I have a very important question to ask you, and you have a lot riding on the answer…

If your answer to that is, "I don’t know," or "I’m not sure," you are taking a HUGE risk with your company’s most important asset – the data on your network.

Just imagine what would happen to your business if you lost your entire client database…

Can you even put a price tag on it? Probably not – yet so many business owners aren’t 100% certain that <insert wording about what you’re protecting them from> and are purely hoping that their network is secure and protected from inadvertent or intentional theft or damage.

That’s why I’m writing you today. My name is Tim Shea, CEO of Alpha NetSolutions, Inc. If you want to sleep easy at night knowing that your company wouldn’t skip a beat in the face of a major disaster, hacker attack, virus or other data-erasing disaster I have some very important information you need to know…

The vast majority of data breach stories that appear almost daily in the news headlines are easily preventable. A compromised file server, stolen laptop, or lost USB thumb drive would not lead to a breach of sensitive data if the data was encrypted.

Most organizations fall under some requirement to protect data such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit card or bank accounts, medical history and other sensitive information from unauthorized access. Compliance mandates like HIPAA, SOX, or PCI-DSS all place a burden on the business entrusted with data to secure and protect that data or risk fines and penalties up to, and including, jail time.

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that burden is applied even more broadly. HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and other compliance frameworks apply to specific industries, but a new law that went into effect in January of this year requires that any company conducting business with residents of the State of Massachusetts deploy encryption and protection against data leakage. The law requires that sensitive data be encrypted when transmitted over the Internet, as well as when stored on portable storage devices such as laptops, smartphones, and USB flash drives. Many organizations ignore such mandates, or are very slow and reluctant to invest in the security controls necessary to comply. The headlines are littered with companies that gambled with sensitive data and lost, though.

A 2009 study by the Ponemon Institute found that average cost of a data breach in the United States is $202 per compromised record, and that figure does not take into account intangibles such as the damage to the company's reputation which may be irrevocable.

Some breaches are small, but many involve tens of thousands of compromised accounts. A data breach affecting 30,000 records has a price tag of more than $6 million based on the Ponemon Institute study. The bottom line is that proactively complying with requirements, safeguarding data against compromise, and simply doing what's right is far less expensive than dealing with the consequences of losing the gamble.

Alpha NetSolutions has teamed up with Zecurion to help customers protect data and guard against internal security threats efficiently and cost-effectively. Zecurion is an award-winning, global enterprise security company that fights insider threats at multiple levels with its products: Zgate™, Zlock™ and Zserver® Suite. Its software secures and protects confidential data at the server level with patented "adaptive multithreaded encryption" technology, and provides companies with unparalleled control over peripheral devices, as well as information sent via email or social networks.

Fortunately, there is a way to eliminate the risk and hassle of your data security, which brings me to the point of this letter…

As a prospective new client, I’d like to extend a "get to know us" offer of a FREE Data Security Audit – a $397 value.

I don’t normally give away free services at AlphaNet because if I did, I’d go out of business. But since your company meets our strict selection criteria, I thought this would be a great way to introduce our services to a few new clients.

• Audit your current data backup procedures, including tape rotation and maintenance schedule to see if ALL of your data really is being backed up in a secure, and in a format that can easily be restored.
• Review your network systems’ compliance with the new Massachusetts 201 CMR 17 Privacy Regulations.
• Review your Patch Management, Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, and Anti-Spam systems.
• Perform a penetration test at your site from the Internet.
• Review your access controls, password policies, and user provisioning/deprovisioning procedures.
• Assess the risk that removable storage represents to your business.
• Assess the risk that your employees represent to your data.

If it’s appropriate, we’ll provide you with an action plan for further securing your data with one of our security solutions. I don’t expect everyone to become a client, but I do expect a small percentage to hire us to protect their most valuable asset, corporate data, and possibly even become loyal clients like G. Lopes Construction, Central Coating, Netstal Machinery, or LR McCoy.

Maybe you don’t think you’ll ever lose your data. Maybe you think your data is perfectly safe because your backing up to tape every night or because your current IT guy said it was. Many of our current clients felt the same way until THEIR NETWORK WAS COMPROMISED.

Then they found out (much to their dismay) that their data WASN’T backed up or that it will take DAYS to get back up and running again. In many cases, they had to spend $X to $Y to conduct an emergency restore. That’s why it’s important to have us conduct this audit – if nothing else it will act as a good "sanity check" to make sure you are protected from a sudden data-erasing catastrophe.

There are a lot of companies offering offsite security services, so what makes us so special? Why choose us over the dozens of other companies offering what appear to be the same services? I’m glad you asked because there are 5 BIG reasons to trust us with your data security:

We also want to be very clear that there are no expectations on our part for you to do or buy anything when you take us up on our offer. As a matter of fact, I will give you my personal guarantee that you won’t have to deal with a pushy, arrogant salesperson because I don’t appreciate heavy sales pressure any more than you do.

However, I cannot extend this offer forever because time and staff limitations simply won’t allow it. You need to be one of the first 6 to respond this month to get your free Data Security Analysis.

If you are the 7th or later, I regretfully will have to either withdraw this offer or charge you the list price of $397 (which is STILL an incredible bargain).