Today with the advent of cost effective small business high speed internet access and movement of many traditional brick and mortar businesses now moving to the online realm. Companies are dealing with more and more data than ever before.

More companies are also doing mobile computing via VPN and other remote access technologies. While some Software as a Services (SaaS) solutions come with things like SSL encryption. However more companies like ours are hosting our own applications such as CRM and various other mission critical applications almost all of which can be accessed over the public internet with little or no encryption, even though you can do things like using none standard ports, hackers can still use tools like Nmap or other port scanners to find these open ports in order to hack your network and destroy this precious information or use keyloggers and other exploits to capture confidential customer data such as credit card numbers.

How do you stop or at least give your self a fighting chance to prevent such attacks? Get an enterprise strength firewall with Intrusion Detection (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention(IPS). The trouble with these systems is that up until recently these appliances have cost thousands of dollars, Until now. Because of the growing trend in network based attacks we at KCCS have spent countless hours researching and testing various hardware solutions and are proud to announce that we have built a custom solutions that is specifically designed for small businesses.

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Hey why can’t I access the file server? and why is the network so slow today?” Hmm maybe you should have been paying closer attention to your network environment. This is probably one of the most over looked aspect of network administration. Being able to get a snap shot at what your network looks like and how your systems are performing can be one of the best things you can do for preventative maintenance. Usually only large networks invest in this arena but as a small business owner and a serious computer nut I love to know exactly what’s going on all my systems. And it is all relatively simple to set up and requires very little supervision or maintenance after it is set up.
As I stated before I am very strict about the way my network is being used and when if there are any errors on the connected nodes. And because of this and a few connections and some Googling within the corporate IT world I got my hands on some stuff.
Orion NPM from Solar Winds. This was a pretty good piece of software. It does a very good job of detecting everything on your network even things on different subnets. The layout wasn’t that great but this is probably because I am a visual person and a snazzy UI always peeks my interest. It uses maps to show the general layout of the network but in all honesty the maps are kind of cheesy granted they map is really a layout of the WAN. The Network Summary is a little

Today received a call from my mother telling me that none of the computers in the house had Internet connectivity and also that the house phone wasn’t getting a dial tone. Of course because I am a professional I was able to narrow down the problem within a few seconds because I could hear the TV in the background I knew that the issue was limited to the cable modem. Long story short the power cable broke probably because there was another issue on the ISP side and my family was probably trying to rest the modem but in the process the broke the cable and made the situation worse.Which brings me to the point of this article.
The first step in securing your data and mission critical systems is not a firewall or super complicated password, but something much more simple, a $2 lock. Yes believe it or not the first step is something as simple as placing your servers in a locked room with limited access to only the people that need access to it.
Disable all external access to your devices. Like disabling your USB ports, disabling your CD-Rom. Yes these are scary thoughts because I know you are thinking about “what if I need to fix something?” Well the answer is simple, you can access everything through your network and if by chance your network is also down, notice I didn’t say to remover your keyboard and mouse access so you can still log in traditional means if need be.
Another security measure is plain and simple, CREATE A SECURE PASSWORD! Using your dogs name with a few digits from your address is not a secure password, granted it is better than just using your name but with a bit of social engineering a hacker can put two and two together. A secure password should probably be about 8 characters at the minimum and contain uppercase letters lowercase letters a number or two and one and more special character such as @ or !.

By now we have all heard the of the pounding Wall Street is taking, huge investment banks are being devoured by larger commercial banks like Bank of America. Now I have a close friend that works for one of these global investment banks as an analyst, a bank that was about to be on the chopping block waiting to be taken over by yet another commercial bank, and I remember him telling me that after The Great Depression a law was passed that basically said that when a bank opens for business it can either be a commercial bank, the kind that we are all used like Citi, and Chase or an investment bank, like Morgan Stanley, this little piece paper signed into law was called the Glass-Steagall Act. I am no economics expert so I have no idea why the government is allowing these purchases to occur, so “why bring this up you ask?” Simple if these behemoths are suffering like this what hope do the rest of us have?
As a typical IT freak I read a lot of literature, some on new products and technologies to keep myself current and others that deal with the way large enterprises handle their enormous data flow, all this got me thinking about ways for small business to cut back on spending. You may say that as small business owners we don’t have the same headaches or the same spending habits these large institutions do, but I beg to differ. True we may not have a large global supply chain to manage, or large work force numbering in the thousands or even large data farms that span states and countries but just like them we still have to pay the bills at the end of the month. We still have to pay for things like heating and cooling, and electricity, and while our balances may not be in the hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions, when trying to keep a business going often on a wing and prayer every little bit counts!

Today when we hear talk of virtualizing we tend to think of large enterprises and vast server farms. But these days the technology is so mature and relatively cheap that it is something that I believe small businesses should take a look at.