Illinois Personal Information Protection Act
 

Midwest Business Performance, Inc. (http://www.mbp-inc.net) is offering
free network security audits till December 31, 2005 for new customers
in the Chicago-land area. The offering is to assist business owners in
preparation of the Personal Information Protection Act, which goes into
effect in the state of Illinois January 1, 2006.

The Personal Information Protection Act, which was signed by Illinois
Governor Blagojevich May 18, 2005, requires all companies and
organizations, regardless of where they are based, to notify Illinois
residents in the event of a network security breach.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed the legislation days after public
disclosure of a massive security failure in October involving
Georgia-based ChoicePoint, which resulted in the theft of personal
information, including social security numbers, of approximately
145,000 people in all 50 United States - including approximately
5,000 in Illinois.

The state of Illinois has defined personal information as being first
initial and last name, with any combination of social security number,
drivers license, state ID, credit card number(s), and account number(s)
(i.e. savings account, checking account, 401k account, etc.)

Network security audits identify where and how data networks are
vulnerable to hackers and malicious software applications, allowing
small business owners the opportunity to close any vulnerability and
secure their network prior to the January 1, 2006 deadline requiring
customer notification.

In conjunction with the free network security audit offer, Midwest
Business Performance, Inc. is offering flat rate fees to secure
Microsoft data networks. Fees range from $97.00 for Microsoft
Workstations to $311.00 for Microsoft Servers.

The service includes installation of all operating system and
application security patches and fixes, closure of all known operating
system and application security violations, securing of remote
services, shared drives, and halting of dangerous and / or
inappropriate services and programs, as well as the installation of
open source firewalls, antivirus, and spy-ware protection programs.