Determine your requirements.

• What do you need to protect?
• What business information requires a high level of confidentiality and integrity?
• What information and systems must be reliable and available?

Review the current state of your security program.

• What are you currently doing to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of your important business information and systems?
• Are you assuming your Internet Service Provider  (ISP) is taking care of security?
•  What data are you protecting?
•  Is it employee data, customer data or business and financial data?
• Are your systems password-protected?
• Do you conduct regular and scheduled backups and check the backups
• Do you have restricted access to sensitive data?

Determine what your potential losses could be, including the impact on your good name.

• What level of risk are you willing to accept?

Determine your cost break-even point based on realistic assessment of the security threat to your business.

• What would be the cost to your business if suppliers knew what you paid the competition?
• What would happen if your competitor found out your proposed new product line or acquisition plans?

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