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Is Your Small Business Network Safe?

Tristan Anwyn

January 16, 2015

If you run a small business, the chances are computers are a fairly major part of your daily operations.

From orders to data to social media or blogs, computers are a ubiquitous part of many businesses.

If your computer network is compromised, either by an attack or an unfortunate accident, it can impact your productivity and your reputation, and cost you money.

What can you do to help keep your small business network safe?

Network Problems Can Cost You

Network problems can cause everything from compromised security to lost data to website downtime.

Network problems cost your business in three major ways:

• Productivity. If something isn't working, the chances are someone in your business can't get their work done. Not to mention the manpower you'll need to spend on diagnosing the problem and getting things up and running again;
• Reputation. If your network has an issue which impacts one or more of your customers, you're risking your reputation. From finding out that their data wasn't completely secure with you to being unable to place an order on your website, network insecurities can affect your good standing with your customers, a trust which is hard to rebuild;
• Profits. From time spent solving problems instead of getting work done, to unplaced orders or lost customers, to the money paid to repair the issue, network problems can be a drain on your business bank account.

It's clear that network problems can cause havoc for your business. To help ward this off, it's important to take steps to keep your computer network safe and secure.

Plan Now and Save Problems Later

As the article "Network Configuration Backups for Small Businesses" points out, rushing to get help after a problem has already arisen can be bad for your business, leading to bad decisions. Instead, plan to protect your network, starting now.

Start by looking at your network and identifying potential problems that you could face in the future.

From there, build a plan that encompasses both what you are going to do to help secure your network, and what steps you and your team will take in the event of any problems.

Take the time to help your employees get familiar with these protocols, to make sure that everyone in your business is ready if a problem should arise, and is committed to helping prevent problems wherever possible.

Steps You Can Take to Secure Your Network

There are several things you can do to help secure your network:

• Run regular virus and malware scans;
• Run port and network scans to see who and what is connected to your network;
• Run penetration and vulnerability tests to check your security;
• Educate your employees on staying safe online and being wary of links or attachments from unknown sources;
• Use encryption to keep your data as secure as possible;
• Back up your data on a regular basis.

Don't Forget to Back Up Your Network Configuration

Running regular backups is important when it comes to keeping your network secure. It's also a good idea to back up your network configuration settings.

Once you've solved a problem and are ready to get your network up and running once more, your network configurations will be useful to have on hand.

Keeping them backed up using one of the many network configuration backup tools available today will make getting things up and running that much faster and less stressful.

When it comes to protecting your network security, don't take any chances.

Plan for the worst, prepare using the best, and keep your small business safe and secure.

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