Digital Common Sense

April 25, Dayton Business Journal — Identity theft costs small business. Small businesses aren’t immune from the data security breaches that have recently stung LexisNexis Corp. and DSW Corp., experts say. They said small business owners are faced with myriad issues involving data security. Companies of every size must guard their databases against intruders and in case of a breach, notify customers and salvage their businesses reputation. Despite the high−profile cases at large corporations, small business networks are particularly vulnerable to attack, said Vincent Weafer, senior director of security response for Symantec, an Internet security company. Local offices of large corporations are subject to attacks from hackers who see them as a weak entry point to the entire corporation’s network, Weafer said. Also, small businesses tend to overprotect one computer, for instance one that houses the accounting software, but leave others unprotected. Intruders will use the unprotected computers as a way to get into the better−protected machine, Weafer said. Spammers also are attracted to small business computer networks because they tend to be left on, allowing the spammer to constantly send e−mails, he said.
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Filed by Ken at 1:45 pm under General