Security Issues for Small Business Networks
Internet access is an essential for any small business to compete effectively in today's business world. It allows ease of communication within a business and with customers, clients and other businesses.
Some of the main advantages of internet access for small businesses include:
- Communication - Employees and customers can use email, instant messaging and even internet calling to communicate quickly and easily.
- Information - The internet and the wealth of information it provides is quickly and easily accessible to employees and can help boost productivity.
- Remote access - Employees can access the network and/or their workstation from anywhere using mobile devices such as laptops and PDAs.
- Increased exposure - Few companies do not have their own websites nowadays. Establishing and maintaining an online presence should be a priority for all businesses.
These benefits of internet access speak for themselves. However, by connecting your businesses network to the internet you are opening it up to intruders so it must be adequately protected.
The first thing you will need to do when connecting your network to the internet is to find an internet service provider (ISP) that provides adequate bandwidth for your needs. For most small companies a DSL or cable connection is adequate.
Ideally, the ISP should provide a static ISP for the network. Also, if a large amount of data is going to be moving from the network onto the internet it should provide a high upload bandwidth. Many ISPs provide high download bandwidths but upload bandwidths are often low.
Firewall
A good hardware firewall is essential to protecting your network from the outside. Therefore, it should be chosen and configured carefully. Many ISPs will offer devices that include modem, router, and firewall hardware all in one. These can be a good choice as they represent good value for the money invested and will be supported by the ISP.
As well as a hardware firewall, many small business networks also use a second line of defense in the form of a software firewall within the network itself. There are a number of these to choose from and the combination of the hardware and software firewalls should be enough to protect any small business network.
In general, firewall hardware is configured by default to allow outgoing traffic to the internet but blocks all incoming traffic. For this reason, the hardware needs to be set up to allow incoming services such as web server, remote desktop, SMTP, FTP and more.
Written by: Frank J Klein - CIOBack to Articles | Next Article | Relativity | Watch the Video
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