Member Article

Cloud-safety: staying on top of virtualisation and IT security for small businesses with big broadband

At the tail-end of a recession, small business owners could be forgiven for thinking that the worst is over. However, many of us are guilty of forgetting one of the day’s greatest threats to any business : IT security. Managing ever-larger and increasingly unwieldy networks, many of which rely on new and unfamiliar technology, it’s only a matter of time before even the most tech-savvy business owner slips up on IT security.

This is especially true with the host of new, flexible working practises becoming more common in the UK. Remote access, cloud storage and virtualisation are integral to the new modern workforce. While some businesses still cling to a rigid nine-to-five and then shut everything down, more and more business owners are responding to their employees’ interest in flexible, virtual working. Employees want to work as flexibly as they live: all day and all night, across multiple channels, from wherever they are. They want to login from home and work on the train and embrace BYOD (bring your own device) when they are in the office. In return, they offer a vision of a more engaged, more flexible and more productive workforce, and it’s a picture that is growing increasingly attractive to employers.

So where’s the catch?

Every access point is a potential vulnerability. If every employee can log in easily at work, at home, on a train and even in a café, this creates multiple access points which need to be managed. Every connection you make needs to be secured and verified, without forcing employees to remember complex strings of numbers or jump through hoops just to get connected. If things go wrong, you could lose data, allow sensitive customer information to fall into the wrong hands, or be shut down by a crippling virus.

For many businesses, losing sight of client data is the worst case scenario, with the potential to pass on problems to valued customers and destroy trust. Spam, malware, phishing and viruses present their own problems, often leading to critical data loss and expensive downtime while systems are restored and the rogue data deleted.

It is possible to protect your business from IT security issues while still embracing flexible working. It requires some investment, and co-operation from every individual using the network, as well as high quality enterprise-grade broadband and telephone services, complete with 24/7 support and convincing security policies. Crucially, security needs to be built in to your business, rather than being tacked on after the fact.

Find a network provider you trust, and ask them to show you how to track your network activity, including setting permissions and exercising high-level browsing control over anyone who goes online. Ask your providers about broadband security, and whether you can rely on the network’s basic anti-virus protection, or whether it is best to choose some additional standalone anti-virus software. Whatever you choose should come equipped with a catalogue of existing threats which updates automatically, and should be scheduled to run frequently. Most importantly, do your homework. Understand the ins and outs of the business network you use, or delegate to someone who does. Ask that person to train their colleagues in safe use of internet, email and remote access points. The best defence is almost always a knowledgeable workforce.

The author writes regularly about the intersection between technology and business, including the Internet, social media and workplace gadgets and gizmos.

Reading sites such as Chess Telecom helps her stay up-to-date with the world of business broadband.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ben Cody .