Managing Export Risks

Travel with Confidence

What to take:

*Passport and visa. Check that your passport is valid for the period of the visit. Check visa dates and whether you need a multi-entry visa. Photocopy or scan relevant pages and send to an email account that you can access while abroad. Take additional passport photographs with you.

*Credit cards.

*Local currency (if it is legal to do so) and ‘hard currency’ (usually $US), including small denominations. Traveller’s cheques and a record of the serial numbers.

*A dictionary or phrasebook.

*A city map, route map, and airline timetable.

*A basic first-aid kit. For countries with inadequate medical services, take a sterile medical pack with syringes, needles, sutures and dressing (in hold luggage). Bring any medication that you need.

*Consider taking a small torch.

*Do not carry items that could cause offence at your destination, such as alcohol or magazines that may be viewed as pornographic.

*Check your personal and medical insurance covers the security and political conditions of the country you are visiting; it may be invalid if your government advises against travel.

*Ensure inoculations are valid for the duration of your visit. Bring a certificate if necessary; some countries require a certificate of yellow fever vaccination.

*Source: Beltin Group, Beltin Focus.

Safe Export Packs

There’s more to security than just ensuring you and your personnel are safe. What about your products during freight? While not much is in your hands during this process, you can at the very least guarantee your products have been safely packed. Service packaging companies supply packaging in all shapes and sizes. Heavy-duty cardboard options are economical and add to the chances of your products being delivered undamaged and on time.

Replacing timber pallets with plastic may also make the journey a little smoother. Other options you can look into for better product protection include internal sleeves and moisture control technology.

There is also the security of your products to think about, and these days the selection of locks is almost endless. You can secure your products using anything from bolts, double bolts, latch guards and shackle protectors, to electronic keyless locks and door damage covers. If you want to go the extra step, safes are always an alternative, and fire-resistant options are available. Ever better, all of these can be custom made for your specific needs.

Online Safety

For any export business, online security is a must. To ensure your business isn’t caught out, Nelson DaSilva, Fortinet Australia systems engineering manager, offers the following security tips for conducting international business online:

1. Spam, adware, and spyware are time wasters. Spam is now one of the most common ways for computer security threats to successfully enter a business.

You can easily protect your staff by installing anti-spam and anti-spyware technology. The latest technologies allow you to protect an entire business with a small, low cost, hardware appliance that simply plugs into your network.

2. Credit card details are valuable. Business computer systems and websites are now targeted in “virtual ram raids”, where the criminals hope to quickly loot credit card details, and your customer’s personal information. The stolen details are often used later to fraudulently purchase products.

Technologies such as firewalls, intrusion prevention, and data encryption can help secure your customer information.

Take special care to protect credit card details. Businesses accepting payments via credit card are expected to comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards.

3. Control your connection to the internet. It is much easier to protect confidential business information if you can tightly control information flowing between your business and the rest of the internet.

Network firewalls allow you to control the flow of information between computers, and can be used to prevent outsiders from accessing your systems from the internet.

Website content filtering is a complementary technology, which can give you very fine control over the websites that your staff are able to access. You can control access by time of day, as well as banning any website you like. If you have staff misusing MySpace or Facebook at work, you can easily limit or prevent their access.

4. DIY security could be a very expensive mistake. You don’t need to do it all yourself. Technology security is a very complex field, with many specialist areas. There are many good technology security solutions, but most need installation by an expert to be truly effective.

The good news is that you can readily find help–from simple health checks, through to fully outsourcing the management of your IT security. When evaluating potential service providers, don’t be afraid to ask them to demonstrate track record and provide customer references.

For more information on PCI and access to self assessment questionnaires, visit:

www.pcisecuritystandards.org

For more information on privacy from the federal and state government:

www.privacy.gov.au