Inadequate, non-existent or overly onerous security procedures can:

• Slow down your productivity to a crawl (or even stop it!), wasting everyone’s time, and the company’s money.
• Cost you lots of money and time dealing with IT support. Have you ever spent hours on the phone with Microsoft Tech Support?
• Compromise your confidential business data, both within and outside the company. Do you want your private e-mail read by everyone in the office?
• Open your system to bandwidth thieves, slowing your network and giving spammers and pornographers a nice, safe place to work.

What Steps to Take

1. Devise a plan of attack. Haphazard fixes usually don’t work.
2. Get everyone in your company on board the security bandwagon.
3. Your solution must address all the security areas where you have holes. Vulnerability is a system problem: everything is interconnected.
4. Make sure you’re not ALREADY COMPROMISED. For complete details, look at www.securitytango.com.
5. Address all areas of security: network systems, operating systems, hardware systems, and human systems. If you rely solely on technology and leave out the human being, you will probably fail.
6. Stick to it. Complacency is your worst enemy. New vulnerabilities arise regularly.
7. Apple and Linux systems can be utilized to lessen vulnerability.