Beef Up Your PC Security
Written on by Kay
Beef Up Your Business Security
Owning a small business can be a rewarding adventure. Be your own boss; make your own hours. A strong IT infrastructure is one of the keys to a successful business nowadays. It’s rare to find a business that doesn’t have a website or even an e-mail address, but if you do find one you start to wondering if they’re still operating in the Dark Ages. Following these tips to ensure that the IT side (the security aspect, especially) of your business is running on all cylinders.
A Secure Database
First off, keeping track of your customers (names, contact info, order numbers) is vital. Safeguarding your customers’ personal data is just as important. Make sure that the administrative features of your databases are protected with strong and encrypted passwords. Also, make it a habit to backup your databases for obvious reasons, but keep your backups in a secure, remote location. For example, it’s probably not a good idea to keep a database backup on a laptop, as laptops are stolen everyday along with the data residing on the hard drive.
Wireless Security
A Wi-Fi network is so much better than a traditional wired one. With a computer and a wireless card, you’re good to go; no wires snaking to and fro; no limited mobility. But all these wireless advantages come with a price. First off, anyone within range of your wireless network can hop on it if they know the network’s password. Worst, some users don’t even know that they should be securing their Wi-Fi network.
If you’re still using WEP (wireless encryption protocol) then you should switch to WPA or WPA2, a more secure method of protecting your wireless network. WEP security used to be fairly safe to use, but nowadays it can be cracked relatively quickly and easily. WPA can be cracked although it’s harder than WEP; as of this writing, WPA2 would be your best bet for wireless security.
Laptop Theft Recovery
As mentioned above, a lot of data-loss is the result of pilfered laptops. Getting your car broken into and your laptop stolen, or forgetting it at the airport: All nightmare scenarios, especially if you’ve important data residing on it.
For laptop peace of mind, considering using a LoJack (like for cars) device for your laptop. If your laptop is even stolen, law enforcement will be able to track it down just as if it were a stolen vehicle. For an additional price, a kill-switch feature can be installed so that you can nuke all your hard drive’s essential data from a remote location, keeping your personal data away from prying eyes.
Stay Away From Internet Explorer
Since Internet Explorer is so ubiquitous, it’s the most targeted and exploited browser out there. It comes stock with Windows, and many users don’t even consider using a different browser. For a more secure network, migrate your workers away from IE. Firefox or Safari are more secure. Best of all, if you already know how to use Internet Explorer, then using Firefox will be a snap.
Serious Backup
It’s silly not to have at least one backup of all your business data. What would happen if your server’s hard drive crashed and all your customers’ data was lost? It’s too scary to even ponder, I know. If you’re still using the antiquated method of backing up to tape, it’s time to upgrade. Today, 1 terabyte external hard drives can be had for relatively low prices. Plug them into a spare USB port, make your backup, remove, and you’re good to go.
You may also want to consider using an online backup service like Mozy (http://mozy.com/pro). This gives you the advantage of backing up to a separate location, so if there’s every a catastrophe at the office, you’ll know that your data is resting on a remote server far from the office. You’ll want a fast Internet connection if you’ll be pushing a lot of backup data to the remote server.
