Nine simple, cost-effective security steps to take now

June 27, 2003, 10:05 AM —  Baroudi Bloor — 

There is a digital crime wave in progress. Your systems are at risk and perhaps even your businesses. Most likely you are inadequately protected and this year, like 90 percent of organizations large and small, you will probably experience at least one 'incident' - perhaps more. It will do some damage to your business. There will be a cost. The question is: Are you doing enough to combat the threat?

First it is best to understand what the threat is. In reality, there are two different kinds of threats, from the outside and from within. The threat from the outside takes different forms - from viruses passed in various ways to a variety of direct attacks on your systems. The attacker may be anything from a teenage delinquent to a clever criminal. The inside threat comes from members of staff who may be intent on fraud, causing damage or simply getting access to data that they should not have access to. At the moment, a little over half of the security violations companies experience comes from without and the rest come from within. You must deal with both. Let's forget IT security products for the moment, some are necessary but they need context. Nowadays, all computers have some security capability and we can begin by using it.

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» posted by jnaze

Baroudi Bloor

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