Good Manufacturing Practice

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Good Manufacturing Practice


Good Manufacturing Practice
(good manufacturing practices)


Introduction to Good Manufacturing Practices - GMPs



Good Manufacturing Practice, pharmavoicebd24, 



Purpose

An overview of Good Manufacturing Practices, targeted to those participating in research and development, is essential to the process of late-stage development of any critical material that is intended for use in an in vitro diagnostic, a pharmaceutical, a medical device, or any of an entire host of other applications that are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).(gmp guidelines)

While most of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Points to Consider provide guidance for the finished diagnostic kit (or finished pharmaceutical, etc.),
It is necessary to begin detailed record-keeping and other practices in the latter stage of research and development in order to meet the increasingly strict regulations for historical development information and traceability to the source of such critical materials.

This document is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of the requirements, but rather to highlight those practices necessary to ensure that, on an ongoing basis, the level of control and record-keeping that will be needed for licensure of such products begins during the research phase for critical materials.

Key Points

Controls must be in place for process and production. These controls help to prevent any errors that threaten the product's integrity. Error prevention must be built into the procedures which support manufacturing. A section of the GMPs is devoted to these controls and states: specifications and processing procedures must be in writing and must be controlled such that the product (or material) being made conforms to its original design or any approved changes in that design.

Record-keeping
(gmp manufacturing, gmp compliance)

The first and most basic form of control is recording what is done such that it can be read and understood well into the future. Documentation, when properly done, will show exactly what was done, when and by whom, should questions arise.

It cannot be stressed enough that this is the cornerstone to any and all work that is undertaken, whether it is in support of production or laboratory work not governed by the GMPs. Each and every entry on a log, each lab notebook page, or any document used in production should be dated and signed (or initialed), reviewed by a senior person knowledgeable in the subject matter and his/her signature (and date) added. This ensures adequate traceability and accountability for the work undertaken.

If an error is made during record-keeping, you must line through the error (with a single line), date and initial the error, and then record the accurate information. You must not obliterate the error by scratching it out, writing over it, or using correction fluid (white-out).
When using reagents, buffers, materials that will contact the product, and testing kits to assure activity, sterility, physical parameters, and other pertinent information to the critical material, it is essential that the vendor name, catalog number, lot number and expiration date be recorded, along with the experimental design and results of such testing.

This enables third-party review of work conducted with assurance that the parameters are in control and that the work can be, or has been, reproduced.This document is in no way intended to be a comprehensive checklist of the controls that must be place during late-stage research and development of critical raw materials that will eventually find their way into finished diagnostics, devices, or pharmaceuticals.It is, rather, a starting point toward understanding that regulatory requirements for control are being pushed further and further back up the "pipeline" toward the research and development phase. 

Client requirements have become increasingly stringent because the FDA has required that when the finished device or pharmaceutical is licensed, these historical references to developmental work are in place and under control.Janet Neeley has more than 20 years of experience in the biologics, device/diagnostics and pharmaceuticals fields with recognized expertise in the management of CGMP operations. She has been directly responsible for overseeing the manufacture of cancer therapeutics and imaging agents, including the validation of systems, equipment, and processes for cleanroom operation. Experienced in contract pharmaceutical goods/services oversight.Neeley has developed numerous procedures and quality agreement formats to ensure the adherence to FDA regulations by domestic and international contractors.

Current Good Manufacturing Practices for Pharmaceuticals

Current good manufacturing practices for pharmaceutical include all practices those are required to conform the guidelines recommended by agencies which authorize and license the manufacture and sale of drug products. These guidelines provide minimum requirements that must be met by pharmaceutical companies in order to provide high quality products that will pose no risk to the consumer or the public at large.

Good manufacturing practices (GMP) is that part of quality management that ensures that products are produced and controlled according to the quality standards. GMP regulates almost every aspect of a pharmaceutical company including sanitation and hygiene, the premises, documentation, the materials used, production and equipment.

SANITATION AND HYGIENE:

A high level of sanitation should be maintained in the production of medicine. This includes sanitation of both the personnel, premises, equipment and production materials and apparatus. Some of the guidelines on sanitation include the following:

a) All personnel should undergo health examinations before being employed to ensure that they will contaminate any materials and products. The health tests should also be conducted regular during the employment period. For operators who conduct visual inspection, regular eye checks should be performed.

b) Personnel should wear appropriate clothing while in the factory. Clean body covering including hair coverings and masks should be used while particularly in the production areas.

c) Smoking, eating drinking or wearing any jewellery is not permitted in the production or storage areas in order to avoid any contamination.

d) The clean clothing that is worn in the production areas should be stored separately from other clothes in closed containers.

e) Personal hygiene procedures should apply to all people entering production areas including visitors, full time or part employees.

PREMISES:

The premises are required to be designed, located and constructed in a way that will promote production of quality pharmaceutical products. These include:

a) The general layout and design should minimize any risk of errors. It should also promote easy cleaning and maintenance to avoid cross contamination. It should also ensure logical flow of both people and materials.

b) The manufacturing company should be located far away from residential areas or any environment that may pose risk to the materials or final product

c) The premises should be well maintained and any repair and construction should be done in such a way that it does not affect material or product quality.

d) The premises should be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly according to the standard operating procedures.

e) Electricity supply and lighting should be adequate and appropriate. Temperature and humidity should be controlled so that they do not affect directly or indirectly product quality.

f) Premises should be designed in a way that prevents insects, birds or other animals from entering the premises.

g) Restrooms and refreshment areas should be located separately from the manufacturing areas.

h) Storage areas should have a sufficient capacity for storage of both the raw materials and finished products.

They should also be dry, clean it well and temperature and humidity controlled in acceptable limits. Highly active, narcotics, radioactive or dangerous products should be stored separately.

I) A separate area should be constructed for the production of certain sensitive products such a penicillin or biological preparations such as microorganisms.

These products and other highly active products such as hormones some antibiotics and cytotoxics should not be produced in the same facility as the other regular products.


QUALITY CONTROL:

This is the department in a pharmaceutical company that ensures various tests are conducted on both the raw material and the final product. It is ensures quality of the product.

a) The quality control department should be located separately from the production area.

b) It should be designed and built in such a way to suit its operations for example there should be adequate space to avoid any mix ups.

c) The electricity, temperature and humidity should be in acceptable limits.

EQUIPMENT:

Includes all the machines that are used to manufacture the product, whether directly or indirectly.

a) They should be installed in a way that avoids any risk of cross contamination.

b) Any pipe work should be clearly labeled and direction of flow indicated.

c) Balances and other measuring equipment should be regularly calibrated

d) Defective equipment should be removed from the production area, if this is not possible then they should be clearly labelled as defective.

MATERIALS:

a) Starting materials should be purchased only from approved suppliers.

b) All incoming materials should be checked for integrity before being taken to the storage area.

c) Only materials that have been approved by the quality control department should be released for production purposes.

d) Intermediate materials should be kept in a hygienic and controlled environment.

e) Finished products should be stored in a quarantined area until they are released by the quality control department.

f) Any rejected materials and products should be labelled as such and stored in a separate area.

DOCUMENTATION:

Good documentation is an essential part of GMP. It aims at defining the specifications and any procedures for materials and the manufacturing process.

It also ensures the existence of documented evidence and traceability. Documents include standard operating procedures, labels, batch records and master formula.

a) Documents should be designed, prepared reviewed with care and comply with manufacturing specifications.

b) They should be approved and signed by the responsible persons.

c) They should be clear and unambiguous. The format should also be orderly.

d) They must be regularly verified and kept up to date.

Good manufacturing practices (GMP) for pharmaceutical involves all the activities those promote the production of a quality drug or medicine.

It prevents cross contamination and any risk of errors during the production process. Personnel should also be well trained on good manufacturing practices. These guidelines should be followed by all pharmaceutical companies in order to be licensed by the relevant bodies.



 The Ten Basic Rules of GMP

1.         Get the facility design right from the start

2.         Validate processes

3.         Write good procedures and follow them

4.         Identify who does what

5.         Keep good records

6.         Train and develop staff

7.         Practice good hygiene

8.         Maintain facilities and equipment

9.         Build quality into the whole product lifecycle

10.       Perform regular audits

Selection of a Plant Location

A Guide For The Plant Location

One recent and most talked about example of the problem related to "Plant Location.":
Tata's Nano Singur plant, has come under fire from farmers and villagers for forceful acquisition of agricultural land . This plant was established in Singur but due to opposition by a political party , they suspended work at Singur plant - in which they invested $350m and shifted their whole plant to Sanand, Gujrat.

Tata Motors, such a huge company, faced a problem regarding its plant location. It has a huge capital base and such a reputation that they can purchase any land anywhere so have you ever thought that why they first picked SINGUR for their factory and now Sanand? And why actually they faced the problem ?

So following is the explanation for the same……….


Plant location is the location where an industry wants to start its operations. It is the selection of suitable location or site .Various types of industries needs to consider various factors in this respect. If the industry is engaged in "heavy manufacturing " i.e. these are the industries which are relatively large and requires a lot of space.

And as a result, they are expensive to construct. Important factors in the location decision for these plants are construction cost, modes of transportation , means of waste disposal and labour availability.

And if it is a "light industry" i.e. the industry which is engaged in producing electronic equipment and components, parts etc .These type of industry doesn't require large storage capacity, so for them proximity to customer is important. And if the industry is warehouse or distribution centre , then they just require huge space .in addition to all the defined factors.

So we can summarize their selection criteria in following ways

1.         Government regulations (Excise duties, taxes )

2.         Labour (availability , cost and unions)

3.         Proximity to customers

4.         Construction cost

5.         Availability of land

6.         Environmental regulations

7.         Climate

8.         Raw material availability

9.         Transportation cost

10.       Topography of land (i.e. basic characteristic of land)

In addition to all these factors, if companies tries to locate a industry beyond national borders, then they have to consider following factors also i.e.

1.         Government stability

2.         Political and Economic systems

3.         Exchange rates

4.         Culture

5.         Export and import regulations

6.         Available technology

But for the selection of one of the most favorable location for the plant, a search team is hired for site selection for different facilities and this evaluation process requires large amount of data and information relative to different location factors. Various location analysis techniques have been established for the selection of location. Following are the cost oriented location analysis techniques that can be used for identifying the plant site from the available set of sites

1.         Dimensional analysis : In this technique, relative merit of different cost are                               considered for identifying the facility location.

2.         Brown and Gibson model : This model considers critical, objective and subjective                  factors for the evaluation of sites.

3.         Factor rating method : This method is the most commonly used method. It involves                factor rating and location rating .

4.         Point rating method :This method consider to give the rating to each factor on the                  basis of favourable , average and unfavourable .

5.         Break even analysis : It is a graphical representation that shows relationship                          between cost and revenue.So, after taking all these factors in relation to various                    sites and by the application of various methods by the experts, a selection of a site                is being done.

Pharmaceutical Factory Layout Design & Construction
(cgmp manufacturing, gmp practices)

Pharmaceutical Facility Design

(a) Any building or buildings used in the manufacture, processin (a) Any building or buildings used in the manufacture, processing, packing, or holding of a drug product shall be of packing, or holding of a drug product shall be of suitable size suitable size, construction and location to faci construction and location to facilitate cleaning, maintenance, a litate cleaning, maintenance, and proper operations.

(b) Any such building shall have (b) Any such building shall have adequate space adequate space for the orderly for the orderly placement of equipment and materi placement of equipment and materials to prevent mixups between als to prevent mixups between different components, drug produc different components, drug product containers, closures, labelin t containers, closures, labeling, inprocess materials, or drug products, and to prevent process materials, or drug products, and to prevent contamination.

The flow of components, drug product containers, closures, The flow of components, drug product containers, closures, labeling, in labeling, in-process materials, and drug products through the process materials, and drug products through the building or buildings shall be building or buildings shall be designed to prevent designed to prevent contamination.

(c) Operations shall be performed within specifically defined within specifically defined areas of areas of adequate size adequate size.



Pharmaceutical Facility Design


Good Manufacturing Practice, pharmavoicebd24, 


There shall be There shall be separate or defined areas for the firm's separate or defined areas for the firm's operations to prevent contamination or mixups operations to prevent contamination or mixups during:

(1) Receipt, identification, storage, and withholding from use o (1) Receipt, identification, storage, and withholding from use of components, drug product contai components, drug product containers, closures, and labeling, ners, closures, and labeling, pending the appropriate sampling, testing, or examination by the pending the appropriate sampling, testing, or examination by the quality control unit before release for manufacturing or quality control unit before release for manufacturing or packaging.

(2) Holding rejected components, drug product containers, closur (2) Holding rejected components, drug product containers, closures, and labeling before disposition: and labeling before disposition:

(3) Storage of released components, drug product containers, (3) Storage of released components, drug product containers, closures, and labeling; closures, and labeling;

(4) Storage of in -process materials; process materials;

(5) Manufacturing and processing operations.

(6) Packaging and labeling operations.

(7) Quarantine storage before release of drug products;

(8) Storage of drug products after release.

(9) Control and laboratory operations.

(10) Aseptic processing, which includes as appropriate:

(i) Floors, walls, and ceilings of smooth, hard surfaces that are easily cleanable; easily cleanable;

(ii) Temperature and humidity controls

(iii) An air supply filtered through high efficiency particulate air efficiency particulate air filters under positive pressure, regardless of whether flow is l filters under positive pressure, regardless of whether flow is laminar or nonlaminar.

 (iv) A system for monitoring environmental conditions;

(v) A system for cleaning and disinfecting the room and equipmen (v) A system for cleaning and disinfecting the room and equipment to produce aseptic conditions.

(vi) A system for maintaining any equipment used to control they equipment used to control the aseptic conditions.

(d) Operations relating to the manufacture, processing, and pack manufacture, processing, and packing of penicillin shall be performed in facilities separate from tho of penicillin shall be performed in facilities separate from those used for other drug products for human use used for other drug products for human use.






What does FDA look for in a facility?



Good Manufacturing Practice, pharmavoicebd24, 



Buildings and Facilities Buildings and Facilities

1) Is the facility suitable for the operations being carried Is the facility suitable for the operations being carriedout?

2) Is the facility readily cleanable? Is the facility readily cleanable?

3) Are there proper controls against cross Are there proper controls against cross-contamination?

4) Is there adequate ventilation while still keeping out Is there adequate ventilation while still keeping outsources of contamination?

5) Are there adequate sanitary facilities? Are there adequate sanitary facilities?

6) Are there operational areas separate to prevent mix Are there operational areas separate to prevent mixups and cross ups and cross-contamination? contamination?

7) What is the source of the water supply? What is the source of the water supply?

8) Are there adequate systems for the handling and Are there adequate systems for the handling and disposal of waste?


Materials handling and storage Materials handling and storage

1) Is there proper segregation between incoming and Is there proper segregation between incoming and released components?

2) Are environmental factors, such as temperature and Are environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, monitored and controlled properly?

3) Is there adequate storage space under the required Is there adequate storage space under the required environmental conditions?

4) Are in-process materials properly stored? process materials properly stored?

5) Are containers suitable for raw materials and Are containers suitable for raw materials and intermediate product?

Equipment

1) Is the facility equipment suitable for its intended Is the facility equipment suitable for its intended use?

2) Is equipment designed to facilitate cleaning?

3) Are there proper filtration systems adequately Are there proper filtration systems                    adequately designed and properly functioning? Does equipment design prevent                    contamination from external sources?

4) Is equipment clearly and uniquely identified?



Utilities & Services

Utilities and Energy is one of those business domains that hasn't been known to be very open to experiment with the scope of its outsourcing arm in general. While businesses in this domain do outsource some processes, they typically associate it only with the value addition aspect of the business - collection, dispute resolution, retention etc. This also hasn't allowed them to fully use the leverage of outbound calling.

-Water

-Steam

-Gases

-Electricity

-Cleaning

-Fire & Safety

-Drainage & Control

-Transportation



Conventionally utilities have also viewed CRM as being need based, demand driven or event specific. They have however, not often considered CRM as a requisite throughout the customer lifecycle.

However, with time, the sector has realized that apart from better customer care, support and sales, the outbound communications have an exceptionally high potential to help avoid the higher retention costs and customer contact. Some of the applications in no particular order that can yield such benefits to utilities are:

The goal of the energy and utility sector should be managing the expectations of the end - user along with preemptive communication and to provider support and services not just on a need-to-serve basis but throughout their lifecycle with your business. Let us look how the above help in the same.

At the beginning of an end - user's relationship with the utility service provider, welcome calls make sense. A lot of banks do this to know if the debit card and the welcome kit were informative enough and if the client was happy with them.

The same can also apply within this industry. Similarly, it is also relieving to know that the money the consumer paid has reached the right place. I know they have the credit card / bank statement to verify the same, but have a human say this is far better.

Account Status (Activation / Deactivation)

Once the account is activated, the sooner your user knows, the earlier they start using it. Now, while they are already aware of the tentative dates, again it helps to check if they've realized it.

It creates a professional image of the service provider when the customer is informed that their account has been activated. This helps more in cases of deactivation because then they know that they are not being charged for the service that they opted out of (for whatever reason).

Rate/Tariff Notifications, Payment / overdue reminders

If you pre - inform your clients about the rates and tariff notifications and / or the payment reminders or overdue notices, this is both revenue generating as well as business empowering. This enables them to express their dissatisfaction (if it is felt) and / or make payments in time, sometimes even instantaneously.

Crew Mobilization and Outage / Restoration Notifications

Similarly when you proactively update your client about any sort of crew mobilizations or outages / restorations it helps your business. They are thus better prepared for the crisis or change and they trust you better because they appreciate knowing it in advance. So, in other words, customer empowerment leads to business empowerment for you.
Retention / satisfaction surveys

The last stage of any customer lifecycle is when they decide to discontinue the business with you. At this stage you try to retain them and / or help them close their account easily and smoothly. This means that satisfaction surveys of an outbound nature will help you get feedback and feedback is always valuable.




HVAC System

An Introduction to HVAC Systems and How They Work

Understanding HVAC systems
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is the respiratory system of any building. Its main purpose is to provide conditioned air i.e. air which is clean and odorless to breathe in a safe and comfortable environment.

The HVAC system controls the quality, movement and temperature of the air and ensures that it is at a comfortable range.

According to their use, HVACs can be categorized into three types namely commercial HVACs, residential HVACs, and industrial HVACs. A better understanding of the HVAC system makes you realize the significance of regular maintenance to ensure its long-lasting performance and full benefits. 

How Does Your HVAC System Work?

The HVAC system behaves in a repetitive cycle to fulfill its responsibility to provide heated or cooled air as needed. How does it do that? Consider the function of its components below.
Ventilation Systems

Ventilation systems are of three types - supply, exhaust, and balanced. The exhaust ventilation system makes use of exhaust fans for pulling air out of the home. It reduces pressure of the air inside and allows the natural flow of air outside.
The supply ventilation system does it the other way round - it pumps air into the building in order to make the old, stale air leak out. The balanced ventilation system makes use of both supply and exhaust fans to push out old air and allow fresh air to come in.

Air Conditioning

The air conditioning system usually consists of two units, the inside unit known as the evaporator and the outside unit known as the condenser. The condenser is in the high pressure side of the system.

The compressor spins the refrigerant into a high pressure gas and sends it to the compressor. It loses its heat and turns into a liquid. This liquid goes into the evaporator which is the low pressure side of the unit.
As the pressure suddenly drops here, the refrigerant vaporizes and is transformed into low-temperature, low-pressure gas.

As the air is circulated through the many tubes in the system, the heat is absorbed and cool air is circulated through the ventilation system. The repeated cycle provides continuous cool air.

Heating

Your HVAC system consists of a furnace and a ductwork that are connected together to provide a heat exchange. The system usually has a fan attached to pull the heat from the ventilation system and allow it to circulate in the building.

A heat pump may be used to supplement the furnace as well but for central heat systems, it is essential. The pump moves heat from outside air into the evaporator and then, it is pumped into the ventilation system.

There are exhaust ducts, supply ducts and return ducts in the HVAC system. Each needs to be installed properly for the system to function efficiently. Regular maintenance of your HVAC system can help prevent poor ventilation and save you on long-term costs.
Contact your local expert Contractor to get quality maintenance services or to inquire further about your HVAC system.



Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP)


Good Manufacturing Practice, pharmavoicebd24, 


Our Effluent treatment Plants provide effective solutions to effluent odor control, BOD reduction, aeration, clarification, phosphorous and nitrogen removal and more. Our process experts work with the design team to learn the various factors that contribute to a plant’s design, including effluent requirements, land availability, energy, labor and disposal costs.

We then apply our extensive process knowledge and product expertise, analyzing the efficiency of each process, their interaction with other components, while optimizing the overall efficiency of the entire system from start to finish.

BK Chemicals good practice guide deals with improving the performance of effluent treatment plant to reduce operating costs and reduce environmental pollution.
Most companies operate effluent treatment plants to reduce the potential for pollution of receiving waters and to comply with discharge consent conditions. Effective management and control of the processes used for effluent treatment will help you to:


• Reduce your operating costs and thus increase profits.
• Achieve more effective compliance with legislation.
• Improve your company's public image.


NEED OF ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant)

•           Water is basic necessity of life used for many purposes one of which is industrial                   use.

•           Industries generally take water from rivers or lakes but they have to pay heavy                       taxes for that.

•           So it’s necessary for them to recycle that to reduce cost and also conserve it.
•           Main function of our ETP is to clean industry effluent and recycle it for further use.

OUR ETP Will Suitable For:

We supply the effluent treatment plants for following industries:

•           Metal finishing / Automobile / Steel mills / Electroplating

•           Dying /Bleaching processes/tanneries/laundry-Textile Industry

•           Acid-Alkali treatment- chemical industry/recovery of chemical

•           Paper & pulp Industry, Leather Industry

•           Oily waste water- automobile /refineries

•           Pharmaceutical & food industry

•           Conventional ETP

•           Thermal power / Rubber industry / Fertilizers

Security & Control.

Top 10 Information Systems Security Controls in the Enterprise

The modern Enterprise IT Infrastructure as we know it today has evolved over the years, from the huge computers in the mid 1940s, which could not even do what our small calculators can do today, to the years of mainframes. We now have high processor computers with lots of storage space and high speeds that are easily affordable. We have seen a shift of focus from centralized to decentralized, distributed, network computing within enterprises.

All these developments have been great, as they have eased the way we do business, but also brought myriad of enterprise security issues.

In this article we look at the top 10 enterprise security controls that we could deploy to reduce on the effect of known enterprise infrastructure security issues.

1. Take a holistic approach to security

Successful enterprise security requires good planning and a holistic security strategy that considers everything in the organizations, from business processes to the people, on an ongoing basis. Many at times enterprises consider costly technical solutions, as a reaction to security breaches.

2. Develop an Enterprise security program / policy

Organizations need to develop security programs that outline the Roles, policy, procedures, standards and guidelines for the Enterprise security.

Roles: Outline who is responsible for what e.g. Chief Information security officer (ISO) could be responsible for ensuring a good security posture for the organization.
Policies: These are general organization wide statements that set out the mandatory requirements to ensure a minimum security level. Examples include: Acceptable E-mail Use Policy, Internet use policy, Mobile devices use policy etc...

Standards: these are derived from policies, laying out specific steps or processes required to meet a certain requirement. For example a requirement that all email communication be encrypted.

3. Manage Risk - On a continuous basis

Risk management is the process of identifying risk, assessing risk, and taking steps to reduce risk to an acceptable level. This involves identifying the assets in the organization that you need to secure; these could include human resources, technology, trade secrets, patents, copyrights etc...
Then identify all possible risks that could affect the availability, confidentiality and integrity of these assets. Management can then decide what to do with the identified risks; risks can either be mitigated or transferred to a third party like an insurance company.

4. Refine Business Processes: Adopt Industry best Practices

Beyond the need to manage Enterprise IT technology, is the need to establish and employ best practices and processes to optimize IT services. A number of internationally recognized frameworks have been developed already to describe effective ICT infrastructure management processes. Hence there is no need to re-invent the wheel.

5. Streamline physical / environmental security

Physical and environmental security is vital in protection of information assets and ICT Infrastructure in the Enterprise. Physical security should look at issue like, monitoring and detection e.g. security guards, alarms, CCTV.

Access control and deterrent solutions e.g locks, fencing, lighting, mantraps, Biometrics etc. Environmental control and design, server room temperature, humidity, air conditioning, static electricity, fire suppression and detection, Power generation and backup, all these should be well streamlined.

6. Deploy content filtering / inspection solutions.

As content, (email, internet traffic etc...) moves in and out of the enterprise, there is need for it to be managed well to avoid any security breaches and attacks. Controls could include:

-Web filters to enforce organizational Internet usage policies through content filtering, application blocking, and best-of-breed spyware protection.

- Spam filters / Firewalls to protect your email server from spam, virus, spoofing, phishing and spyware attacks.

- Unified Threat management solutions(UTM): Several organization choose to deploy UTM solutions that offer industry leading functionalities within one package including Intrusion Prevention System; Antivirus with Antispam; Web Filtering; Antispam; Firewall; SSL - VPN; Traffic Shaping and many more.

7. Manage the inside of the Corporate Network

We have already seen that there are increased security breaches that come from within the enterprise; therefore it's vital to manage the inside of the enterprise network very well. Some of the steps we could take include the following:

- Taking an inventory of all authorized and unauthorized software and devices on the               network.

- Maintenance, Monitoring, and Analysis of Audit Logs

- Continuous Vulnerability Assessment, patch management and Remediation

- Limitation and Control of Network Ports, Protocols, and Services

8. Have an Identity and Rights Management System

Identity management is very vital and important to avoid user rights violation and excessive rights issue. Put in place procedures, guideline and a system for Identity management, which involves creation of users, change of user rights, removal of rights, resetting lost user password. This also calls for Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges.
Is access in the Enterprise based on a need to know basis? For example should everyone in the organization have access to the payroll database?!

9. Put emphasis on Data Loss Prevention (DLP).

Data loss prevention puts into consideration the security of data, both in motion and static. With the advent of portable devices and memory sticks that have lots of storage space, it very easy for someone to copy lots of corporate data on a removable media in just a matter of seconds.

I have heard of stories of disgruntled employees selling clients databases to the competition. Data loss prevention (DLP) encompasses the tools that prevent accidental data leakage, including device and port control, encryption (both hard-drive and removable media encryption).

Also how does your organization handle hard disks that have sensitive information and need disposing off? How about paper documents? I bet one could get lots of information by just dumpster diving into corporate trash bins (am told some investigative journalists use this method to "snoop"). .

There is no excuse for organization not to shred sensitive paper documents, given all the shredders available on the market; some can even shred plastic and CD media.

Securing information assets is becoming more vital every day; unfortunately many organizations do not consider it important until a breach has actually happened.
You can imagine the direct cost of not being proactive as far as information security is concerned, which could include, the cost to recover data lost or altered during an incident, cost to notify customers of breaches, fines for non-compliance and indirect costs e.g., lost customers, lost productivity, time spent investigating/resolving breaches and hoaxes, and so many. Therefore it's crucial to seek for external assistance from an external firm or consultant if need be, to assist in areas like:

- Carrying out an IT audit and Penetration Tests a.k.a "Ethical hacking" on your own                 infrastructure.

- Assisting with Information security awareness training for your staff etc...
It's important to note that securing information assets in an enterprise is not just an event, but is a continued process that requires an ongoing effort and support of the top management, this is because the threats to information systems continues to evolve and change daily.







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