Cut Security Stress

One of the biggest problems facing small businesses is the hassle of dealing with security threats.

This is because they are subject to the same problems as bigger companies – viruses, junk email, hardware failures, etc – but they don’t have the same resources to deal with them. Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 can help. 

Back me up  
A surprising number of businesses believe that bad things only happen to other people. A ‘bCentral’ poll revealed that a staggering 27% of respondents either don’t know what a backup is or just never do it. This suicidal optimism can turn a drama into a crisis. Imagine what would happen if you lost, say, your stock records, payroll information and customer data to fire or theft? Even businesses with insurance sometimes go bust after a major loss because they don’t have a reliable backup of their critical information. 

Keeping all your data on a central server is the first step. This means that it is all in one place ready to be backed up.

SBS 2003 includes backup software that will make copies of your files onto tapes or backup disks. An easy-to-use wizard takes you through setting-up a backup: what to save, how often to run it and so on. By default, it backs up everything that is needed to completely restore the server. Since, by default, all your employees ‘My Documents’ folders are also stored on the server, these are also included in the backup, even if their machine breaks or gets lost. 

Instant recall 
SBS 2003 has a feature called ‘Volume Shadow Copy’. Files stored on the server are automatically backed up twice a day so that you can revert to a previously saved version easily. This means if you accidentally delete or change an important file, you can instantly restore a previous version. This is almost like the ‘Undo’ feature in Microsoft Word, applied to every file.

Not only that but the Standard Edition of SBS 2003 includes an effective firewall to protect all your users against virus infections and hackers while the Premium Edition includes Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004. This combines the functions of an enhanced firewall with tools to filter and manage users’ access to the Internet and to cache frequently-used websites to increase performance.

Internet protection
Sophos, a company that makes anti-virus software, reckons that there is a 90% chance that any unprotected computer that is connected to the Internet will be infected with a virus within an hour.

A firewall stops many viruses from even reaching your computer. When you use SBS 2003 to connect to the Internet, you can use its industrial-strength firewall or with the Premium Edition, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 (available as an upgrade to ISA 2000 as part of SBS 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)), which adds additional security features such as managing the different websites people can visit. Of course, you will also need anti-virus software, which is not included but is essential.

File access control
You wouldn’t leave confidential pay or personnel records, cash flow forecasts or business plans lying around on your desk for anyone to read. However, storing digital versions of those files on your computer or sharing them over an ad-hoc, peer-to-peer network offers little control over who might have access to them.

SBS 2003 uses the same industrialstrength Microsoft Windows Server ™ software that multi-national companies and governments use. This means that it can securely and safely control access to sensitive files. However, it adds an easy-to-use administration program which helps small businesses add and delete users from the system and change their access privileges. 

Update management
Microsoft and other software companies regularly release software updates for their programs and operating systems. These patches make them safer and more efficient, so it is worth staying up-to-date with them. Using ‘Software Update Services’, SBS 2003 downloads patches and deploys them over the network to your office computers. This saves each user having to download and deploy their own patches and ensures that everyone has the latest patches as soon as they are made available. You can ask your local IT supplier to help you plan and manage this process.

Password policies
Passwords are often the weak link in security. Unfortunately, people often choose weak passwords – for example, using their user name or something obvious as a password, and they rarely change them. With SBS 2003 you can set optional password policies that enforce stronger passwords, typically with punctuation marks, capital letters and numbers in them, making sure people change them periodically. This ensures a consistent level of password security.