Executives – what vendor wants to connect?

by | May/19/2010

More and more executives tell me, “We are moving to a new vendor to provide a service to us and they want to connect to our internal network.” Do you realize the dangers?

Some IT professionals tell me that their “boss” came down and said, “Give company such and such access into our network to access our data files so they can provide such and such service.” If the IT professional was brave enough to object to the “order,” they often got shot down.

If your IT professional knows anything about security, they get some pretty sweaty palms when opening up access to other companies. Their nights of restful sleep are probably over at that point too. And so should the executives be terrified!

Please do NOT open up your network for access by third party companies. I run into this at four or five companies a month and it has to stop!  Do you realize that:

  • If the other company catches a virus, you probably will too?
  • If an employee at the other company wants to steal your data, destroy your information, and even store illegal information at your office, they can?
  • If you have a security problem, the other company may come after you for damages you cause on their network?

Indeed, it is feasible to outsource some of your services and functions into the “cloud.” More and more organizations are doing this.

The important part is to connect to the other entity in a responsible way! Allowing them unfettered access into your network is often a reckless choice.