The Australian Business Assessment of Computer Use Security (ABACUS) report on the state of security in small business caught my eye as we have been working on data protection with a number of our clients recently.
It's findings that 16% of small businesses don't have virus protection and 30% don't have firewalls is sufficiently alarming because these are essential protection measures, but the analysis is based upon the premise that having centrally installed anti-virus and a firewall is enough - which it is not!
Your office firewall is useless when you're computer leaves the office
Whilst it was once the case that a business would have all of its computers networked behind its office firewall and so protected from malicious access from the internet this is no longer the norm. With extensive use of laptops connected to home or public wireless networks, it is essential that every device has its own firewall and virus protection installed on the device itself. Only then is it protected everywhere it is used.
Once you distribute virus and firewall protection it needs regular management to ensure it is up to date. New viruses and data access risks are introduced on a regular basis and your protection is only effective if it's updated to detect these. It's not reliable to assume that each computer user will keep their device up to date so a way of monitoring is important.
Software as a Service (SaaS) virus protection changes the game
If this all sounds complicated or expensive, I'm glad to say it isn't. The recent Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings from some of the leading virus protection companies make installation, monitoring and management of anti-virus and firewall protection easy. Being Software as a Service, you only pay for what you need as you use it, rather than shelling out for annual licences and managing renewals device by device every 12 months.
Standardise and simplify your security solution for less than the price of a sandwich
Take Within Reach Software as an example. We've been buying laptops for each staff member as we've been growing. These come with 30 day trials of virus protection which we have used until they expire, then the path of least resistance is to licence that product for that device. So in a short time we have ended up with multiple different types of virus protection software, renewing on different dates and with no visibility of which devices use which software and when this needs to be renewed. Even though we're an IT consultancy and each user knows how to manage their own security, that's not an acceptable situation.
The solution we have implemented is SaaS Endpoint Protection from McAfee. Overnight we've achieved the following outcomes for our business
- At $3.30 per device per month, the cost is less than half of our previous licenced software
- We don't need to spend time organising renewals or refunding staff who've renewed virus protection with their personal credit cards
- All protected devices are visible in a central control panel showing when they were updated, and what detections have been found
- Security policies can be set and updated from a central point to each device via the internet to react to security threats, and to block or allow certain software or file types from use
If you would like to achieve the same cost benefits and peace of mind for your business through SaaS virus protection, contact Within Reach Software and we can implement the McAfee solution for you.
By not protecting tablets and smart phones you're data may be exposed
The variety of portable computer devices we use is becoming more diverse. Businesses now need to consider protection for tablets and smartphones in a similar way to desktops and laptops, with one added risk; that these devices are easier to loose (or steal).
Apple provides some inherent protection against viruses through the controls applied by the app store. Android and Windows are more open and hence firewall and virus protection for these devices is more important and there are both firewall and anti-virus solutions available in the android marketplace and of course for windows.
For all of these devices the killer application is email, and the good news is that this can come with inbuilt protection for mobile devices. Again, the Software as a Service (SaaS) model can put the emphasis to manage virus protection and spam with the service provider.
Remotely wipe email data from mobile devices via Exchange Online with Office 365
A good example of protecting mobile data is a client where we have implemented Office 365 including Exchange Online. This client has provided each of their staff with an iPhone or iPad to access the service. Included in Exchange Online within the Office 365 solution is fully managed anti-virus, fully managed anti-spam and mobile security. Malware will not reach the mobile device because it's intercepted and quarantined by Exchange Online and not sent through to the mailbox.
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In the management console each mailbox details any mobile devices that have been used to access it. Should any of these be lost or stolen then it's a simple process to remotely wipe email and calendar data from the device.
If you'd like to improve tablet and smart phone security, contact Within Reach Software for Software as a Service (SaaS) security solutions.