Youttp online... Is your data saf€?

Four steps to shield the back office.

tr\AST access to information is the l' Internet's beautv. vet understanding how to keep Oaia ittat's streaming across the Web and within an organization's walls safe is an important issue many within the building products industry find confusing-and too easy to ignore. They shouldn't.

New abilities in Internet connectivity permits traveling employees to tap into their day-to-day business software from virtually anywhere with a PC. Cyber cafes, motel rooms and branch locations are common dial-up ports today for data retrieval. How protected is the data they're accessing?

"Building product distributors should ask themselves if they've taken at least fundamental steps to keep important information within their network confidential and unexposed," says Dan Vogt, DMSi vice president of customer services. "The first step is to admit Internet security poses a potential problem. The second step is to identify a level of security protection appropriate for your business."

For a few innovative building product dislributors who've already moved to an Application Service Provider (ASP) model, or for those who maintain a traditional in-house system, computer security can be fairly simple. The ASP model, which outsources software and hardware, does offer inherent advantages.

In an ASP environment, your computer screen is essentially a window into an off-site, tightly guarded bunker where your IT network and data reside. Your PC becomes a remote tool that can safely select back-office software controls behind a secure zone. In this way, back-office data remains shielded, moving less frequently across phone lines.

It's this "secure zone" that's the bread and butter of the ASP model, meaning IT and software maintenance can be performed more efficiently than rnahy small businesses can do alone. Data centers provide the physi cal security that keeps hardware servers running around the clock. This includes temperature controls, fire retardants, backup power, surveillancg arrd security breach alarms. But al*S;,,::,thglrA$P,.model offers data corruption ind:,: dinial:of-service protection to keep access in the right hands.

Build a Moat Around Your Castle

To build similar protection into traditional IT systems held in-house, building product distributors should consider "firewalling" to safeguard data within their Local Area Network. A firewall filters data coming from and going to the Internet and protects from hostile intrusion like a moat around a castle. To enter your castle, there should be a drawbridge, or password. Firewall packages come as hardware or eomputer-installed sofr ware st4gting at about $200.

But whbther your business follows tho ASPI.method, or keeps computing systems in-bouse, the policies that gqids,)roii security sysiem are equally important,-

Implement the 80120 Rule

"A small, family-owned building products distributorship may or may not be the highest risk place for computer hackers to steal information or cause disruption with viruses, etc.," Vogt says, "but it can happen. The majority of problems actually come from inside a company. This explains why you can solve 8O7o of computer security issues with 2O7o effort."

':ll,l

Vogt's 80l20'ruGt'has four steps:

(l) Change paxwords. Whether a distributor:liaS a,,.S1OO or a $100,000 fuewall, drl beqlt',ipotection comes by regularly changi,q*, system passwords. Logon'piswq&$ should not allow you to r*use (hdllsame password for an exieded'p of time. Consider having pasilwqrd$,,lr,9set every 60 days.

(2) Create disftet passwords. To make passwords more difficult to decode, build in logic and try mixing numerals with alphabet,'0haracters.

(3) Log off your PC. Do you lock the door to your home or car? Most people do, but fail to consider the opening that's available to would-be corrupters when an office PC is not shut down. Unless you do this, access to important files across an entire network, e-mail and other documents can be too easy.

(4) Determine administrative ri ghts. Get your business in ordei, , Who has computer network administrative rights within your compy? Do only a few people have poweito control the gateway into your ne!4r.otk? Do they employ appropriate measures to block their access to files:efter employees leave the compaay?:l Firewall settings can be changed to allow certain executives to dial into the office from the road, to limit out-going e-mail, and to restrict Internet access.

The newest technical aspects of ensuring safe, consistent streaming Internet services can vary by worksite. Building product distributors interested in learning more about business interruption insurance and planning should consult a security professional.

Vogt adds, "Internet technology will continue to evolve. and as it does new security issues will arise. But, if you can pay attention to the fundamentals that can deter corruption yet keep your staff informed when they're traveling, you'll be assured of a more secure, effi cient business."

At Britt Lumber, we specialize in redwood fence posts, boards, rails, decking and balustersmade directly from the log in our modern sawmill. We're large enough to meet your cLtstomers' needs, yet small enough to care and provide the personal seruice you need.

Rrrrrrrrs

Port Townsend Lumber, Port Townsend, Wa., has closed after 28 years in business

Okanogan Lumber, Okanogan, Wa., recently opened a Do it Best Rental Center next to its lumberyard; the new store features 150 rental items ...

Home Depot this month opens new stores in Castle Rock. Co.. and Oregon City, Or., and pro stores in Milpitas, Ca.o and Scottsdale, Az.

Home Depot plans an $18 million DC in Lacey, Wa.; received permission from city officials to add its own driveway to its Chula Vista, Ca., store, and was forced to evacuate its Murrieta. Ca.. store for several hours after receiving a bomb threat

Home Depot hopes to build a second store in the Signal Hill section of Long Beach, Ca., on a 24acre oil drilling site; expects to open a store in Laguna Niguel, Ca., this August in the former House2Home building, and received word that the San Juan Capistrano, Ca., planning commission unanimously rejected its environmental study for a planned store there; the study now moves to the city council for review ...

Lowe's Cos. opens a new store the middle of this month in Antioch, Ca. (Sundeep Pooni, mgr.)...

Lowe 's plans to build home centers in Vista. Ca.. and on a formet HomeBase site in Vancouver, Wa.; has asked the city of Bakersfield. Ca.. to rezone a 35acre property for a proposed store there, and is looking at a former Kmart building in West Hills, Ca., as well as a 6-acre site in Pasadena, Ca., owned by the Pasadena United School District that is also being eyed by Home

Depot Parr Lumber, Hillsboro, Or., awarded the 2001 Shareholders Cup Award to its Bend-Wilson, Or., store

Terry Cos., Tarzana, Ca., has been named Capital Lumber Co.'s April vendor of the month for promoti0n of Azek trimboards

Desert Lumber, Las Vegas, Nv., is now distributin g Louisiana Pacific's OSB, engineered wood, industrial wood, and concrete form products ...

Wnorrslrrns/tlr urlcrurrrs

Ace Hardware Corp. is considering a site in Esparto, Ca., to build a 800,000-sq. ft. warehouse and DC ...

TreeSource Industries sold its Pacific Sofrwoods mill, Philomath, Or.. closed since 1998. to Westwood Industries, Eugene, Or., and Weyerhaeuser division Northwe st Hardwoods, Portland, Or. TreeSource sold Pacific Hardwoods, Bend. Wa." to local investors. led by president Jamie Weber; the alder mill has reopened as Willapa Bay Hardwoods, initially producing pallet stock

Disdero Lumber, Portland, Or., opened a new 65,000-sq. ft. office/ warehouse last month on 6 acres in Klackamas, Or.; current Portland facilities will be sold off ...

South Coast Lumber. Brookings, Or.. has begun construction on an office building on 1.3 acres next to its corporate headquarters;

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a Nov. opening is expected

Capital Lumber Co., Phoenix, Az.. has consolidated Sonoma Milling Services, Healdsburg, Ca., into its Healdsburg DC and will sell real estate freed-up from the consolidation ... Capital has renovated its Chino, Ca., yard office and warehouse and is now working on its sales and administrative offices...

Summit Hardwaods. Pomona. Ca., purchased the Pomona site it has been leasing since 1994

Atessco, Inc., Santa Rosa, Ca., has been chain-of-custody certified by Scientific Certification Systems and is now distributing Oregon- Canadian Fore st Products' Brazilian redwood ...

US Timber Co., Eagle,Id., has permanently closed its Craigmount, Id., sawmill that operated as Camas Prairie Lumber

Utah Forest Products, Escalante, Ut., has received a $150,000 grant from the Utah Board of Business & Economic Development to reopen its mill that closed early this year (see Jan., p. 38); Scott. Shane. Sheldon and Shannon Steed have bought the mill frombrother Stephen Steed

Pacific Lumber Co., Scotia, Ca., is disputing Caltrans' ownership claims over property in Mendocino County, Ca., on the site of a memorial for David Cain. who was killed by a felled tree on Palco property in 1998 while protesting the company's logging practices (see Dec., p. 26) ...

McFarland Cascade, Tacoma, Wa., agreed to clean up groundwater pollution at its Eugene, Or., plant, which treats poles and pilings with pentachlorophenol ...

Murray Pacific Corp., Tacoma, Wa., plans to shut down its log export business by year's end

Housing starts in March slid 8Vo to an annual rate of 1.646 million ... single-family starts fell IlVo to 1.303 million; multi-family was at a rate of 292,400 for 5+ units ... permits dropped l0%o to a

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