There is no such thing as a secure network. With enough motivation, a person can infiltrate your network and wreak havoc, or simply leave you a note saying that they were there. The old adage that 'knowledge is power' is true, and with so much of our knowledge stored on computer system it is imperative that access to our data is controlled and that the data itself is safe and secure.

Ask yourself these questions - if your computers were to lose all their data, how long would it take and how much would it cost to rebuild the wealth of information? Where would your company be at the end? The answers are obvious. It would take plenty of time, oodles of money, and your company would be a lot worse off.

There are many ways that your data can be lost or read by unauthorized parties. Here's just a few, some of which you may never thought of:

• Mass file corruption from natural disaster (power outage/hardware failure),
• Network infiltration from outside, ie. a hacker (hopefully not a famous one),
• Accidental deletion of files by an employee,
• Virus infection,
• Spyware programs sending out personal information,
• One of your employees becoming the target of social engineering.

It is generally agreed that users are the weakest link, and that proper training and vigilence are one of the best ways to prevent your computer systems from being compromised. On the computer side, however, things become a lot simplier. This diagram below is based on our basic network diagram, but with a few security measures added.

In the diagram we have only a small number of possible security precautions listed, such as a biometric fingerprint reader attached to our central server, forced password changes for all users on a monthly basis, and two stage authentication for wireless users. Compare this network to the standard network example we created (click here) and it is plainly and simply obvious that strong, frequently revised computer and network security should be paramount to any organisation that values its data.

If you have doubts of your own computer system security, we're happy to visit your premises and perform an obligation free security audit. The audit pricing starts from $77 and varies based on the complexity of your existing network. For a small business with a reasonably simple network with five or less computers/users an audit will take approximately 1.5 to 2 hours.

Please contact us to arrange a security audit or consultation.