As a small-business owner, you’re eager to embrace more sophisticated technologies that will advance your business, such as networks and mobile devices. Unlike larger companies that appear to have unlimited resources, however, you may lack the resources required to protect your technology investment.
The Small Business Technology Institute estimates that 56 percent of small businesses had experienced at least one information security incident within a year’s time, yet less than 30 percent increased information security spending during the same time frame. This, despite the fact that by 2006, experts had identified more than 185,000 different viruses and other security threats.
These security threats are as varied as they are malicious. Some replicate themselves, flooding your e-mail accounts, slowing down or even shutting down your systems. Others delete or move your files, while still others will find your passwords. The more sophisticated attacks open “back doors,” allowing intruders to take over your computers and disable your antivirus programs. Some of them, like the “rootkit,” will hide themselves, lurking unseen by your computer’s operating system.
What does this mean to your business? Potential for financial loss, for one. According to a 2006 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, respondents lost an estimated $15.7 million in related virus outbreaks. “Virus attacks continue to be the source of the greatest financial losses,” according to the survey.
Security breaches cost more than money. According to ISCA Labs, a research firm in Mechanicsburg, Pa., notes that “businesses typically lose about nine ‘person-days’… recovering from every” security-related incident.
Techchex can protect your business from financial and time loss by regularly updating your antivirus software, helping you implement best Web practices in your company, and providing regular system backup (including your operating systems, Web browsers, and VoIP implementations).