Cyber Security

By
TechEdge
-
0
8603
More threats to business and personal information and data loss exist than ever before. The counter-culture of private and state sponsored hacker groups has given rise to new levels of cyber crime that is generating billions of dollars in losses to corporations and individuals. Outside intruders are constantly seeking points of weakness to enter your environment and exploit your digital assets. Viruses, Spam, Spyware, and Malware pose threats that can cripple your systems and lead to lost productivity, revenue, and customers. Denial of Service attacks also create outages that can be very hard to identify and stop.

Research studies regarding small business security by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec has revealed that:

  • 66% say that their business is dependent on the Internet for its day-to-day operations.
  • 38% characterize it as very dependent.

The research also indicates that businesses have vital information to protect:

  • 69% handle sensitive information, including customer data.
  • 49% have financial records and reports.
  • 23% have their own intellectual property.
  • 18% handle intellectual property belonging to others outside of the company.

Furthermore, the research indicates that most small businesses have considerable risks that are not addressed:

  • 77% do not have a formal written Internet security policy for employees.
  • 63% do not have policies regarding how their employees use social media.
  • 60% say they have a privacy policy in place that their employees must comply with when they handle customer information and half (52%) have a plan or strategic approach in place for keeping their business cyber secure.

Beware of Threats from within

Sometimes the greatest damage to IT systems or the greatest loss of intellectual assets can come from inside an organization. Disgruntled or rogue employees who gain access to critical information can do millions of dollars in damage and create countless headaches. Government mandates regarding the protection of data assets and customer privacy have been coupled with severe fines for companies who do not take appropriate security measures.
Many small businesses are not provide Internet safety training to their employees, and measures taken to protect data loss is often overlooked. Some key risk areas include:

  • The use of USB devices in the workplace which can be used to store significant amounts of confidential data.
  • The use of multi-factor authentication for access to any of their networks especially from remote locations.
  • Completely wiping data from all equipment including workstations, servers, multifunction scanners/copier/fax machines before disposal.

The Technology’s Edge Solution

Technology’s Edge addresses all of these concerns with our Security services. We have 20+ years of experience in the following areas:
  • Expert knowledge of a wide array of security threats
  • Security audits to examine potential weakesses and risks from exploitations
  • Vulnerability scans to check systems security from unauthorized internal access
  • Ongoing security monitoring, scanning, and reporting of suspicious activity
  • Specification of high quality products to ensure the best technologies are fitted
  • Analysis of compliance with federal data privacy legislation

We work with companies large and small to analyze their environment, assess risks, specify the right mix of products to shore up security gaps, and then implement the solution using our Professional Services Methodology.

The Benefits

Working with Technology’s Edge on a Security project is a smart move for any organization. The benefits include:
  • The peace of mind that comes from knowing your IT environment is protected
  • Better risk management of the network and IT assets
  • Significantly reduce the risk of loss of private customer data or intellectual property
  • A running data trail of attempted breaches and break-ins
  • Increased up-time due to elimination of viruses, denial of service attacks, etc.
  • On-going maintenance, firmware and security updates,
  • SSL Certificates, Gateways, Secured Remote Access, VPNs

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR