ARE EMPLOYEES COMPROMISING YOUR DATA?

You've heard it before - company get's attacked by virus -  data integrity is compromised.  How does it happen?  Why are companies so vulnerable to these attacks?  According to an article by Information Week Business Technology, the problem may lie with your employees.

"The findings from a global security study on data leakage revealed that the data loss resulting from employee behavior poses a much more extensive threat than many IT professionals believe."

"In the hands of uninformed, careless, or disgruntled employees, every device that accesses the network or stores data is a potential risk to intellectual property or sensitive customer data. Magnifying this problem is a disconnect between the beliefs of IT professionals and the realities of the current security environment for countless businesses. The new findings show that "insider threats" have the potential to cause greater financial losses than attacks that originate outside the company.

As a company committed to helping neutralize these threats, we have long encouraged our customers to write policies and procedures in respect to internet and email usage.  The best and most safe route is to restrict usage of the internet to those websites that your IT professional has already researched and deemed "safe".  Set employees up without administrator access rights such as installing programs and downloading files.  Restrict email attachments - possibly setting up an alternative way for receiving them.  There are many options you can discuss with your IT professional.  Of course, in reality, you can't restrict employees to the extent that their hands are tied and they can't even do their jobs and use the awesome technology at their disposal to assist and empower them to do their work.  It's a fine balance and one that each company has to explore for themselves - deciding what level of risk they are comfortable with.

Maybe you have questions about security risks and how vulnerable your company is ... maybe you know that you have some level of protection but are worried about if it's even working properly - do you even have your data backed up - are you sure?

Call or email us - we'd love to visit with you and suggest ideas you can do yourself - or we have services to address these areas if that is what you feel will work for you company.  What ever you do, don't ignore IT Security - it could mean the difference between being in business and going out of business.

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