This month's column is in a language you speak fluently: money talk. First, securing your data is worth far more than you think, because every bit and byte of data on your hard drive has a dollar value. You might be thinking, "Wait, Frank, you security mensch, how can it? Data is a magnetic hard drive blip, and I can't grab it. A one or zero on a hard disk has real value? That's crazy talk. Go take your meds." It does have value, and here are three main parts to assessing it.
1. You or someone you paid put that data into the computer. Someone downloaded it or typed it or input it in some way. Whoever did it earns a salary, and time is money (or equals money - choose your favorite paradigm). Time was expended, therefore money was invested.
We both know that a simple salary measurement would be too easy, right? Add in their total compensation: workers' comp payments, health insurance and all the things that make up their true cost-per-hour. Now, consider one of my favorite business measurements, the opportunity cost.
I'm using it a bit out of context here, so let's call up a definition. Opportunity cost is, "The cost of passing up the next best choice when making a decision. For example, if capital is used for one purpose, the opportunity cost is the value of the next best purpose it could have been used for." So, choosing not to take adequate security measures and getting burned badly by a virus leads to high costs to fix things. Put another way, good security gives you the opportunity to avoid a huge expense.
If your staff is resurrecting lost data, they're incurring costs and not handling new business. So, for example, if their total pay is $25 per hour and profit on their work after salary is $20 per hour, you're losing $45 per hour. Add the opportunity to have profited on their time (using $20 again), and it's $65. Then you're going to have to make up for the time lost rebuilding your data, meaning more hours. There's also time spent looking for data, figuring out it's gone and then resurrecting it.
2. There's the data that came from outside your business that you'll have to get back. Let's say you're a real estate agent and the data are listings, notes from the pre-sale conversations, repair estimates, tax info, and other details that swirl around the sale of a house. How much time did it take to get that and put it into your computer? How long to put it back in? What if some data is lost for good? Ouch.
I've seen estimates on what it takes to get your data back if you have to reformat the hard drive and start from scratch. They go from three to as much as (gasp!) 30 times the original cost - and more. Most documents are handled by at least three people, so add everyone. Track an average document sometime and see how long it takes to get done and who handles it - you'll be surprised.
By now, you should see how expensive a virus is, and there are many other costs, too. As you've heard on the Ronco ads since the '60s, "But wait! There's more!"
3. What's a customer worth? How much is your average customer worth per year? What did it take to get them? Losing a customer's data could cost you their business. Worse, what if their data gets into the wrong hands? You might then be looking at a lawsuit that is highly expensive. A virus can be responsible for all that misery and more. Only you know what a customer is worth, but we all know that one lost customer can prevent many more from coming in. How sad if you could have easily and affordably prevented it.
What're your first steps? Go get: A hardware firewall; a software firewall (yes, both); good corporate security software with anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-whatever, and; good backup software and reliable backup equipment. Businesses need strong software like McAfee Total Protection and Symantec Endpoint. (Note: Norton and Symantec products are not the same; Norton is for home and Symantec is for business.) They have advanced features businesses need, like Intrusion Protection. Not sure what to do? Hire someone reliable.
For backup, use something like tape drives or two or three external hard drives. Rotate the media, keeping only one on-site and the others in a bank vault or at home in a heavy-duty, bolted-down, safe-from-the-fires-of-hell vault. There are plenty of guides on how to rotate your backups. Backups help make sure that you don't spend needless hours or days resurrecting your business.
I've given this a light treatment because the real lecture would scare you to death. Hopefully you can see that what you spend on security is an investment, not an expense.
Frank Goad is president and co-owner of Goad & Associates, a communications, learning and behavioral services company. Contact him at frankg@goadand associates.com, or (859)619-5050.