5 Steps To Securing Your Small Business Computer Network
By Joe R Thomas
All businesses need to secure their information assets, but small businesses have a specific challenge: securing their information with easy-to-use and inexpensive tools. For small business owners who are not "computer geeks," this article explains five free and easy steps to achieving effective information security.
Step 1: Lock the Door -- Firewalls
Any computer or computer network that connects to the Internet is susceptible to attacks from attackers. Attackers (or hackers) look for computers with weak security. To exploit a security vulnerability the attacker needs access to the computer, which is most easily obtained through an existing Internet connection. The attacker can probe the target computer through the Internet connection to search for security weaknesses. A firewall helps prevent the attacker's probe by restricting incoming and outgoing data traveling through the the Internet connection. In this way, the "open door" of an Internet connection is "locked" and only data approved by the firewall is allowed in or out. The attacker is effectively blinded.
Several software firewalls exist, and if your computer is running a Microsoft Windows XP or Vista, a firewall is built in to the operating system. (It just needs to be turned on.) Other popular free firewalls include Comodo and ZoneAlarm. To secure a small network, use an inexpensive hardware firewall.
Step 2: Buy a Safe -- Encryption
During the normal course of business, data is saved on a computer's hard drive. This data includes sensitive or confidential items, such as invoices, credit card information, financial spreadsheets, proprietary process or product data, and customer contact information. One way to keep data safe is to encrypt it. Encrypting transforms normal data into an unreadable form that can only be made readable again when decrypted with the correct key or password. A computer with encrypted data will appear to store meaningless, random data to the casual observer, but a person with the correct key/password will be able to restore the data to normal. For example, if a laptop with encrypted data is stolen, the thief will not be able to access any of the sensitive information since he doesn't have the encryption key.
One free encryption tool is TrueCrypt. Certain versions of Windows Vista include the encryption tool BitLocker.
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