In today's fast paced world of the Internet, things happen at "warp" speed.  It's important to be connected and equally important to be protected.  Computer viruses that spread worldwide are not uncommon.  The most recent and infamous are "Conficker," "Hacktool.Stonedbootkit," and "Trojan.Interrupdate."  They serve as reminders that virus detection software is a critically important component of any networked personal computer.

Does technology protection stop there?  In far too many cases it does.  It is the classic case of "hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil" (see side bar).  It doesn't have to be that way, however.  A solid firewall between your company and the Internet is not that difficult.  There are many good commercial hardware or software based firewall products.  The open source community also provides an excellent product in the Linux operating system called iptables.   If your Internet connected network doesn't look like the graphic above, call or email PRONETSERV for a free security consultation.

Of course, a totally closed firewall may not always be for everyone.  Telecommuting is prevalent today with the promise of increasing numbers of employees working from home or motel rooms while away on business.  Does this mean you have to knock a hole in your firewall and leave it exposed to a cracker?

No!  Instead, build a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel that will carry your encrypted data unseen by the Internet.  PRONETSERV can do it for you using point to point tunneling protocol (PPTP) or the newer Internet Packet security (IPsec) protocol.