Many small businesses and also surprisingly some medium sized businesses aren't adequately protected from the Internet with some sort of a firewall. Most large sized businesses have an i.t. staff that implements this form of protection.

One of the misconceptions about firewalls is that they are exorbitantly expensive for small businesses to implement. This is simply not the case. While some solutions are out of the price range of most small business, still there are solutions which are just as secure as the pricier solutions for a lot less expenditure.

Another misconception is that small businesses don't need the same level of protection because the value of what could be taken isn't worth enough to warrant  a hacking attempt. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Hackers in China and Russia are more than happy to infiltrate small businesses. Aside from the loss of proprietary trade and customer data, also at risk are the good names and reputatin of the companies email as getting off automated spam sender lists can be difficult and time consuming.

Every business needs a data disaster plan. Just as businesses need a plan for success, they also need to plan for data disaster. Data disaster canresult from hardware failure such as failed hard drives, natural disaters, as well as from accidental or intentional deletion of data. Additionally, there is the threat of data corruption from viruses.

The backbone of a data disaster plan is a valid network map. There is nothing more frustrating than to have the system down while technicians try to decipher what server holds what data and where the data may be backed up. This needs to be well documented before an actual data emergency.

Computer forensics has become an an important tool for secure network administration. In the event of file deletion, the sending of an inappropriate email or company message, an inappropriate attempt to access private data, or finally an inappropriate use of company network resources a forensic analysis can be invaluable to business management.

There are specialized software tools for monitoring and for forensically examining hard drives which can shed much light on the questions of network security. We obviously won't go into the details of them here, but in the event a forensic eveluation of a server or a desktop is needed it can usually be easily accomplished.

As a business manager, know that we also managed medical businesses entirely outside of the i.t. field for fifteen years before entering the i.t. field. We understand the need for computer forensics from the perspective of a business manager. If you need this type of assistance, call us at 813-748-3055.

Enterprise Linux is a secure operating system for file servers, database servers, email servers and web servers. Although Linux can be used for company desktops, it is most usually reserved for servers. The advantages of Linux for servers are several.

First, Linux servers are very secure in that the kernel operating system is well protected from change. Windows servers, although very easy to update aren't as well protected as Linux and Unix based kernels. What this means is that users and applications can't alter the operating system kernel or core without first authenticating as the system administrator. Additionally, tools to compile the kernels are often kept off the production servers altogether.

Second, Linux and Unix viruses are very rare and in the rare event there is one, the viruses can't do much in the way of damage. Contrast that to Windows based servers. The second Tuesday of each month is known as patch Tuesday to system administrators everywhere as this is the day windows patches are released for the month.