Network Security- A Guide for Small and Mid-sized Businesses

The objective of this paper is to educate both IT staff and senior management for small-medium sized businesses (SMB's) as to the network security threats that exist. The paper presents a digest of industry best practices for network security, which will hopefully assist SMB's in setting priorities for securing the perimeter of a typical SMB network. The security industry does a good job of publicizing security threats on a continual basis. However, much of what we read in the press contains little if any context associated with each new security threat that can assist senior management or IT staff of the SMB's in determining which threats to address, and in what priority order. This paper will seek to bridge this gap, by providing guidance to companies who, faced with the seemingly impossible and endless task of securing their network, need help deciding where to start, and where to focus- what to do first, second, third, and so on, among the myriad of information security threats that are out there, and possible solutions.