Even in today’s society which is dominated by mega corporations, we are seeing more and more small businesses and startup enterprises out there trying to compete, sell their product or service, and make a profit. It’s hard going to get your business on its feet, running and operating smoothly, and once it’s going you want to ensure that the momentum keeps up and your business continues to steadily grow.
Without a doubt, your small business, just like the giant billion-dollar corporations, uses computers and software to make sure everything is running as it is supposed to. Should anything happen to your software, you and your business will take a major blow; work time and profits will be lost. Unfortunately, computers and the software used to run businesses are very vulnerable — strong IT security is crucial.
The absolute worst case scenario for harm to your company’s software is, of course, some type of cyber-attack. It is common these days for people to encounter computer viruses and spyware created by hackers to either steal or sabotage, or both, people’s lives and livelihoods. It happens to people at home, and it happens to business, with small businesses seeing no exceptions.
While cyber-attack is the worst case scenario, it is not the only scenario, nor even the most common, and many will never experience such a thing. What is far more common to cause harm to your software is simply accidental damage caused by employees (or employer) out of either negligence or mistake. In order to lessen the likelihood of having some form of harm come to your software and in turn infecting the rest of your business, you need to get some IT security and establish some network security programs. IT security and network security programs do not have to be some extravagant, costly expense. A few of the simplest, most practical ones follow.
Secure Enclosures For Servers
The first and most basic thing that you can do when trying to start providing some protection for your IT is to ensure that your servers are separate from the areas that people are working. If you are large enough to need and have a separate room available for your server’s great, if not an unused closet usually works just fine.
But getting them away from the areas where they are coming into direct contact with people limits the chances of accidents, like liquids being spilled on them or the server getting bumped with a chair and damaged. Getting them up and out of the way removes this threat almost completely. It also frees up some more floor space in the work area for your employees, which helps improve worker safety. If you by chance do not have spare, unoccupied room for your servers, you can still keep them safe with portable, self-contained enclosures that look like office furniture but are actually safe spots for your servers.
Control Access To Servers
Enclosing your server is a great way to start enhancing your overall network security. However, simply putting your servers into a closet does nothing if that’s where you stop at. At the very least put a lock on the door, that way not just anyone, unauthorized personnel, guests, incompetent employees or people with mal intent cannot access your servers and mess with them and damage them.
However, keys are not always the most reliable, as locks can be picked and people can prove to be untrustworthy, so security card access keys are a more logical choice. The card keys can be programmed for only certain people to be able to open the doors, only at certain times, and also access only specific parts of the server. They are also much more difficult to duplicate than a standard lock key.
Security Cameras and Monitors
The final and obvious way to provide safety for your servers is to constantly keep a watchful eye on them with a surveillance system — one of the most effective network security solutions. The cost of surveillance systems has dropped significantly in recent years, making it almost impossible for anyone to justify not having one for their business.
They obviously allow you to not only watch live but also record any and all activity happening in and around your servers and/or server room, but many can also be programmed with or are compatible with some type of environmental monitoring, which monitors essentially the “weather” of your server room to make sure that it’s not getting to hot, humid, wet, or dusty, and alert you when it is so a solution can be applied before a major problem occurs.
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