“The most basic thing you can do in security is a firewall,” the Yankee Group’s Eric Ogren told the E-Commerce Times, “because you’re instantly getting both protection for your network and for your servers.” Recent weeks have brought more grim news about tech spending. A study released March 4th by Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) , which surveyed 75 U.S. and 25 European CIOs, showed that people who run networks in corporate America are loath to expend capital unless they absolutely must. Merrill found that 62 percent of technology officers feel no pressure to increase spending this year, and a good 40 percent of their budgets will go toward preventing existing machinery from breaking. In such an environment, security spending is likely to be squeezed even tighter. After all, systems security tends to go unfixed until proven broken — in the form of sensational reports about billions of dollars in damages wreaked by malware or hackers. No company wants to see its name in lights in connection with a break-in. But neither do companies have countless billions to spend on security measures. Fortunately, a level-headed middle-ground approach can set a company on the right path without breaking the bank. Playing with Firewalls. There are at least two ways to be parsimonious about security spending. One is to figure out how to spend as little as possible while still gaining some added protection. The other, slightly more costly, way is to consider going beyond the bare minimum to examine which technologies will deliver fairly rapid return on investment. The promise of ROI can be the justification needed to pry loose larger sums of money from top company management. Full Story
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