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| Social Media Release: Securing Networks for Self-Employed Professionals | |
| Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:47:00 AM | |
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SEATTLE - February 10, 2009 -- WatchGuard Technologies Highlights / News Facts: * Numbers of Unemployed and Part-time Workers Continues to Rise – As of January, 2009 the unemployment rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent. In December, 2008 8 million persons were employed part time for economic reasons, up by 3.4 million over the last 12 months. * Growth Seen in Small Business Start-ups – Despite a gross loss in employment, the BLS reported in November that opening and expanding private sector business establishments gained 7.1 million jobs in the first quarter of 2008. * Self-Employment a Natural Choice – Historically, down economies have been market catalysts for self-employed professionals, such as consultants, independent sales representatives, network marketing (MLM) associates, entrepreneurs, webpreneurs and home-based business professionals. Approximately 14 percent of those self-employed are also part-time workers (secondary job holders). * Cyber-Crime and Data Security Threats Accelerating – According to WatchGuard Technologies' security analysts, organized cyber crime will dramatically increase in 2009, and correspondingly, network attacks designed to get confidential data will become more sophisticated and stealthy. Adding to this, a recently published report states that 61 percent of organizations with 1,000-5,000 employees suffered a data breach, and intimates that the percentage of data breaches among smaller businesses may be even higher due to having fewer security technologies in place. * Costs of Data Breaches Increasing – A recent industry study by Ponemon Institute reports costs of breached data increasing; the average cost per record stolen is $202. They cite the biggest cost to companies that suffer data breaches is lost business. * Providing Enterprise Security for Self Employed Professionals – Recognizing the need to bring enterprise level security to small businesses, WatchGuard offers self-employed professionals with an affordable Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution that provides high-performance wired or wireless networking coupled with state of the art, no compromise network security. The WatchGuard Firebox Edge family of security appliances provides award-winning firewall, gateway anti-virus, intrusion prevention against hackers, spam-blocking, and malware prevention. * PCI DSS Compliance – Professionals who process credit cards must meet PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) criteria. Optimized for this standard, the WatchGuard Firebox Edge appliance helps these professionals meet stringent PCI DSS security requirements. To Purchase WatchGuard Products Visit http://www.guardsite.com |