{"id":24133,"date":"2015-08-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/2015\/08\/17\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/"},"modified":"2015-08-17T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:00:00","slug":"are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget\"We know that as an SMB, you have a budget \u2013 and you have to stretch that budget each and every month to ensure you can keep conducting business. Sometimes this means not upgrading something when you would otherwise do so. Sometimes it means foregoing that business trip you wanted to take and sometimes it means eliminating or severely shrinking the budget you have for security purposes. With limited funds and limited resources, it can feel impossible to get everything you need. So where do you start? How do you stretch those funds?<\/p>\n

Educate Your Employees (and Yourself)<\/strong><\/p>\n

We love our employees, but unfortunately, they\u2019re the weakest link when it comes to company security. Most of the time it\u2019s not because they mean to do any harm, but their lack of understanding of basic security can lead to horrendous breaches of information, all while they\u2019re apologizing profusely.<\/p>\n

Because of the potential for problems with uneducated employees and the consequences of their careless (accidental) actions, education can benefit just about any of them and it doesn\u2019t have to be expensive. If you happen to know a lot about security, you can put together a slide show to teach your workers all about what they can and cannot do. It\u2019s even more powerful if you have a good example that\u2019s relevant to the group because of a recent mistake made by an employee at the office, for example.<\/p>\n

Worry About Your Network Perimeter<\/strong><\/p>\n

This point is especially important if you use any sort of cloud network, even if it\u2019s a private cloud network (virtualization). It\u2019s likely that at least some sensitive data resides in your cloud, which makes it even more important to protect passwords and have a firm network perimeter.<\/p>\n

Consider:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Changing your passwords (rotating them) frequently on a strict schedule so no one can say they weren\u2019t told<\/p>\n

Two factor authentication and location tracking \u2013 both are easy to implement and are cheap, if not free<\/p>\n

Some sort of third-party web security proxy service that serves as a cheap, neutral barrier between the Internet and your network<\/p>\n

Protect Your Servers<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have the cash, an extra layer of protection on your servers is never a bad move. Since even educated employees sometimes make mistakes, it\u2019s important to have as many security layers as possible, and your server is the route of most of your data. When you\u2019re on a budget, it\u2019s important to determine how data is accessed, where it is, and what the most sensitive data is. That way, you can protect that first and everything else second.<\/p>\n

In general, make sure that your servers are restricted. If you can afford it, VPN does the job. If you can\u2019t, at least try to make sure that web mail and custom apps can\u2019t access the server when they don\u2019t have to. Secondly, keep all of your server software up-to-date, as this is your first layer of server defense. Remove everything that\u2019s out of date.<\/p>\n

A little in the security budget can go a long way if you spend it on the right things, and you\u2019ll sleep better at night when you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We know that as an SMB, you have a budget \u2013 and you have to stretch that budget each and every month to ensure you can keep conducting business. Sometimes this means not upgrading something when you would otherwise do so. Sometimes it means foregoing that business trip you wanted to take and sometimes it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre You Optimizing Your Security Budget?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We know that as an SMB, you have a budget \u2013 and you have to stretch that budget each and every month to ensure you can keep conducting business. Sometimes this means not upgrading something when you would otherwise do so. Sometimes it means foregoing that business trip you wanted to take and sometimes it […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Valley\u2019s Leading IT Company I Grapevine MSP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cloudways\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cloudways\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cloudways\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bd59bb9722808d3e8b3339137e9e3828\"},\"headline\":\"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\",\"name\":\"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":225,\"caption\":\"are you optimizing your security budget\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Valley\u2019s Leading IT Company I Grapevine MSP\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Grapevine MSP\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/logo2850605_lg.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/logo2850605_lg.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":159,\"caption\":\"Grapevine MSP\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bd59bb9722808d3e8b3339137e9e3828\",\"name\":\"Cloudways\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c73104e6f4801624afa01bbc4c96758?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c73104e6f4801624afa01bbc4c96758?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cloudways\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?","og_description":"We know that as an SMB, you have a budget \u2013 and you have to stretch that budget each and every month to ensure you can keep conducting business. Sometimes this means not upgrading something when you would otherwise do so. Sometimes it means foregoing that business trip you wanted to take and sometimes it […]","og_url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/","og_site_name":"The Valley\u2019s Leading IT Company I Grapevine MSP","article_published_time":"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":225,"url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cloudways","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cloudways","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/"},"author":{"name":"Cloudways","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bd59bb9722808d3e8b3339137e9e3828"},"headline":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?","datePublished":"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/"},"wordCount":544,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/","url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/","name":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-17T15:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/are_you_optimizing_your_security_budget.jpg","width":300,"height":225,"caption":"are you optimizing your security budget"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/are-you-optimizing-your-security-budget\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are You Optimizing Your Security Budget?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/","name":"The Valley\u2019s Leading IT Company I Grapevine MSP","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#organization","name":"Grapevine MSP","url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/logo2850605_lg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/logo2850605_lg.jpg","width":600,"height":159,"caption":"Grapevine MSP"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bd59bb9722808d3e8b3339137e9e3828","name":"Cloudways","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c73104e6f4801624afa01bbc4c96758?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c73104e6f4801624afa01bbc4c96758?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cloudways"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinemsp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}