2 Small to Medium Sized Network Security Solution part 2

Review of other work

In the SMB space many will seek out a vendor for assistance, as I have sometimes done in the past. In most cases, these will send out a sales rep; who will tell you he knows little about the technical aspects of his product, although he will use a couple of buzzwords that will only prove to you he really doesn’t, then will sell you the largest package deal they can get you to buy, whether you need it or not, promise you the world, place it, configure it, take the money and run. You may be able to say you provided a solution, but can you say you did your due diligence? Can you really say for sure that the shiny new product you have just invested your company’s money in is doing the job intended? Not if you have no clue as to how it was configured and not if the persons installing it made no effort to explain in clear English what exactly their product is doing and how.

This is why I rarely read white pages. Some are fairly impressive, and some are even informative, but the majority in my opinion are a sales pitch leading to the solution the company paying the writer want you to buy. These never really get to the true nitty-gritty of the problem. They rarely discuss the nuts and bolts of what is really going on and what is needed to address it properly. They razzle dazzle those who have just enough knowledge to be dangerous and are ready to throw the first warm and fuzzy solution at the identified problem. The plethora of these just make the decision maker all that more confused and desperate. This is no way to handle something as critical as the security of your business network. Would you leave the front door unlocked to your physical place of business? I dare say you would not. Why then would you leave the front door or even the back one, for that manner, to your business or home network unlocked and or even open?

There are many ways that people are addressing these vulnerabilities to protect themselves against the threats that abound. Still, you are only as strong as your weakest link. How can you be sure that all of the vulnerabilities are properly addressed and that your network is safe? You must have multiple layers of security in place… like an onion. Let’s consider the available options.

We will discuss the various available solutions and the pros and cons of each to develop an overall view of what solutions are being implemented to mitigate security risk.