Security is essential for many business operations. Whether you are storing customers’ credit card information or protecting your proprietary information, you need a sound business security solution strategy to meet all of your security needs without creating chinks or cracks that hackers can slip through. In a world full of sophisticated computer criminals, a single vulnerability could be the source of a major breach. Once hackers get into your system, it’s easier for them to open several doors than it would be for them to breach each of those doors from the outside.
Depending on the size of your business, you may have several different security measures operating simultaneously. If these differing security measures are not treated as a whole system, then it’s likely that you are creating vulnerabilities. The data secured by these different measures are not static from one another. Data may overlap or intersect for different purposes. These interconnections, combined with, means that a relatively unprotected area can be the source of a major breach in a highly secured area.
Here is an example. A business may have a spectacular website that gathers an extensive amount of data, as well as delivering a substantial amount of content. This business uses an enterprise content management system designed exclusively for their needs by a top-quality design firm. They also maintain a small staff of their own designers. This site maintains a vast database that includes customer transactions, user logins, and distributed content. The business also maintains an internal network and its own servers that are, arguably, distinct and separate from their online activities. Increased effectiveness, however, demands that these systems cooperate with one another. So, what seems like discrete capabilities are, in all actuality, interconnected and interrelated information systems. Simply put, by breaching one of these systems, a sophisticated hacker could tap into all of the interconnected systems.
In order to protect all of your computer systems, you need a single, unifying security solutions strategy that will protect seemingly discrete systems from intruders whether those intruders come from the outside or from within. This doesn’t mean that each of these discrete systems does not need its own security measures. Undeniably, they do. But these security measures must also be a part of a cohesive whole to ensure that they do not work at cross-purposes, thus opening up unnecessary vulnerabilities, and to ensure they do not create internal vulnerabilities, allowing a single breach to make the entire system vulnerable.
This concept can be illustrated with a more familiar example. Many home-based users are provided with an in-the-box security system trial order, such as from Norton, when they buy their computers. Many computer systems are also equipped with security features, like Windows Firewall, as part of their operating system. Many internet companies also offer some kind of security download as part of their internet access package. So, users start out with three different security systems. If they activate all three, they consider themselves safer; in reality, they are more vulnerable to worms, viruses, and other threats, because the three systems were never designed or configured to be compatible.
The same thing can happen when businesses merge different security systems without beginning with a unifying security solutions strategy. They implement solutions that work just fine in isolation and then connect them with each other without realizing they’ve done so. These solutions then work in conflict with each other, creating vulnerabilities, because they are neither designed nor configured to work in cooperation. In order to ensure that your business is truly secure, you must implement business security solutions under an umbrella strategy that create a cooperative configuration for all of your security measures.
Clarus Communications is a comprehensive technology services firm that is committed to helping our clients improve upon and achieve their technology objectives. Trusted by businesses and partners nationwide, the team are experts in telecommunications, IP Phone Systems, and Cloud technologies. Clarus has relationships with over 60 different providers and the technical staff to ensure the right technology is in place for your company. This allows our clients and sales partners to have the best combination of price, value, connectivity and innovative services offered in the marketplace. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Visit Clarus Communications here or call us at 855-801-6700 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff so we can work with you on finding the right service for your business at the most affordable rates.