Seven Data and Information Security Mistakes Even Smart Companies Make
Thanks to a rash of high-profile security breaches, awareness of IT security issues has never been higher. The problem, however, is that most IT security is only as strong as the weakest chain in the link. For that reason, a lot of extra attention is being paid to IT security in small business environments.
To address this issue, Kaspersky Lab today updated Kaspersky Small Office Security to add support for Windows and Mac computers, servers and Android-based mobile devices; a new management console that runs in the cloud; a password management system that keeps track login credentials; and enhancements to the company’s Safe Money module for securing transactions.
Andrey Pozhogin, senior product marketing manager at Kaspersky Lab North America, says Kaspersky Small Office Security is designed for small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. Pozhogin says that typically a small office doesn’t have the same level of vigilance when it comes to IT security as a large organization. As a result, hackers have started targeting those organizations in the hopes of finding a back door into a larger organization with which the small business may have a relationship.
The challenge that most small businesses face is that they don’t have a lot of access to internal IT security expertise. Pozhogin says that Kaspersky Small Office Security is designed to provide access to IT security capabilities in a way that is simple to deploy and manage on an ongoing basis.
Of course, many small businesses are running complicated IT environments that will require more sophisticated approaches to IT security. But Pozhogin says that for organizations that have one or two file servers running on a single platform and rely on an external provider for email services, Kaspersky Small Office Security provides a level of IT security they are not going to get in another suite of IT security software.
IT security is becoming a top-of-mind issue not only because of compliance reasons, but also because larger companies are starting to demand that the smaller companies they do business with be able to demonstrate a fundamental level of IT security competency. In fact, the small business that shows that it knows how to secure information will likely become the trusted partner that larger organizations can rely on instead of being the small business that thinks it’s too small to become a target for hackers.
