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Business Tip of the Month

Business Tip
of the Month
For the month of July 2005

How secure are your business computers?

Virtually every business, large or small, depends on computers these days. Whether you do all your business on the Internet or use computers only for a Web site and keeping the books, your business would almost certainly suffer if your computers weren’t working.

Because computers are complicated, you probably rely on your “tech person” to keep the system running. But computer security is bigger than just technical issues. As a manager, you need to pay attention to the big picture of how your business depends on computers. Here’s an overview of three areas you should be concerned about.

1. Intrusion. A major risk comes from penetration of your system by outsiders. Their goal may be to do damage, to plant spyware, or to steal company or customer information. The solutions are mainly technical. Install a firewall, which is your main protective barrier to the outside world. Install anti-virus and anti-spam programs and run them continually. Teach your employees to protect their passwords and change them regularly.
2. Physical damage. Don’t overlook the more mundane risk of physical damage to your computers. This can range from failure of a hard drive, to a fire or other natural disaster. Your primary defense is to make daily backups of your data, which you keep in a protected location, preferably offsite. Run practice drills to make sure you can quickly restore lost data from your backup system. Backups may be useless if it takes days to recover the data on them.

If your business depends on time-sensitive computer data, consider buying spare machines as backups. The expense may be relatively small relative to the costs to your business of a computer failure.
3. Employee-caused problems. Computer problems can arise from a fired or disgruntled employee, or even from simple employee carelessness. The solution is a combination of sound policies and procedures, combined with regular data backups. Policies should spell out the rights and responsibilities of each employee, and make clear what is expected of them. They should cover access to computer records, privacy issues, and personal use of computers and e-mail. Procedures should focus on protection and changing of passwords. Implement clear procedures to follow when an employee with computer access is fired or quits.

Bottom line. You can’t afford to take your business computers for granted. Take the time now to think through the consequences of a computer failure and put plans in place.

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