• 17 Free iPhone Apps You Need Right Now
• Who's Buying the iPhone?
• Staff Sues Dell for Back Wages
• Is the Desktop PC Making a Comeback?
• Activating Your iPhone 3G: What You Need to Know

• PC World
• Business Center
• Software / Services
• Internet
• How-To

Coping with Online Threats and Risks

As you venture into online marketing and e-commerce, you'll need to keep security concerns front and center. Some suggestions to keep in mind:

• Use distinct firewall layers to isolate the Internet from specific applications, and to separate applications from internal systems.
• Combine multiple intrusion detection techniques (i.e., host-based, file-based, network-based).
• Install vendor-issued patches as soon as possible.
• Don't use administrator accounts for daily tasks, restrict usage of remote access tools, and disable common accounts as much as possible.
• Document and report security breaches and attacks; failure to do so is a crime in some places (such as the State of California) and harms your company's reputation when word of the breach gets out. You'll also get back to resuming normal business operations faster while getting better at preventing future security problems. Your company security policy should include procedures for all employees to follow. This policy should define what constitutes a security breach and make clear to whom any breach should be reported.
• As part of your disaster recovery planning, develop a policy that specifies who should do what in response to a security breach and/or attack. Be sure to include carefully crafted backup and restore procedures -- paying close attention to application and operating system software in addition to business data -- in your overall disaster recovery plan.
• Consider security requirements at the beginning of any application or platform acquisitions, be prepared to spend more for it, and make sure those developing software for your business follow guidelines for creating secure software.
• Arm your IT people with tools to monitor the security of your e-commerce applications and make sure your systems and network security is constantly monitored.

Content Security Tips

The increasing complexity of content security requires a more comprehensive approach that is able to address multiple security management challenges with a single solution that can help you:

• Define and deploy a common enterprise-wide security policy addressing HTTP, SMTP and FTP security risks.
• Customize policy-based scanning of email and web traffic to detect and blockmalicious or unacceptable content.
• Enable end-users to filter spam and block URLs.
• Customize word/string searching and alerts to stop dissemination of sensitive corporate information.
• Get a 360-degree view of Internet content trends and security events across your business via a content management-reporting interface.
• Scan systems and networks to protect against viruses.

Adapting to a Brave New World

Very few technologies are changing the way business is conducted the way the Internet has. And this process of dramatic change promises to continue for years to come. As a result, all companies will have to carefully watch for how the Internet and related technologies affect the nature of communicating, marketing, and trading.

While such change is often disruptive -- and that can be frightening -- it is also immeasurably rich with opportunity. Thanks to the Internet, what was once the purview of only the largest global organizations is now potentially within reach of even the smallest local business willing to understand and exploit a quickly evolving array of Internet-oriented tools and solutions.

Endnotes

^6-1 March 2005 Bandwidth Report, WebSiteOptimization.com
^6-2 Trends in SMB IT and E-Business Spending, eMarketer.com
^6-3 Broadband: High Speed, High Spend, ClickZStats, January 2005

Copyright 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised of such damages. Inc. and Inc. 500 are registered trademarks owned by Gruner + Jahr Printing & Publishing Co.
MP282980605

This story was editorially selected as relevant and is used with permission from CA. PC World received no compensation for posting this article.