Business Security Center

Your business relies on the Internet. Left unmanaged, it can disrupt your workforce, threaten security, and jeopardize both your business’ success and reputation. While the Internet is essential to your business, it can also expose your company to a wide range of security problems, liability risks, and of course productivity and bandwidth issues.

For example, CyberPatrol Research Department in July of 2008 found 6,131 new weapon related site, 18,108 illegal activity sites, 21,506 gambling site, 71,697 XXX sites and 119,587 parked domains. Each month these new sites are added to the SiteCAT categorization database.

Taming the Internet is possible if you have the right resources as well as access to current information about Internet security. No matter what size business you run, the main components for securing your Internet remain the same — only the type and scale of the solutions may vary.

A strong Internet use policy lets employees know what their responsibilities are when it comes to surfing the Web on company time. Start with a company wide policy that clearly states what constitutes acceptable Web usage. Another key component is to educate your employees as to how viruses and other malware can infect a PC via the Internet.

Content filtering software lets you control where your employees go on the Web. By filtering things like pornography, hate speech and even shopping sites, you cover liability issues as well as create a more secure environment for your organization.

There are numerous online resources that provide information on securing your business environment. Some useful links to a variety of agencies and organizations:

SANS Institute: http://www.sans.org/
National Institute of Standards and Technology: http://www.nist.gov/
Internet Security Alliance http://www.isalliance.org/
Information Systems Audit and Control Association http://www.isaca.org/
Information Systems Security Organization http://www.issa.org/
Computer Security Institute (CSI) http://www.gocsi.com/
Incidents.org http://www.incidents.org/
The Internet Engineering Task Force http://www.ietf.org/
Center for Internet Security (CIS) www.cisecurity.org
Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) www.ccianet.org
Information Technology Association of America http://www.itaa.org/
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) http://www.cert.org/
InfraGard/FBI http://www.infragard.net/
U.S. Department of Justice/Cybercrime http://www.cybercrime.gov/

Technical guidance and resources:
MIS Training Institute http://www.misti.com/
Network Security Portal http://www.infosyssec.com/
Security Specific Information Resource http://www.searchsecurity.com/
Network Security Portal http://www.securitynewsportal.com/
CNET's Internet Security Glossary http://cnet.bitpipe.com
The Encyclopedia of Computer Security http://www.itsecurity.com/
Sans Institute Security Glossary http://www.sans.org/resources/glossary.php
TechTarget's Network Security Glossary http://whatis.techtarget.com
TechWeb Encyclopedia http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/