Is your Firewall ready for the Next Generation?

The industry is moving to smarter and faster firewalls, they have combined the intelligence and awareness of an application and content with traditional firewall protections.  Next Gen firewalls have a tighter, more purpose-built architecture. They look deeper at the packets to create risk assessments that are coupled with the source and destination policies to better block both known and potential threats.

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3 Dimensions of Business Continuity for Data Centric Processes

Protecting data, whether in a database system such as Microsoft SQL Server, or in a file system, is becoming an ever more critical and complex endeavor. From high-profile data breaches, to the all too common experience of losing a hard drive, we are all aware that data can be suddenly and catastrophically lost. But many, even with information technology responsibilities in their jobs, lack the time, expertise, and budget to adequately protect their most critical data.

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The Human Firewall

As spammers have graduated from simple Nigerian Prince SPAM emails to sophisticated Spear Phishing attacks, there hasn’t been as big a corresponding technology shift to stop this new attack. SPAM filtering continues to stop hundreds of emails a day to each user’s inbox, but the more sophisticated attacks will continue to get through. This is where the Human Firewall comes in.

In the past people have always relied on technology to stop malware and virus from coming into their network. This was great prior to laptop computers and when everyone worked in the same office. Now people work from home, the coffee shop, and a myriad of other places all connecting to their data in the cloud. The attacks have changed from trying to get past the corporate firewall to getting past the user and onto their machine. (more…)

Server and Network Log Monitoring

Many of us wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats thinking, do we really know what is happening within our network? This is normally after another story about how a large or small company was hacked and their data was stolen and strewn throughout the Internet. But then you resign yourself to the fact that your firewall will protect you and you go back to sleep.

Although your firewall is an indispensable part of your security posture, it isn’t the only way to protect yourself. Many people in the security industry describe security as an onion. It has multiple layers to protect you and give you time to find and fix the issue prior to something happening.

So while your firewall will protect you from bad people trying to get in, it is only as good as the rules that are configured. If you allow access to your wiki from the Internet, then your wiki is now available and can be hacked and potentially exploited. Even if it is properly secured there are always new vulnerabilities. So how do you protect against this? (more…)

Network Monitoring Methods

Network monitoring is an essential responsibility for businesses of all sizes.  Medium-sized and large companies typically have a network monitoring system in place either onsite or offsite in the cloud but what about small businesses?  This is exactly what hackers are asking when they are seeking to breach a network.

In the last few years small businesses have become (more…)

Data Backup: A Life Saver

Lightning can strike any time, and in any form. It can be a power surge leaving your hard disk useless or an over flooded bathroom sink leaving your equipment blown out. It can also be as simple as lack of attention. Whatever the deal is, it will certainly bring one question to your mind – do you have a backup of your data? Sadly the answer usually is no. Many people lose several months and sometimes years of work in such situations.

Why you need a Backup

A backup is your safety net in case of a disaster. Data can be lost due to corruption such as unauthorized access, viral spyware, accidents and mistakes. Any of these can happen any time and cause you problems and not to mention – mental stress. To avoid such difficult situations it is best to get a (more…)

Business Continuity With Disaster Recovery Planning

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery PlanningWhen planning business continuity it is necessary that every step should be taken with utmost caution. Business continuity is the complete process for restoration of a business. It includes scope, insurance policies, how to keep hold of your employees, vendors and customer, and most important of them all the Disaster Recovery plan. It is surprising how a fifty person organization that manages over a billion dollars in client assets would act miserly when spending $25,000 on disaster planning. Such a petty sum to guarantee them business safety in a disastrous situation and yet they think it is not worth the money.

Business continuity is vital element in (more…)

Managing Your Network with IT Solutions

Efficient IT management is all about being prepared for an emergency situation. It can be achieved by regularly updating your network management software and monitoring the network constantly to prevent dangerous attackers from accessing your network. For successful network management, network security is the most important step towards making your network resistant to attacks.

Improving your Network Vulnerability

A network security suite not only provides protection from internet attacks but also from

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Tips on Assessing the Health of Your Network

Network Health AssessmentMost people only regard  bandwidth and latency as the health of a network. They don’t realize the importance of security and loads on servers. Viruses and bugs decrease the quality of your network. High load on servers can lead to high response time or sometimes poor internet speed.

First thing you should analyze is (more…)