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Advanced
How To Guides
eSecurity
1 . Introduction
IT enables a competitive advantage. Customers, suppliers,
contractors, and business partners are routinely allowed
access to critical business data and the systems that
process and store it. What we sometimes hear is "I
don't really have a big IT system, so I don't really
need all this. By taking a risk-based approach rather
than a purely operational one, security is considered,
assessed and managed with the business and its goals
in mind.
First, let's take a reality check on some the assumptions
around information security:
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There is rarely a need for a 100% secure business environment
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It is impossible to be 100% secure, everyday new exploits initiatives to compromise
systems are being deployed.
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Initially, security adds to the cost of doing business. However, in the long term
it could save you money, reputation and customers
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Security is a process not a project or a product,
it should be ongoing
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Continuous Improvement is the key success factor to a good security program
The
fundamentals of any security program are confidentiality,
integrity and availability.
Building and maintaining trust and credibility with
your customers and business partners is critical to
the success of your business. One of the downsides to
today's connectivity is the increased opportunity for
unauthorised access. The risks to your business data
have increased. Securing your business information is
paramount. By ensuring your security program facilitates
confidentiality, integrity and availability you can
be confident that your security efforts are focused
in the right direction.
The example below shows the IT infrastructure of a typical
business that sells directly to customers and relies
heavily on an in-house customer database. The office
staff has access to the Internet and internal email
and the manager sometimes works from home and dials-in
via a modem. A special password-protected web site has
been set-up for dealers and there are a number of sales
people on the road who are linked to the office via
modem.
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