It seems every day there are new security threats created to target your growing business. GrowthBusiness looks at how to defend IT systems against the unscrupulous.
It seems every day there are new security threats created to target your growing business. We look at how to defend IT systems against the unscrupulous.
Michelle Commosioung, CEO of online shopping mall MyRetailHeaven, wasn’t banking on getting hacked when she logged on to her website on a Sunday evening in August this year, but to her dismay she found the site had been hijacked by an image of a Turkish flag and a message stating ‘We have taken over your website’.
‘It’s a bit frightening because you feel you have no control over what’s going on,’ she says. The website had to come down, security software updated and the developer called. Now Commosioung goes to industry conferences to make sure she stays one step ahead of cybercrime.
Solutions are manifold. Price comparison site ConsumerChoices.co.uk works with a hosting company that supports all of its decision-making regarding security, spending around £300 a month. The service offers audits and even simulates attacks on the website to reveal weaknesses, which are then addressed.
‘The hackers and fraudsters are always going to be one step ahead, but we try to take a diligent approach and to keep up with them as much as possible,’ says managing director Michael Phillips. ‘Our website’s rapid growth in traffic means that it has been incumbent on us to be further ahead than we need to be, because as you buy new systems and servers you have to look at the software and security that go with that.’
Scott Martin, IT manager at wholesale broking firm RP Martin Holdings, brought in a threat management solution to ensure the company stayed in line with FSA compliance. He uses it to prevent third-party USB devices connecting to the company’s networks. ‘There are still people out there who can get in and destroy your network from the inside out,’ he says.
The company primarily uses the software for USB blocking but there is other functionality such as file monitoring, allowing the user to lock down files and folders, and enforcing limits on how much data people can copy – all useful tools in the fight against data theft.
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