Network security at small businesses does not have to be expensive. Taking simple cost effective steps such as adding a hardware firewall, most cost less than $800, can go a long way in preventing headaches down the road. In fact, there are many free solutions such as security updates for servers and desktops, user education, and malware scanning that will help to protect your network from intrusion.

Unfortunately, Sony has learned the hard way the cost of skimping on security. Security expert and professor of computer science at Purdue University, Gene Spafford, testified to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade that Sony was not running a firewall and had not applied security updates to their servers when they were compromised on April 27 and again on May 1st. Hackers were able to access Sony’s Playstation and Qriocity Network and steal names, addresses, phone numbers, user names, birth dates, email addresses, passwords and most likely credit card information.