Security and Buisiness

Hello to everyone :D

A little information on my situation:

I live in Greece and i am a security administrator in a small company that sells security systems as in home, shops, banks (alarms and cameras etc...). In this company we are trying to open a data security department for computer security such as antivirus, backups, maintanance, vpn, firewalling, encryption, physical security, server security and dedicated hosting. For you this might seem normal (depending on your location), but here in Greece there is no such thing as computer (data) security. Our main problem is to convince the people that there is a threat for companies, or any computer holding sensitive data. We are trying to market this idea....but with the mentality and the way things run around here its almost impossible to sell this product/idea.

I studied and learned my work in Germany, so i am aware of the dangers that can arise from badly unsafe misconfigured systems. At the moment more and more companies are depentent on computing, and online buisinesses. My question is......

How can we make people aware and/or believe that there is a threat, a need for data security. The people here want it, but are not ready to pay a cent for it (unless they would understand or take the threat for real). How can we sell a product that is essential nowadays but the actuall customers do not believe it.

So far we have tried to offer security auditions for thier systems, showing them how vurlnable they are (diff scans and retrieval of sensitive information). They were all astonished by the results that we brought to them, but it still was not enough to actually sell our product/ideas.

I would be very greatfull for any help, advice, and/or support on this subject.

If this thread is in the wrong place, then accept my apologies and let me know.

For more information on our buisiness you are welcome to visit www.alarms.gr (there is no data section on the website yet, since we have not discovered a market for this field yet)


Regards and thanks to all
:cool: instronics :cool:

I see is difficult then. I don't know the mass of people your enterprise is reaching and the amount of money your enterprise is used to spend, but if you have the real idea of expanding your enterprise to this area of data security, then you could try doing a big speech about data security (like a congress) inviting as many people and huge enterprise to go, then they would learn the many, many risks they're having for not "protecting" their data. Then, well if you don't mean to expand too much, then you only could try by doing small brochures to give to each and all the enterprises or people you want to sell your product, telling them and showing them with pictures again the risks they're fronting. TV, radio and press is another good idea to show this... but i think you already thought this.

Good luck!!!

Thanks for you reply.....

Indeed we have held speeches, and even done security audits at some companies. We already have a large existing custumer list for all our other products (cameras, alarm systems, fire protection systems etc.... Non of them "understand" that data security is an important issure (seems like they have to get a really bad surprise to make them wake up).

We have also done alot of local advertisement in our city (we have all the support from every computer shop in the city, since none of them offer security, so they redirect customers to us if security is needed), but alas no luck yet.

TV advertisement or radio does not have much power of the greek mentality.

You might think my words sound like im about to give up but......
its really something else down here. They think they can go into a shop, buy a mcaffee firewall, and that they are safe (what a joke).
An example:

There is a large newspaper in our city and they have a real virus problem. Their antivirus software is dated back to MS-DOS times. The correct procedure would be to backup all their work, to reinstall a clean system, to make sure their backups are clean, to make sure that their antivirus is uptodate, to train the users not to open mail attachments that they have no idea who or what its comming from, not to download anything they dont know what it is etc....

All this is what we are willing to offer (only for the antivirus section), but noone is willing to PAY. They think that if they buy once every 3 years an antivirus package that its enough, and when they are infected.....they wine.

Grrrrr@the situation. :(

Instronics

Wow!!!, here's a big problem then and i think you're right when you say "seems like they have to get a really bad surprise to make them wake up", but this is a way we're not allowed to discuss here. There are times when massive virus "attack" and maybe this is your salvation, hehe!!! (i'm joking). No, really, then my friend, i don't know what to say, maybe another AO member with more experience or imagination than me could help you. Sorry, just tried to help, and good luck again!!!

Oh well, thanks alot for your time anyways...... Its a hard battle....but an important one.

I will keep trying my best.