K&S Group turns to managed security

However, he emphasised that one of the main security issues for the company remains viruses coming in on the back of emails.

K&S still uses Trend Micro anti-virus products on its servers to keep an eye on suspicious signatures, something that Wharton says remains a key component of the company’s overall IT security strategy.

"There’s so much storage that can be pushed into a PC these days that we still have to be very careful about what our own staff or contractors might bring in with them," Wharton says.

He adds that for his company, indeed most companies today, the internet is a fundamental part of day-to-day business and with the shift towards more serious electronic crime, proper security has never been as important as it is now. "We’re not just talking about 'kiddie hackers' anymore; this is serious criminal business."

Wharton says that developing the company’s IT security framework brought home to him how unaware the company was of its dependence on the internet. "The business just didn’t understand."

One of the reasons for this is perhaps because for so many years, even until quite recently,much of the transport, logistics and distribution business was conducted manually. However, in the past five years, this has changed quite dramatically, in part due to greater reliance on mobile communications such as wireless PDAs and the like. "Naturally, automation saves a lot of time and money but if we lose the net it’s very difficult to develop a manual process," Wharton says. "Now if the Net stops, so does our business along with everyone else’s."

Wharton says he made a special effort to educate K&S executives as to what the company was dealing with from a security perspective and believes that he has eventually succeeded in winning their trust.

"I did have the support from my management; while they didn’t fully understand they trusted me that we had an issue and that we were exposed. I made them understand that it was a lot more than people surfing on the web." However, while one of its less critical functions, Network Box does allow companies to monitor and control internal access to inappropriate websites.


Perfect match

Following past experiences with other employers,Wharton knew that the key factor in choosing the right security supplier was the relative size of client and the supplier.

Network Box's Tune: Growing threats fuelling managed services

"I’d worked in a number of places and found that when you have a vendor supplying to you, it’s important that you are the right size for that vendor. I chose Network Box because I thought they were about the right size and they’re based in Melbourne so I was able to go and meet with them."

More generally, he emphasises the importance of a strong relationship between a customer and the vendor, especially when it comes to IT security.

"I was comfortable with Network Box and that was very important for us in dealing with something so critical to the business."

Reflecting a growing trend within the security market, K&S believes that its experiences of using Network Box have played a key role in the product’s development.

"My network administration team is really pushing the boundary on both the Network Box device and the company," Wharton says. "You could say that we’ve got a love-hate relationship with our supplier -- we push the product fairly hard, which we think is helping to develop it further."?