Why do I need Virus Protection?

Virus infestations are increasing at an alarming rate.  Chances are that one or more of your computers either has a virus now, or has had one in the last two years.  If you are connected to the Internet, receive email, or have floppy drives and removable media devices you are at risk for virus infestations.  If your virus software is not up-to-date, not setup properly, or does not run complete system scans weekly you probably either have already suffered a virus attack and may not yet have detected it, or you will suffer one within the next 12-18 months.  

Its not a question of IF, but more a question of When?, Where?, How much damage will it cause?, and How much will it cost my organization to Contain, Eliminate, and Recover from the Virus.  Some organizations without proper data protection / backup solutions may never fully recover

Why do I need a Security Analysis

The rate of growth of Internet use in the United States is currently two million new Internet users per month.

More than half of the nation is now online. In September 2001, 143 million Americans (about 54 percent of the population) were using the Internet — an increase of 26 million in 13 months. In September 2001, 174 million people (or 66 percent of the population) in the United States used computers.

FBI statistics, reveal that among Fortune 500 companies, most data thefts in 1998 were by internal users. Again, research results carried in PC Week in March 1999 report that, out of 800 workers surveyed, 21-31% admitted to sending confidential information - like financial or product data - to recipients outside the company by email. Ten per cent of those surveyed disclosed that they had received email containing company-confidential information.

While maybe not as sever as the security issues with large organizations, small businesses are not immune to all security risks.  And without professional  IT Security professionals on staff, the risks they do face often go unnoticed, unprotected with the overall effects actually being fairly significant.

Why are some Computer Networking vendor's solutions so inexpensive?

Implementing a network server and setting up users is a very small part of setting up a network.  Many vendors implement off-brand, home built "Servers" that are only "Desktop Systems" with large hard drives, a little more memory, and a "Network Server Operating system".  Additionally, they don't configure the security properly, and have no solution to manage your desktops.  

Over 60% of most "Network Problems" are caused by user's accidentally doing something to their computer's configuration, network printing not working, or user's getting into things on the network that they should not be able to.  The real cost of owning a network is in the ongoing management.  

While the initial costs may be small to implement a "simple" network, the Total Cost of Ownership over the first 1 - 2 years of a network that is improperly setup will be substantially higher than one that is properly setup, using Brand name components, and using industry standard implementation and security measures.