Nine Ways to Elevate Your Network Security

Your small-business network may be protected by firewalls, intrusion detection and other state-of-the-art security technologies. And yet, all it takes is one person's carelessness, and suddenly it's as if you have no network security at all.

Let me give you an example. In March 2006, a major financial services firm with extensive network security disclosed that one of its portable computers was stolen. The laptop contained the Social Security numbers of nearly 200,000 people.

How did it happen? An employee of the firm, dining in a restaurant with colleagues, had locked the laptop in the trunk of an SUV. During dinner, one of the employee's colleagues retrieved an item from the vehicle and forgot to relock it. As fate would have it, there was a rash of car thefts occurring in that particular area at that particular time, and the rest is history.

The moral of that story is clear: No matter how secure your network may be, it's only as secure as its weakest link. And people -- meaning you and your employees -- are often the weakest link. It's important to note that poor security puts your business, as well as your partners, at risk.

As a result, many enterprises and organizations, such as credit card companies, now specify and require minimum levels of security you must have in order to do business with them.

So what can you do? Here are nine ways to minimize the risks that people can pose to the security of your company's data:

Password-protect your computers and mobile devices -- particularly laptops. One basic step toward defending data is to require a password to launch Windows on a PC. It's not bullet-proof, but it's a start, and it's a particularly important first defense for portable computers.

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