As the up-take of 'always on' 24 hour broadband
internet connectivity increases, so does the threat that
it poses to business. Firms and individuals who enjoy the
benefits of broadband services must be cautious of their
heightened vulnerability from cyber-born attacks. The catastrophic
damage these attacks can inflict on internal systems in
only a matter of minutes makes network security a top priority
and one that should not be overlooked. However, security
policy is not an issue that should cause business heartache;
simple preventative methods can be adopted quickly and easily
to offer extensive protection against these threats.
Firewall Security
Unauthorised access attempts on company
systems from external users with malicious intent is known
as hacking and has been a serious issue for many years.
In the past this threat was, to an extent, curtailed by
intermittent dial-up internet connections, which despite
not directly providing high security did mean that hacking
could only occur during the irregular times that the internet
connection was active. However high speed always-on internet
connectivity makes life easier for hackers, hence magnifying
the threat, thus to be left unprotected is to invite an
attack.
The solution lies in firewall technology.
A firewall acts as a solid line of defence between your
internal network and the internet, and will only allow authorised
traffic to pass between the two. If a request for internet
data is sent from the internal network then the firewall
will let the response through; but if no initial request
is sent (as is the case with a hacking attempt) then the
firewall will deny the hacker access - securing the internal
network as a result.
Anti-Virus Protection
A virus, trojan-horse or worm is a piece
of code written with malicious intent that is distributed
primarily over the internet and, when activated, can cause
damage to or unauthorised access to computer data and systems.
Many can also automatically replicate and distribute themselves
throughout an internal network or further afield as automatically
generated e-mails.
The prevalence and complexity of viruses is
increasing daily as internet and e-mail systems develop.
With approximately 500 new viruses being discovered each
month, Anti-Virus protection is now a business necessity.
Syscomm deploy high powered Anti-Virus solutions
from Symantec, namely Symantec Corporate Edition. As part
of our network security solutions these provide our client's
with fully automated enterprise level protection from an
Anti-Virus server. This cost-effective solution ensures
that our clients network devices are always configured with
the latest Anti-Virus definitions to provide the very best
level of protection available around the clock.
