Illinois Personal Information Protection Act

Midwest Business Performance, Inc.

is offeringfree network security audits till December 31, 2005 for new customersin the Chicago-land area. The offering is to assist business owners inpreparation of the Personal Information Protection Act, which goes intoeffect 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.