for a single administrator--perhaps you--to organize layers of password access that makes logging into the network, into e-mail, and onto the Internet part of every employee's daily routine. No password, no access, unless you say so.
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Other Important Security Steps
Beyond all those powerful steps to security are even more ways you can help protect your systems and your information. For example, if you set up a wireless network (for the ultimate freedom in adding and rearranging users with no additional and expensive wiring), it's good to know that the WiFi signals flying through the air can be locked down just like the data in a wired network. With password protection and encryption, your file transfers and communication can be secure, and there's no need to fear that someone is hiding outside your window with a WiFi-equipped notebook PC tapping into your Internet access or browsing through your data.
For additional security, your small business can add layers of encryption to your network-based data to help make it safe for use in the office or for transmission to remote PCs. The encryption software encodes data so unauthorized users simply can't read it. You can choose file/folder encryption, which lets you choose individual files and folders for special protection, or go all the way with full disk encyrption, which locks down everything, including the operating system.
Full-disk encryption is especially important for notebook PCs that are destined to leave your office. You can even control access to the secured data with a biometric fingerprint reader or Smart Card. If a notebook is lost or stolen, it will be utterly unusable by the person who finds it. Your files are protected.
When your remote workers are connecting back to the office network from home or the road, they can do it via a Web-based Virtual Private Network that's also designed for secure access. No trespassing! The VPN you set up does require access to the public Internet, and that could be perceived as a security risk, but with the right set of security measures, a VPN can be secure.
And don’t forget about the often overlooked area of physical security. When your team is on the road trying to close that important deal, the prying eyes of your competitors may be nearby. Privacy screen filters and even cable locks can deter casual browsers from being tempted to gain an unfair advantage.
You've got better things to do than spend lots of time worrying about whether your business is safe from outside intrusion and potential data disasters. The beauty of a server-based network is that it's designed from the ground up to be a secure system that does most of that watchdog work for you. By organizing your files in controlled locations where they can be monitored, maintained, protected, backed up, and archived, your server is key to the security of your growing business.
