[This is part 9 of a 10 part series titled: “So You’re An IT Noob“]
Security, at least in my experience, is still one of the most overlooked aspects of IT infrastructure. Normally, the people I have come across usually think,
“Why would anybody hack our organization?”
The thought process being that if they’re a Church or a business that largely performs services, then they’re not a risk.
Getting hacked is only part of the problem. Malware including viruses, spyware, adware and other issues are also a big problem. If you worked in IT from 2002-2006, I am sure you had to fight off some nasty viruses that would literally shut down a company for days while the IT guys sought to clean it off the system.
While such viruses are not as common these days, malware has certainly become more sophisticated. It is not unusual to find somebody with a computer that is its own bot-net, sending out Viagra spam to the masses and the person in question has no clue. That is until their ISP blocks their outbound content.
Question: Should your church start up have a firewall?