Are You Seeking Excitement...Or Security?
Recently I was at a dinner party with my wife, and overheard a 30-year-old young woman say to another, that she was 'over the days of excitement' and was now looking for a relationship that would offer 'security.' We all might have a sense of what she was referring to, which was a responsible, financially stable individual.
Regardless of their size, many small businesses still need to meet strict compliance regulations, such as PCI and HIPAA. In addition to any special requirements, there are a few security technologies every small business should have in place.
Here are our four security must-haves.
Firewall – It sounds passé, but firewalls are still the de facto solution for minimum security. Small businesses are no exception. We frequently see vendors attempting to coax small business owners into boxes bigger than they need, with full redundancy and licensing. As expected, most small business owners will balk at the price tags that hang off these shiny new boxes. The truth is, for bandwidths typical in smaller organizations, a small ASIC-based firewall even with gateway services (e.g. anti-virus, anti-spyware, IDS or IPS) can be found for an affordable price. Even if it’s not tweaked to perfection, having some firewall solution is better than none. And no organization should rely on their Internet provider for this security.
Next-Generation Firewalls
The humble firewall has come a long way since the packet-filtering days, originally founded in the 1980's. These early firewalls operated mainly on the first four layers of the OSI model, intercepting traffic and inspecting the properties of every packet to determine if they matched a pre-configured set of rules. Firewall development did not take a breather between then and the next-generation firewall of today. In fact, the ride from there to here has been largely organic – developments in firewall technology, intrusion detection and prevention, and user or content management have all been assimilated into the unified threat management (UTM) platform of today.
This Tech Tip addresses some frequently asked questions about how to safeguard your computer data on a personal and business level. First, it makes sense to designate one or two specific folders on your computer as the main folder for confidential file back-ups for several reasons.
Just because you have a backup and a disaster recovery plan doesn't mean that you’re fully-prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Hurricane Season is Here... Who Cares, Really?
At the end of June, I was in the garage looking for 4th of July decorations (per my wife's instructions) and I couldn't help but notice the hurricane shutters in the corner. As a Florida native, I have seen the terrible destruction that hurricanes can bring homes and businesses. And predictably, the "disaster marketing" engine started up last month with questions like "Are you ready for hurricane season?"
Cyber Security Workshop Coming to Businesses Near You
Last week, our own Master of Disaster, Jonathan Garber, presented a Cyber Security Workshop for the Florida Institute of CPA’s (FICPA). This was a CPE-certified course reviewing common system threats, with a general overview of all aspects of cyber security.
