Business Computer Security

Read business trade publications and you will probably find several articles about the latest security developments and cautionary tales of firewall invasion, systemic viruses and company wide security issues.

Whether you are a small business owner or a large corporation, there are several steps you can take to ensure network security, internet security and windows security. First, establish a security policy and circulate that policy to all employees. When you hire a new employee give that employee a copy of the latest security policy and include a brief session on information security in your training materials or conferences. 

When your employees are using company equipment, a good security policy will include guidelines to restrict the use of software to that provided by the standard company desktop set-up. Set the administrative rights on each company computer so that computer security restricts software installation privileges to the technical support team.  

When you allow employees to use the internet, you must also ensure that they are trained in the safe use of the internet. It is recommended that you restrict internet downloads so that an employee cannot unknowingly violate computer security by downloading a virus or spyware or malware.

You should also restrict incoming email attachments when the email is coming from a source outside the company.  

If your employees require the use of an instant message tool, you can restrict that use to tools you provide internally so you can ensure a reasonable level of security. Do not allow employees to open links or photos or files included in an instant message.   

Finally, be sure each company computer has enabled computer security, windows security and internet security and anti-virus software and that these programs are updated regularly.  

The more sensitive your business data, the more concerned you should be about security issues. For companies with very sensitive company or client information, it is wise to implement very restrictive security solutions and security policy.