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Tech-Security Issues Burden Smaller Firms (01/30/2004)
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The day the "I Love You" e-mail virus struck was a heartbreaker for Richard Underwood.
The systems engineer in charge of the 160-computer network at Chaparral Energy
LLC, an oil-and-gas producer based in Oklahoma City, was driven to despair when
employees, wooed one morning three years ago by the promise of an e-mailed love
letter, clicked on the message's dangerous attachment. That sparked a wild
proliferation of the virus through office e-mail lists.
"It was ugly, ugly. In the heat of the moment, the only thing to do was pull
the plug from the world" and pick up the pieces, Mr. Underwood says. "It took
about three days. It was a long weekend. We were never going to do that again."
Computer security, of course, is a problem for any business, large or small.
But for small businesses, it poses a particularly tricky problem. Unlike
larger corporations, most smaller firms simply don't have the staff to deal
with their exposure to escalating virus and hacker attacks. If a small
company has in-house help, often it's a jack-of-all-trades like Mr.
Underwood, who has some security experience but little time to spend
fighting off cyber miscreants.
In addition, a virus can shut down a small company's entire computer
operations, with devastating financial consequences.
"Without adequate security solutions, [an attack] could severely impact
their business," says Andrew Bose, chief executive of Access Markets
International Partners Inc., a New York research firm that specializes
in the small and midsize business market. Important company records and
files can get deleted or corrupted, requiring a costly effort to re-create
them. And disruption when computers shut down means idle employees and
lost revenue.
In response, the computer-security industry -- long focused on large
corporations and home users -- has started to increase its offerings
of products tailored to small-business needs.
The tech companies are promoting their products as having the security
that corporate systems need, but with a user-friendliness that make
them more accessible for small-business users who may not be as tech
savvy as their big-company counterparts.
The expanding array of options for small companies reflects software makers'
increasing interest in an enormous and barely tapped market.
U.S. businesses with one to 99 employees number about 7.7 million,
and they're expected to spend $86 billion on information technology in 2003,
including $2.1 billion on security products, according to Access Markets.
While small companies' overall technology spending is projected to rise 10%
annually during the next five years, the firm expects their security spending
to grow at the much faster pace of 28%.
That growth is being driven by worsening virus attacks and increased
attention to security in the wake of Sept. 11, and also by the embrace
of new security technologies by small companies, says Access Markets'
Mr. Bose.
After the "I Love You" virus struck Chaparral, Mr. Underwood knew he
had to overhaul the company's approach to network security. Among other
things, he signed up for an antivirus service for small companies from
Network Associates Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif., that would automatically
download the updates essential for stopping the latest viruses onto
Chaparral's PCs and servers. That way, Mr. Underwood wouldn't be caught
flat-footed by the next outbreak.
Then he added a Cisco Systems Inc. firewall to keep hackers out and San
Diego-based Websense Inc. software to block employees' access to questionable
Web sites, which could be laced with malicious programs. More recently,
he decided to install search-site Google's free Internet-browser toolbar
on each PC because it blocks pop-up ads, which can also be dangerous.
Most small companies buy their antivirus software from the market leaders,
Network Associates and Symantec Corp., the Curpertino, Calif., maker of
Norton products, either online or through resellers. Both companies offer
products for small companies with annual maintenance service fees at $30
to $70 a machine, depending on features.
Symantec as well as a host of firewall specialists -- including giants like
Cisco and Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and small-business
focused companies like SonicWall Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif. -- sell appliances
starting at around $300 and climbing into the low thousands. Firewalls block all
Internet traffic that isn't specifically allowed.
Also, these appliances typically have virtual-private-network capabilities,
which allow users to safely dial into the company network from home or on the road.
Chaparral's Mr. Underwood has found such technology suits his company's needs.
Rather than add employees, "we rely on products" to do the job of keeping PCs
safe without breaking the bank, says Mr. Underwood.
His priority is to use products that are easy to manage and that update themselves.
-- Riva Richmond
Source: Startup Journal
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