Without These Tools, Your Network Isn’t Secure

Your business might have a limited budget, but this shouldn’t hold you back from implementing the best and strongest security solutions. However, security is a complicated process for any business. This is problematic, especially since common threats and vulnerabilities show up frequently in the business environment. We’ll walk you through some security basics so that you can optimize your organization's protection.

First and foremost, the basic tasks of security tools can be accomplished through the use of preventative solutions found in a Unified Threat Management (UTM) device. A UTM includes a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, and content filter, allowing you to reduce the number of threats your business is exposed to and prevent hacking attacks entirely.

Firewalls
Firewalls are generally considered the bouncers to your business’ network, as they keep track of the traffic that flows into and out of it. This keeps harmful threats from entering and causing trouble, and keeps dangerous traffic from spreading to other parts of your network. You can then isolate and destroy any threats that are identified as problematic. Most computers these days come with a consumer-grade firewall pre-installed, but you don’t want to rely on these for your business’ security. An enterprise-grade firewall found in a UTM can be just the thing you need to keep your network secure.

Antivirus
While your firewall is busy keeping threats out of your network, the antivirus will be the force responsible for quarantining and eliminating any that do slip past the defenses. Antivirus programs scan your computer for any abnormalities, and then take action to eliminate them.

Spam Protection
Spam is something that even the average PC user will encounter, as these messages in your inbox waste your time and threaten the security of potentially important information. If you don’t take a preventative stance against spam, it could bother your employees and trick them into clicking on the wrong links or attachments. Spam is the preferred method of travel for threats, as it’s easy to hide malicious code in embedded links or images, as well as attachments. With spam protection, you can keep these messages from getting to your inbox in the first place, saving you the time and effort required to comb through it for threats.

Content Filtering
If you have some employees who can’t seem to keep themselves off of social media or YouTube, how do you keep them on task? The best solution to this is a content filter, which allows your organization control over the website users’ access on the Internet. This also allows you to keep your employees from accessing sites that contain malicious, dangerous, or distracting content, allowing you to get more productivity out of your workers while maximizing security.

To take your business’s security to the next level, consider a UTM solution. To learn more, reach out to Horne & Benik at (603) 499-4400.