For many business owners, the economic downturn has brought a devilish new challenge in the form of increasing cybercrime.  Sophisticated hackers have begun targeting vulnerable smaller businesses, with the Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting that hacking crimes were up 33% in 2009.

DarkReading.com notes that 20% of small businesses lack anti-virus software, 60% have unencrypted wireless networks, and 70% have no security plan.

From early viruses of the late 1990's to recent denial-of-service attacks which freeze networks by overloading them with outside data, cybercrime is exploding.  And with smaller organizations having scarce resources and insufficient time to monitor cybersecurity, they are particularly vulnerable to web-based crime.
 
With many businesses regulating most their finances via the web, anti-virus software is no longer sufficient protection.  EDTS recommends:

Remember, small business needs to take special care because under the Uniform Commercial Code, small business may be held partly or totally responsible if their lines of credit or accounts are compromised.  Call today or email us for more information.

Many users are overconfident about the safety of data on laptops if they have encryption capabilities, notes a recent study. 
 
Ponemon Institute's study found many workers think data on encrypted PCs is safe, but travel behavior may make data vulnerable.
 
Sixty-six percent of respondents say they no longer worry about losing their laptop because the data is encrypted, while 61% believe encryption "prevents the theft of my information". 60% believe encryption "makes it unnecessary to use other security measures."  

These misconceptions may cause employees to disregard other security practices.  For example, 30 percent of non-IT workers say they frequently leave their laptops with strangers while traveling, while 28 percent leave their computers in insecure locations. 73 percent never use a privacy shield to protect their screens from prying eyes.
 
In addition, 56 percent admitted to turning off encryption capabilities at some point, 28 percent share their passwords with others, and 36 percent remember passwords on paper.
 
"Too many business employees are either negligent in protecting confidential information or overly dependent on encryption to keep laptop information safe," notes EDTS CEO Charles Johnson.  "While encryption is an excellent security tool, more is required to be well-protected from the possibility of a data breach."  For more information, please contact us.

 

Email is indispensable to business.  But unprotected email can pose significant risk to your most sensitive intellectual property, financial information and customer data.  The results can be catastrophic: monetary loss, company disruption and legal action.
 
Frequent threats include spam, viruses, adware and spyware. Spam is disruptive and can clog in-boxes, impacting productivity.  Viruses attached to files or emails can go through your address book reproducing itself, harming files, programs and even networks.  Adware and spyware files attached to programs can be downloaded, knowingly or unknowingly, and steal information, giving third parties unauthorized access to account information and passwords.
 
To safeguard your email, EDTS recommends:

Because not all antivirus tools are equal, email security should also include encrypting and decrypting of messages with sensitive information, and content security software to guarantee that sensitive information will not be exposed accidentally or on purpose.  Encryption tools such as those incorporated in the new WatchGuard XCS product offered by EDTS are among the best available.
 
Email security is essential to protect your organization.  Contact any EDTS associate about our TRUE Mail Security services.  We can help.