Network Security Risks
Network security has become one of the largest concerns of our day. Organizations want integrated network security to reduce IT administration tasks and costs associated with personnel. In an age where hackers can invade networks and have access to vital company data, where email spam overruns corporate resources, where employees expose organizations to legal liability through inappropriate web access, and where virus attacks can bring an entire company down, it is vital that networks be protected with an enterprise level security system. According to International Data Corporation: “Organizations demand a consolidated system for managing network systems along with aggregated reporting, analysis and control functions.” IDC also estimated that: “More destructive and harder to detect threats, legal liability, employee productivity, and compliance with privacy regulations will continue to fuel the demand for management of these issues.” It is vital that organizations control what is happening on their networks. Centipede Networks can provide tools to maintain control.
The total number of Internet enabled employees worldwide in the year 2003 was 272 million. IDC states: “Approximately 977 million employees globally use the Internet today, while 50 percent of the total will use the Internet from a business location.” According to a 2001 study by the Online Publishers Association: “The total at work Internet audience in the United States reached 52.8 million, and approximately 40 percent of the total performed non-business related activities at work.” Harris Interactive states: “The average employee spends more than 8.3 hours per week on non-business related work.” That equates to $63 billion in lost productivity to U.S. corporations. The price of controlling productivity is small in comparison to the billions of dollars being lost each year by this lost productivity. Organizations are striving to increase the bottom line, and productivity controls help tremendously with this problem.
Legal liability in the workplace is a concern that is ever increasing. It is estimated that on average a company is exposed to a cost of $500,000 per lawsuit in legal and settlement fees from hostile workplace issues. MSNBC states that: “One in five men and one in eight women admitted using their work computers as their primary means to access sexually explicit material online.” These types of Internet access habits place companies in a legally liable position. Many companies provide very good separate products for securing networks from viruses, spam, website access and network intrusions. The problem IT professionals face is how to integrate and manage all of these systems. Centipede Network's products provide a fully integrated and easily manageable solution. Network administrators need to be proactive in their job. Too many times a network administrator is trying to react to problems instead of managing problems. Problems will not go away. The choices made to manage problems will not only make a network administrator’s job productive, it will also increase the company’s bottom line.
Controlling and managing network security properly can be the difference between a company working at full potential and a company having extreme difficulty with day-to-day operations. When a network is operating at full potential, a company can reach goals and achieve its purpose. This is the goal of network administrators worldwide. Integration of network security not only gives a centralized way of managing systems, but also gives robust solutions to network administrators, helping them accomplish goals and achieve the company vision.
