How to Prevent Computer Security Risk and How to Keep Your Small Business Safe

Written by Steven Presar


You know that computer security is important to your small business. But do you know exactly what you need to do today to protect your business? Do you know all ofrepparttar risks to your business computer system? Do you knowrepparttar 104521 steps you need to take to protect your business computer system? We hear reports of computer hackers breaking into business computer networks to attack or shut-down an Internet site, to disrupt business operations, or to gain access to confidential information. These high-tech break-ins are only part of a far broader area of security risks that your business faces today.

Some high-tech risks require high-tech responses. Others call for more common-sense measures. A well-considered, disciplined approach to computer security may be all that you need to significantly reducerepparttar 104522 risks to your computer system.

What does computer security mean? From a business point of view, computer security simple means that your computer systems will function and your stored information on your computer system will be available to you as needed for your business.

Hardware Failure

Precautions can be taken to protect against certain risks such as: theft, breakage, power surges, voltage fluctuation, outages, and disasters including fire, flood and other unthinkable catastrophes. Maintenance agreements provide fast and reliable service inrepparttar 104523 event of equipment breakdown.

Extra equipment provides in-house backup for uninterrupted service untilrepparttar 104524 repairperson arrives. Many firms buy inexpensive mail-in or carry-in maintenance and maintain extra hardware to swap in as needed. For example, they keep one backup printer for every five printers in use and one backup PC for every 20, depending, of course, on age and reliability ofrepparttar 104525 hardware. Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)-equipped servers and duplicate or backup servers can add redundancy and reducerepparttar 104526 risk of being shut down by equipment failure.

The quality of low-cost computer or server "clones" may be significantly lower than that of brand-name systems. Extremely low-cost systems often are made with whatever less costly components are available atrepparttar 104527 moment. Such components may be inherently less reliable, andrepparttar 104528 compatibility ofrepparttar 104529 specific components used may not be rigorously tested.

Regular backups, with at least a weekly copy ofrepparttar 104530 backed-up data kept off-site are, of course, a necessity andrepparttar 104531 most effective way to minimize data loss when inevitable hardware breakdowns occur.

Careful disaster planning is more crucial than ever to assessrepparttar 104532 risks and damage of catastrophic system failure andrepparttar 104533 implementation of appropriate disaster recovery resources. Full duplicate off-site systems including servers, data and communications links may be necessary to assure continuation of service without interruption inrepparttar 104534 event of catastrophic disaster. Such redundancy can be farmed-out to a local firm that specialist inrepparttar 104535 backup and safe storage of your critical computer system data. Generally,repparttar 104536 expense of full-system redundancy often is unnecessary for small businesses. For you, as long as none of your stored data is lost, restoring your system functions within several hours or even several days may be tolerable.

Software Failure

Application software can malfunction for a number of reasons. Failure of an application program can occur through an accidental erasure of a component piece ofrepparttar 104537 program, its location inrepparttar 104538 wrong subdirectory, or any of a number of other arcane causes. Contemporary programs arrive in multiple parts on multiple disks, CD-ROM or downloaded files that get installed in many directories and subdirectories, as well as altering system configuration and setup files to serverepparttar 104539 application's needs.

Are you HIPAA Compliant?

Written by Matt Sears


A closer look at HIPAA By - Matt Sears, Senior Vice President Athens Benefits Insurance Services, Inc. A division of The Jenkins Athens Group

HIPAA. Perhaps one ofrepparttar most significant laws in recent memory; certainly one ofrepparttar 104520 most complex. While this short article won't make anyone an expert, it will, hopefully, demystify this wide ranging set of laws and put you onrepparttar 104521 path towards compliance.

First, let's answerrepparttar 104522 question; "What is HIPAA?" HIPAA stands forrepparttar 104523 Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act of 1996. Although it purports to regulate health insurance, HIPAA provisions extend far beyond insurance. HIPAA introduced broad disclosure and privacy requirements. It also established civil and criminal penalties for each violation (up to $25,000 per person per year in civil penalties and up to $250,000 in criminal fines - along with imprisonment).

Title I of HIPAA deals with portability and special enrollment rights for health plans. Those conditions must have been incorporated into your plans by now (original compliance date was 1997). Title II of HIPAA governs a wide ranging set of conditions called, "Administrative Simplification". For those charged with compliance,repparttar 104524 notion that HIPAA simplifies anything qualifies as "dark humor". Administrative simplification attempts to create a uniform system for processing and retention of health information and ensuringrepparttar 104525 security of that information.

Forrepparttar 104526 purposes of this article, we're only concerned with those portions ofrepparttar 104527 law impacting most employers...privacy. Notablyrepparttar 104528 privacy of personal data defined by HIPAA as "Protected Health Information" or "PHI" - information that is personally identifiable. Inrepparttar 104529 broadest summary possible, key components of HIPAA privacy requirements for a plan sponsor are fairly straightforward:

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