Sometimes We Are Our Own Worst Enemy - Small Business Security is Missing
There's an old quip about encountering an angry bear in the forest, you don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than the guy with you. It looks like we're in a similar situation with network security. BusinessWeek is reporting that cybercriminals are targeting small busineses because they have poorer defenses than larger firms. Maybe that is being too kind to small businesses - according to the article "Almost one-fifth of the small businesses surveyed didn't use virus scanning for e-mail, and more than 60% didn't protect their wireless networks with even the simplest encryption." OK, lets be honest -- some of these guys have no defense, period.
If that isn't bad enough, "approximately 70% of small businesses consider information security a high priority, and more than 80% have confidence in their existing protective measures" writes Jeffrey Gangemi in the BusinessWeek story. This is like talking to one of my teenagers who “knows how to drive” and then backs into another car and rips my bumper off.
Clearly, security must be built in and enabled by default. We need devices based on the Trusted Computing Platform, operating systems that build security into the kernel, and are pre-loaded with necessary countermeasures. If an OS ships with a browser, it should ship with a personal firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware. Microsoft is finally raising the bar with Vista and security vendors are providing more comprehensive tool suites. Small businesses, its time to start using these products.
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