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Buying Guide: Business Security

When you’re running a business, security breaches hurt in many ways. On an emotional level, you feel sick that you and your company have been violated. On a business level, you have to cope with material damage, stolen proprietary information, denial of service, and lost productivity. Implementing a security strategy can be daunting for small […]

Written By

Robert P. Lipschutz

Jun 22, 2004

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When you’re running a business, security breaches hurt in many ways. On an emotional level, you feel sick that you and your company have been violated. On a business level, you have to cope with material damage, stolen proprietary information, denial of service, and lost productivity.

Implementing a security strategy can be daunting for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). You need cost-effective solutions, yet you must choose products in the no-man’s-land between personal security offerings, like desktop firewalls and antivirus software, and high-end enterprise solutions, like identity management and expensive intrusion detection systems.

You might be tempted to think that SMBs are less likely targets for directed attacks, but hackers and viruses do not discriminate. Run a threat assessment software program on your network and you’ll probably find several vulnerabilities. But with the right products, smart policy planning, and perhaps some outside expertise, your business can protect itself without breaking the bank.

The advice we offer here will help you make the right purchases for your company. We organized the guide into seven threat categories. Protecting your business against the first four—network intrusion, virus attacks, spam overload, and operating-system and application vulnerabilities—is essential. Protection in the other three areas—wireless LAN breaches, remote-access trespasses, and lawsuits and noncompliance—is optional, depending on the kind of business you run. For example, law firms and medical companies need to be concerned with compliance issues; businesses mobile or remote workers have to consider remote-access security, and wireless protection is necessary if you use Wi-Fi networking. We discuss these last three threats in an exclusive online section of our buying guide (exclusive online section).

For the four crucial security categories, we explain each threat and answer common questions, outline the kinds of products available, specify appropriate ones for your business size, and offer shopping advice. We also consider price, integration, and ease of use. As a rule, we recommend integrated security appliances for most businesses. Security is a major concern for businesses of all sizes, and intelligent shopping now can save you from losses in the future.

Click Here to view security strategies for your business.

Read on to learn:

Why you need to build a solid security infrastructure.

What the major threats are and how to protect yourself.

Which features to insist on when shopping for security solutions.

Which junctions in your network are vulnerable.

How to pick the products that best fit your business size.

For the rest of the story, click here.