Yup, you are right, I didn't see the cross-posting coming.
Seriously, though, it is EASY to ignore data security fundamentals
because "we are small", when just a handful of measures can minimize
potential threats.
Say you are a contract designer or mold maker, and you sign a Non-
Disclosure Agreement with a customer/client.
If you do NOT keep those customer's materials in private hands and
somehow they get out to the public, you eliminate the possibility of
your client getting a patent application, if it is development work,
plus the competition could jump on the ideas. So do you keep your
information "off the net".
I know "insiders" are usually responsible for more violations of NDAs
than hackers. However, we are now for the first time getting new
employees into business who have lived with computers from the day
they were born, so to speak. There are a certain number of those
employees inclined to see if they can tweak, 'link up' or 'get
through' access restrictions on the net. You can get a "virtual
education" on the subject on, where else, the Internet.
The discussion warrants thinking about company policy in a wide range
of areas including password requirements (no short passwords or
passwords consisting of dictionary entries for a starter, and no
written down passwords stored at your desk or under the keyboard).
Then comes the issue of how often it is mandated to change your
password and how your employees remember or access a password they
have forgotten, after it was just changed. Biometrics anyone?
We live in a new world where information of high value is placed
within the reach of a single password, or hack job.
My work with others suggests that many networks in small companies
don't have tight security policy, & some have no policies written.
This comment sort of summarizes why I started the thread in the first
place. SolidWorks users are working with data that is now more
valuable than the paper drawings of centuries past, but we are many
times not treating the information as such. A single assembly drawing
and a few part drawings in the past was of little use in most cases.
A flash drive with an assembly and part files can be worth millions.
Which brings up the question, are your USB ports locked down, or can
anyone insert a flash drive and copy off data on an open computer?
Small companies still rely on honesty for most security, by what I
see.
Bo
My point was, if you were careful, you wound not even have your email
system connected.
If you collaborate (share client data and sensitive information in a
email) or communicate via email you are hooked in, you're vulnerable.
So, you have to move the received and send data from one system to the
next, doing adisconnect and reconnect, right?
So, the data is all in your email system, correct?
And, as Dale noted,.. and, sorry but if you are careful, you would
have note that there was a cross post.. i.e.,.. not much different
than if you had a email with a list of cc's.
.. (forget to put on the latex just once... and it's... whoiz ya
daddy!) 8^)
I'll add,.. everyone's email or data is at one time or another on a
server some-where before your have the data moved to your local
system, correct?
And, are the security settings on that server set to fulling delete
the data... or is the data saved until a later time to be deleted,..
is that data backed up....
Or,... can something hijack data while it is being transfered via a
hardline of a wifi.... ah,...yep!
There is no-way you can be 100% secure!
If someone wants to get into that server or hijack you information....
they can, and they will if they really want too!
..
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