Secure your net or we don’t have a deal

Net security is no longer pertaining to one own corporate network alone. It has to do with securing your transactions with just about anyone you transact. Imagine the chaos a small airline ticketing office across the world - with access rights to the ticketing database of a major US airline - can create if their system inadvertently let in a spy ware or a virus? It could possibly result in the entire database having to be shut down and cleaned.

It is not surprising then that most big companies are ensuring on certain stringent security measures being put in place by the smaller partners they have business dealings with. According to Scott Larsen, IT director of a small online travel site that has business dealings with majors like Travelocity "Honestly, we do not believe it's an option. If we want to do business with companies like Travelocity and the big hotel corporations, it's a requirement for us to meet their security requirements. Otherwise we're just another small company that wants to play with the big boys but really can't"

With so many Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs being outsourced by western nations to countries in Asia owing to their cheaper labor costs, companies have to be extra careful as there is so much of privacy related data and in many cases even highly confidential data including credit card data and equally sensitive data. With a large number of cyber thieves and hacker presence online protecting such data is of paramount importance in the interest of the customer and that of the company’s reputation.

While most organizations probably understand the need for security, not many are willing to invest the huge amounts required to ensure the levels of net security required for online transactions. Besides theft are the nuisances in the form of viruses entering ones network and resulting in a total wipe out of important data or forcing a shut down.

In the future grabbing a deal will not merely be dependant on having a high speed connection but it will require adherence to laid down security standards. After o one wants a downtime for time is money.

Some other factors affecting network security

Enough has been written about the need to protect the need for a fire wall and updated virus programs to check that malicious Trojan or Virus at work. So much has also been written about spy wares, malwares et al.

Internal network security is potentially the biggest security issue of 2006. While majority of computers surveyed in 2004-05 were found to have malwares residing in them, most organizations tend to over look the fact that this is attributable to a bunch of careless users habits within.

Global statistics indicate losses to the tune of $204 billion dollars in 2005 from such problems. Plugging these loop holes do not require a large investment and mentioned below are points that need correction within every organization:

(a)Email: While it is a necessity of our daily lives, spam mails account for 70 to 95% of all corporate attacks. Opening a Yahoo or Gmail account may not be so safe after all.

(b)IM: Security experts say that instant messaging has now surpassed e-mail for online communications. While they’re convenient, users have to worry about spam links sent over chats.

(c)Physical Access: Whenever users walk away from their desk without locking their PCs down, a security hole is created. Unattended PCs are open for corporate theftaccounting for anywhere between $60-120 billion of damage a year.

(d)FTP: FTPs are one of the most direct routes inside servers. Using FTP from within an organization creates a high security risk for the company server by inadvertently granting users access to areas on the server that should normally be off-limits.

(e)New Hires: Newly hired people coming into an organization constitute a significant risk for corporate theft and mismanagement of network resources. One-third of all employees steal from their employers, and 75% of the time, this theft goes undetected. Data stolen from a call center in Asia has had a number of UK HSBC customers sweating.

The bottom line: Prevention is better than cure and prevention of this nature is not too expensive either. Now you cannot have it better than this.