Imagine buying your first home - with all of the anticipation, excitement and worries that come along with it. Of course, you painstakingly choose everything from the color of the paint, to the type of furniture you want in the living room. Once the entire process is complete and everything is just as you pictured, would you leave that home with the door wide-open, and the windows unlocked? It would be nuts not to protect your pride and joy, rendering it vulnerable to thieves and vandals. But how much protection is enough?

If you wouldn’t do that with your home, why would you do it with your business?

In a world where technology constantly changes, your business needs the most up-to-date, comprehensive security coverage available. Just like you’d never risk leaving your office doors unlocked, you should never risk leaving your network unprotected. Even a single computer in your network lacking proper protection can be destructive to your entire network. IT security means that you need to be up to speed on all systems connected to your computer network in order to effectively protect your business.

Since most companies have nearly eliminated paper storage of company information and records, electronic information is the backbone of their daily business procedures. Company information dealing with clients, services, financials, internal records, billing, research, etc. are all stored on network servers. What would happen to your business should an outsider have access to this information? Would your business be finished if all of this information was lost or corrupted due to a virus or other security vulnerability?

IT security is a serious matter for any business, no matter how big or small. Every business should be aware that:

• Assaults on company security can lead to disclosure or loss of customer information to the public or competitors.
• The increasing number of networked computers amplifies the affect of security attacks.
• Cheap, automatic tools used for damaging computer systems make it difficult to even recognize if you are under attack, and who the attacker is. Even amateurs can cause you serious and costly damage.
• Since new viruses are developed daily, no one has been left unscathed.

Even if your computer system doesn’t contain national security secrets, the fact that most systems are up and running 24 hours a day leaves them readily available to be attacked at any moment. Depending on the size of your business, recovering from the attacks can cost your business thousands, even millions of dollars and lost employee productivity. Even more, trade secrets can be lost or just plain loss of reputation in your business community. Proper IT security will, both proactively and reactively, thwart these attacks, making it easier for you to sleep at night.