Tag Archives: security
Considerations for Your Website as Your Business Grows (Page 1 of 2)
It is the dream of most business owners and entrepreneurs that their business will grow over time and become a success. In the growth process, your business and web hosting needs may change. These changes can be a challenge to manage. Often expanding operations or venturing into new avenues of business is a matter of taking advantage of opportunities. Sometimes you can plan carefully and structure the timing; however, more often business find themselves thrown headlong into a situation where they suddenly have a rush of business and have to figure out a way of handling it. Planning the structure of your website and hosting package can help you cope with the changes as they happen.
Start with the Basics
As a start-up business, one of your priorities is keeping efficiency up and costs low. Your best option is to select a shared hosting package with a reputable service provider. Do an online search for different hosting providers. Read the customer reviews and find out what type of products they have to offer. It is not recommended that you select a free hosting package. Often these have limited customer service and support and they don’t allow you upgrade when needed. A good hosting provider should have entry-level packages as well as more advanced packages that you can migrate to when needed.
Key Things to Look for in a Hosting Package
One of the most important aspects of a hosting package is the customer support that is offered. A quick phone call to the support desk will quickly show how knowledgeable the support staff are. They should be able to provide you with technical information and advice regarding your web hosting package. You should then consider upgrade options. How easy is it for you to migrate from a basic starter package to a more advanced hosting option? Are there penalties involved? Are there different hosting requirements that you will need to incorporate into the design of your website? Do you have to use specific scripts? The last consideration is website security. Even on a basic hosting package, you will want to know that a level of security is maintained on the server.
When Do You Consider Upgrading?
One of the factors that determines what type of hosting package you choose is the amount of data or bandwidth that you require. Starting out, your website will probably be quite small. Unless you are going straight into e-commerce, it will probably be just a corporate or marketing-type website that profiles your company. As your business grows, you may want to add features such as a blog, forum, chat facility or various article posts. These features usually add quite significantly to the data requirements of your website. You may then need to upgrade to a larger package that can accommodate these features. If you decide to launch a full scale e-commerce site, you will probably have specific hosting requirements. Many web hosting providers have detailed e-commerce hosting packages available for businesses. If your business gets to the size where you want to have a dedicated server then you want to be with a hosting provider that can facilitate the transition without there being too much disruption to the uptime of your website. You may consider a dedicated server when you have specific hosting requirements. When you want greater control over your website and server or want to use specific scripts, a dedicated server is a good choice. You may also decide that you want improved security for your website that you can only get from a dedicated server. You can then upgrade your hosting package as needed.
Considerations for Your Website as Your Business Grows (Page 1 of 2)
It is the dream of most business owners and entrepreneurs that their business will grow over time and become a success. In the growth process, your business and web hosting needs may change. These changes can be a challenge to manage. Often expanding operations or venturing into new avenues of business is a matter of taking advantage of opportunities. Sometimes you can plan carefully and structure the timing; however, more often business find themselves thrown headlong into a situation where they suddenly have a rush of business and have to figure out a way of handling it. Planning the structure of your website and hosting package can help you cope with the changes as they happen.
Start with the Basics
As a start-up business, one of your priorities is keeping efficiency up and costs low. Your best option is to select a shared hosting package with a reputable service provider. Do an online search for different hosting providers. Read the customer reviews and find out what type of products they have to offer. It is not recommended that you select a free hosting package. Often these have limited customer service and support and they don’t allow you upgrade when needed. A good hosting provider should have entry-level packages as well as more advanced packages that you can migrate to when needed.
Key Things to Look for in a Hosting Package
One of the most important aspects of a hosting package is the customer support that is offered. A quick phone call to the support desk will quickly show how knowledgeable the support staff are. They should be able to provide you with technical information and advice regarding your web hosting package. You should then consider upgrade options. How easy is it for you to migrate from a basic starter package to a more advanced hosting option? Are there penalties involved? Are there different hosting requirements that you will need to incorporate into the design of your website? Do you have to use specific scripts? The last consideration is website security. Even on a basic hosting package, you will want to know that a level of security is maintained on the server.
When Do You Consider Upgrading?
One of the factors that determines what type of hosting package you choose is the amount of data or bandwidth that you require. Starting out, your website will probably be quite small. Unless you are going straight into e-commerce, it will probably be just a corporate or marketing-type website that profiles your company. As your business grows, you may want to add features such as a blog, forum, chat facility or various article posts. These features usually add quite significantly to the data requirements of your website. You may then need to upgrade to a larger package that can accommodate these features. If you decide to launch a full scale e-commerce site, you will probably have specific hosting requirements. Many web hosting providers have detailed e-commerce hosting packages available for businesses. If your business gets to the size where you want to have a dedicated server then you want to be with a hosting provider that can facilitate the transition without there being too much disruption to the uptime of your website. You may consider a dedicated server when you have specific hosting requirements. When you want greater control over your website and server or want to use specific scripts, a dedicated server is a good choice. You may also decide that you want improved security for your website that you can only get from a dedicated server. You can then upgrade your hosting package as needed.
Implementing Threats, Risk and Security Audits
People used to close business deals with a handshake.
They looked one another in the eye. Today, more and more transactions are electronic, anonymous and, in too many cases, fraudulent. Any organization that stores or moves important information on an electronic network is putting its information at risk. A criminal on the other side of the world or an apparently loyal employee may have the ability to wreak havoc, by stealing, deleting or exposing confidential information.
The Computer Crime and Security Survey, conducted by the Computer Security Institute and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, indicates almost two-thirds of the large corporations and government agencies it surveyed lost money when their computer security broke down.
The survey noted that 9 out of 10 respondents had computer security breaches during the previous 12 months. Proprietary information worth $170.8 million was stolen from 41 respondents. Fraud cost 40 respondents $115.8 million.
When only 45 per cent of executives in North America said they conduct security audits on their e-commerce systems, (around the world, fewer than 35 per cent had conducted security audits) it becomes obvious that organizations must improve their defenses quickly.
The first step in protecting information assets is a Threat and Risk Assessment (TRA). Without the information it provides, organizations are in danger of fixing only what is broken and ignoring potential hazards. While the specifics of a TRA will be unique at each organization, a common methodology provides a starting point.
The first step is risk assessment, to identify the most important assets and information: threats and vulnerabilities are identified; solutions are proposed and refined; corporate policies are tightened up; roles and responsibilities are assigned; standards and training are developed.
The next step is the creation of a security plan, with its own procedures, budget and implementation timetable. Once those steps are complete, any new architecture can be rolled out and new procedures put in place. At this point, the new system should be tested from the outside for any remaining weak points.
Finally, to maintain system security, security should be audited on a regular basis to keep pace with both internal changes and evolving external threats. The TRA provides the map, but organizations must make the journey. Consulting companies have identified factors that contribute to the success or failure of an IT security project. Senior managers have to support the project and demonstrate their involvement. Otherwise, their staffs will place a higher priority on other activities.
Business and technical experts should both be involved because solutions that overburden the enterprise are not acceptable. Individual business units should be responsible for their own TRA to prevent foot-dragging during implementation and finger-pointing later. Interestingly, one consultant recommended conducting assessments on a department-by-department basis, rather than all at once. The reasoning is that valuable resources can be narrowly focused, and lessons learned can be carried over to subsequent assessments.
The Threat and Risk Assessment is an important tool. Recent reports show not enough organizations are using it.