IT Security Primer For CEO's

Most CEOs are actually curious about their company's security. That is why they install security systems in their office, keep valuable documents in an exceedingly fireproof safe or at a secure offsite location, and do thorough background checks on all new hires. But what regarding IT security? What about all that proprietary and confidential data stored on the corporate's computers? How safe is that? For most CEOs, the answer is "not very."
Why is IT security therefore important these days? Consider this: Recently, the University of Southern California had a downside where 270,000 records were lost. Then, in December 2006, UCLA announced that they lost 800,000 records. The records that were lost contained not just students' names, however conjointly their social security numbers.
In another example, a significant mastercard processing company had a security breach that exposed forty million credit card numbers to hackers. Possibilities are high that one in all your mastercard numbers was among the lot.
Thus what's the large house these sorts of security breaches? Problems embody identity theft, company and government liability, lawsuits and compliance issues. We have a tendency to'll speak a lot of about identity theft later. For currently just understand that having your identity stolen is not any laughing matter, and neither goes through litigation as a result of your organization had a breach.
From a business perspective, imagine what it would be like for the University of Southern California and UCLA to own to notify everyone about the safety breach. Imagine having to be one among the decision center reps at the credit card processing company once the notification of the protection breach went out to customers. That would not be a fun task for any company.
Now, suppose about your own company for a moment. How would it not be if you had to notify your customers, your staff, and maybe even your vendors that you simply had a security breach? Most CEOs cringe at the idea.
To complicate matters, some firms use outside services to help them keep up with day-to-day functions, like accounting or payroll. If that outside service supplier contains a security breach and that they notify you of the problem, then it's your responsibility to notify your customers, workers, and vendors that their information may are compromised. And although it wasn't your company that had the breach, however rather an organization you relied on for a specific service, who do you're thinking that your customers, employees, and/or vendors can be upset with? That is right...you. Individuals tend to "shoot the messenger."
That's why you need to create certain that whoever is processing any of your data has ample IT security measures in place.
Understand that depending on your distinctive combination of federal, state, and local laws, you may be mandated to report any kind of IT security breaches to the folks involved. Additionally, you'll be subject to some type of liability, like needing to provide credit protection services and/or needing to obtain damages if somebody does suffer any problems from the protection breach.
It's no surprise then that some corporations purposely choose to not report security breaches. Those who have gone this route say they are doing therefore hoping that nobody finds out, because the negative publicity would kill their company. Others have even revealed that their legal advisors told them to withhold the knowledge, once more stating that if they announced it like they ought to, it would devastate their business and force them to close.
Going back to our credit card processing company and university examples, do you suppose that the heads of these organizations thought their information was secure? Of course they did. I highly doubt any business leader would knowingly permit a security breach to happen. However, thinking you're secure is not the identical as really being secure. This book can help you bridge the gap.
I'd hate for your company to finish up just like the credit card processing company example. When they notified their customers of the breach, they lost every single one among their shoppers-not one stayed with them. Few companies will survive such a setback.
Furthermore, larger corporations can rebound better and quicker from major setbacks, such as a knowledge breech. Smaller firms, but, have a much more difficult time rebounding as a result of they often lack the resources required to see them through the troubled times.
To urge started on the road to higher security, raise yourself the subsequent queries:
1. When was the last time you audited your security?
2. When was the last time you talked together with your IT support folks, in-house or outsourced, concerning your IT security exposure?
3. Will your organization have a robust password policy, or is the culture therefore relaxed that more than one person might apprehend a particular password to a user's account?
4. If you carry a laptop with you, how secure are you after you connect at the hotels and airports throughout your travels?
5. How big a deal would it be if hackers managed to stop working your network for three days? For a week? For even longer?
6. Do you have got any company secrets, such as your formula for doing business and/or pricing information, that you would like to shield?
7. Have you or has anyone you recognize ever been suffering from a information security breach of some kind?
8. Are you in complete compliance with the data security rules that apply to your organization? Do you know that rules apply to you?
Finally, and this can be a massive one, are your computers "earning their keep"? By that I mean, are they adequate for today's needs. One means to own computers earn their keep is to have them increase productivity. Nowadays, one in all the best ways that to increase the speed of a computer is to feature chip memory, commonly known as RAM. Too many firms have older computers that are running slowly. When you add the safety tools mentioned during this book, the computers might run even slower unless you offer them with enough memory. As your IT skilled will tell you, these days 512 Meg is a vacant minimum and 1 Gig of RAM is a much better amount of RAM for existing PCs. It's a good idea to order 2 Gigs of RAM with new machines. Those are fairly standard RAM sizes as of the printing of this book and will work well for the bulk of companies.

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About the author

Barry Graham been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Security ,you can also check out his latest website about: Weider Home Gym Which reviews and lists the best Weider Gym Equipment

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