Security at Your Service
By James Bohem
Just because you're not running your own Web servers doesn't mean you're immune to security breaches. Web-hosting services fall victim to hacking just like anything else. When choosing where to host your business, it's important that you understand the latest security standards and can use that knowledge when evaluating the risks.
Best Practices
Many people are overwhelmed when we outline all the potential problems. Part of our focus at Predictive Systems is to put all of the physical, administrative, and network security issues into a business perspective. Doing so helps business owners understand which measures will enhance a company's security, and helps them prioritize.
The real risk to your business is the likely rate of occurrence per risk. Determining that rate is a complicated process, and it's important to perform continuous research to make sure that you're making accurate and informed calculations. There's also the concern of compromising bandwidth or availability to increase network security. This risk is more perceived than real, but it's true that a solid design with a capable firewall and intrusion detection systems can be expensive.
I'll tell you what to look for in outside hosting environments, but regardless of who controls the system, you must be prepared on the three main levels—physical, network, and administrative. (For a comparison of three leading vendors offering services you might need, see "
